[p2p-research] sustained campaign of Mr. Alex Rollin

Fri Nov 19 11:40:27 CET 2010

Dear friends,

just to inform you that Alex is engaged in a sustained campaign against me.

Not only did he come uninvited to Berlin especially to challenge me during
the keynote, but he's sending out pretty systematicall the kind of material
you can see below, to anyone he sees being in touch and cooperating,

As far as I know, he was actually never banned form the list, but suspended
for one month by listmaster Kevin, for repeatedly insulting people,

I have been informed he does the same on other lists as well,

I hope for him he can spend his time productively on other pursuits than
this vendetta, but that may be wishful thinking,

Michel

I've shared Open Letter: Michel Bauwens as Anti-Commoner
> Message from alex.rollin at gmail.com:
> Hello,
>
> Please take a moment to consider the text presented here as you look ahead
to the services you recommend through Michel's wiki.  It is my experience
that he is too personally dependent on the wiki to be trusted to administer
this resource in a way that would have us call the wiki a commons.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Alex Rollin
>
>
> Click to open:
>       * Open Letter: Michel Bauwens as Anti-Commoner
>
> To: Open Letter to Affiliates of Michel Bauwens
>
> From: Alex Rollin
>
>
>
> Michel Bauwens has been delicately curating a mailing list that now
> has many, many people on it.  If you view the archives you can see
> that there are about 4 or 5 people on the list that interact with
> Michel on a monthly basis.  In fact this has been the case from the
> inception of the list, and at one time, I was one of the 4 or 5
> posting replying to an email from Michel during the month.
>
>
>
> Michel is a pretty list good moderator; conflict on the list doesn’t
> go well Michel and so he puts a stop to it by banning people from the
> list.  This works well for others, too, as they don’t need to listen
> for long to any gripes that might be coming through.  Michel’s
> interests are that the list membership stay high; after all, it is
> this list that chips in to replace his computer when he loses or
> breaks it, this list which helps him book paying conference speeches
> around the world, and this list has also contributed a small amount of
> money to pay the fees for the hosting of his wiki.
>
>
>
> In general, this list is a support system for Michel and his
> activities.  He sees it, quite rightly, as his creation, one that he
> has stewarded, like  his wiki, for many years, and one where he is the
> principal and primary contributor.
>
>
>
> I am writing this letter today because it has come to my attention
> that Silke Heifrich and others affiliated with Michel are under the
> impression that Michel’s wiki is a commons.
>
>
>
> I am writing this letter to tell you that I must protest this
> assertion.
>
>
>
> I am very grateful for the work that the conference organizing team
> did for the conference, and, indeed, the editing of the conference
> participants page by Michel was indeed a part of that.
>
>
>
> It is important to me, as the concept of the commons is real for me
> and near and dear to my heart, that I tell you that Michel Bauwens did
> not create a commons in his wiki.
>
>
>
> I will share with you now evidence of Michel’s policy for the wiki,
> and hope you can see that Michel is a de-facto autocrat, that he is
> intolerant of change when he perceives it as a threat (a natural
> response, in my opinion), and that his actions under threat show,
> clearly and structurally that what he is managing is not a commons but
> a shareable resource with no democratic governance.
>
>
>
> I share this with you so that others will not make the mistake that I
> did.  I trusted Michel to do what he said he would; to create process
> for the foundation to turn it into a commons.  Instead, after 6 months
> of full time work on my part I was summarily ejected from the
> community.  Indeed, during the intervening period, I edited more pages
> and submitted more original content than Michel.  Was I not a
> stakeholder in something?  No right to process?  OK.  That’s fine.  I
> wouldn’t have a problem with that if I had know 6 months before.
>  Instead, now, when it really counted, he did not do as he said he
> would.
>
>
>
> Do not recommend this same path to others without examining it first,
> inside and out.  Use what I offer here to inform yourselves and draw
> your own opinion.
>
>
>
> The threads I share below can be seen in archive format here:
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/thread.html
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/009969.html
>
> Michel likens his project to the maturity of the Debian, a demanding
> community that makes heavy requirements from new members.  He doesn’t
> mention that the Debian project has over 1000 active contributors
> (http://lwn.net/Articles/221077/) as well as a clear governance
> structure with voting.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/009980.html
>
> I'm shoulding 2-3 real partnerships right now,
>
> one is the global commons initiative with david bollier and silke
> helfrich, it's a person to person alliance, not a p2p-f partner org
> thing, and wer'e co-organizing with some others, the berlin commons
> conference
>
> the other one is with the FTA, wouter tebbens and franco iacomella,
> that one is formal, there is a paper about to be signed, and will
> involve the creation of a p2p course
>
> finally, with the forward foundation, sam and paul especially, we have
> made important steps, but need to continue, building a marketing
> vehicle for our publishing and other activities, and I have a first
> candidate for a p2p foundation book ... that one is not moving fast
> right now, but will happen
>
> all the other partnerships are based on mutual sympathy and shared
> values, but not on intensive cooperation around concrete objectives: I
> would hope for more, but that really depends on people putting energy
> in concrete projects ..
>
