161. UCSB Environmental Media Coop aka enviromediacoop@googlegroups.com

On the Vague Principles of Organizing People

Vic wakes up the morning after the Donald Bren / UCSB Orientation meeting to find this on her computer. She already feels stretched out, but last night, Vic decided to start a UCSB environmental media coop for information exchange. The email is enviromediacoop@googlegroups.com. Great. The last thing she needs on her plate. She is not sure how well she can maintain something like that, nor if she can maintain this at all. The best part is that it forced her to write a little blurb on why something like this needs to exist. I had a hard time deciding the "enviromediacoop" because of my implied meaning of "enviro," as Charlie the fisherman and I agreed is that it means that you are "sadistically irrational" in the gradient of environmentalists one tends to encounter. At least I tried to start it. Don't expect much out of it though.

Hi y'all! Sorry to bug you with this email, but I had this idea for a little while I have shared with a few people: the idea is to create an environmental media coop google group for the UCSB community to speed up the process of communication and collaboration beyond research focus groups. I was inspired by googlegroups through the Goleta Beach film google group: how this tool can be effective with film collaboration and idea exchange. So, I felt a little bit more gutsy than usual tonight and decided to try this out and see how you guys feel about this. This is just an experimental test. You don't have to add if you don't want to. Just thought it was a starting point here. Maybe we can even shoot for something better like the Santa Barbara Indie Film-makers Coop created through "ning" at http://indiecoop.ning.com. I was told by a couple of people that this group needs a little more direction and goals, but I felt you can't exactly do that unless you map out the "who's who" in UCSB EMI. My initial thoughts for this google group is (1) for people to post profiles in terms of who they are, what their skills/interests are, what they are willing to offer/trade in media (2) people to post resources in environmental media, ranging from funding opportunities to events to conferences to ideal classes to jobs, etcetera (3) opportunity for collaboration, whether it comes to need of help in film production or even coordinating events, such as film screenings (4) besides a hub to start collecting information on interested people and parties around UCSB and the community for environmental media. (5). Also I mean, people can rapidly post resources in environmental media in a random fashion and then there can be some kind of reflective moment where all these ideas can be organized and presented into the developing Environmental Media website. Oh ya. And (6), if there's any future development of environmental media programming through UCSB, such a googlegroup can serve as "evidence" of widespread support of environmental media on campus. I even spoke with David Parker? today (godzeeks I met 30 people today) with Bren and he was interested in developing career resources for environmental media for Bren students. Well, anyway, thanks for listening and any feedback would be great. You can join now but everything can be revamped later. *Whew* Ahhh. I feel better now. ~Victoria :-)

The description of the googlegroup is as follows: "UC Santa Barbara Environmental Media Coop is an information, resource, labor exchange / cooperative of individuals (students, professors, staff, community members) who are interested in the development, practice, analysis of "alternative" environmental media (beyond classroom teaching / technology)."

I just started getting used to googlegroups and I made Oscar (the first member besides me) as manager. I don't want to be the owner. I don't want to be the manager. I think this will allow me to collect data about who's who at UCSB. Whoever I encounter interested in environmental media, I can plug them in, if they want. This will only fly if Nicole joins... and Dave Panitz. These people are the ones in charge who are hooked up with everyone in Bren and Film and Media. If this just sits, it's okay. I tried. I tried to be really humble about it, because I'm not usually the one who's into "organizing people." But, then again, I thought about a couple of chain reaction emails I sent out in my life, one in a chemistry class at UC Davis, and one UC LEADS discussion on the subject of GRE during the UCSB ARC summer research program. You never know if a simple email winds up being a chain reaction--even like those of the Santa Barbara indie filmmakers coop.

I guess I started this because I told Dr. John Melack about the idea, so since I told one of my co-advisors, I won't sit on it.

Whoever joins now becomes "manager" and they can invite WHOEVER. Oh well. Don't think about it anymore.