> all in all, I feel Alex' contributions represent an important next
> step in the growth and development of p2p-f and I'm very thankful for
> this contributions
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010063.html
>
> Michel speaks against hedge funds
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010097.html
>
> Michel using the his work and metrics for the foundation to gain
> rights to be a course offer and failing to find time to share the
> process.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010089.html
>
> Michel issuing declarations instead of joining a conversation.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010101.html
>
> Instead of pointing out an issue he berates me to the list.  He
> misquotes and immediately seeks to bolster his position at the first
> sign of conflict.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010116.html
>
> My statement on being misquoted.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010140.html
>
> The beginnings of hostile talk, and more instances of name calling.
>  No recourse to process, no admission of “place” in community except
> as “the one who makes it happen.”  From this email it is easy to see
> that Michel has not created a Commons.  Instead he has created a
> dictatorship.  Do it his way and you won’t be brow-beaten or called
> names.
>
>
>
> At this point it became very clear to me that Michel knew very well
> how too use his power as the leader in the community.  He immediately
> threatened to “fork” the project, and that this was a terrible thing
> that must draw up the defenses of everyone.
>
>
>
> Very soon after, things got much worse.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010191.html
>
> Maturation of governance?  How to do this when Michel finds the
> situation “inteolerable” and is threatening to leave the community?
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010183.html
>
> Admission by Michel that a process might be helpful.  By this time I
> had proposed several 10s of pages of process on the wiki that were his
> to choose from.  He told me he had read none of them.  No time.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010132.html
>
> A commons needn’t be an organization, but if access is denied, then a
> commons does need some definition.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010141.html
>
>
>
> From Michel - “But let me be clear, I cannot accept any solution in
> which I have to conform
> to unilateral changes imposed by Mr. Alex Rollin. If Alex is unwilling
> to
> deal with any of my suggestions and criticisms of the new practices,
> then
> the best solution is to create an area where Alex can work as he
> wishes, and
> people can join, and so approaches can be compared, and changes can
> eventually be imported from one to the other.”
>
>
>
> There is still no process in place at the point where Michel says
> this.  There is no witness to conversations he and I have, and he
> continues to build a  case against me even though I have repeatedly
> asked how I could or can “deal with any of” his suggestions.  I stated
> in several emails that I was working with active documents that showed
> his rules in them.  I heard what he said, and asked him to work with
> me on how I could make it work for him.  Instead I was subject to his
> raising the troops against me as an autocratic invader.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010142.html
>
> I state my position, open to discussion, here.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010144.html
>
> Peace is valued here, for Michel, over discussion and actually finding
> a solution that works for others.
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010203.html
>
> How can change be processed by the community when Michel is the only
> one who can make decisions in the system?
>
>
>
>
http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2010-August/010203.html
>
> Michel accuses me of “open civil war” … in fact I told him in the
> private letter, made public in the next thread, as I offered I would
> do, I stated that if there were a democracy in the foundation I would
> vote him out, and that would be related especially to a position where
> he was in charge of community dynamics or conflict mediation.  In a
> democratic community it would not be a problem to tell someone you
> were voting against them in the next election.
>
>
>
> The point of this email is simply to show you that Michel Bauwens may
> know a lot about articles, and may write some original ones
> occasionally, but he does not act like a commoner, and he is no fan of
> democracy in this commons.
>
>
>
> My goal with the interactions with Michel was to make it easier and
> easier for him to simply choose to submit to a process that would
> allow us and a mediator to sit and work it out.  The mediator could
> hold us accountable.  In the end, though, no process of submission
> would meet his needs, and he said he would participate, but in the end
> found it easier to simply eject me from the community.
>
>
>
> I believe that every group has the right to take and choose the
> members that they need.  In the case of Michel’s wiki, it is a
> resource that is near and dear to his heart.  Even though, at the time
> of this exchange, I had edited on just under 10% of the pages on the
> wiki I still did not rank high enough to have a chat with Michel with
> a 3rd party to which he would be equally accountable.
>
>
>
> If there is a commons, I do believe that there needs to be some form
> of accountability to something outside of oneself.
>
>
>
> Michel cannot and does nto administer a commons.  The Boll Foundation
> and the CSG may be able to make progress with Michel.  Indeed it would
> be a good thing.  Perhaps you can even use some of the policy or
> conflict resolution papers I authored for Michel.  Alas, I fear that
> he won’t submit, but trust me; back then, and now, I do wish he
> would.  It is hard to be ejected from something, without justice, and
> to be slandered and misquoted.  Worse, though, is to watch others come
> after you to befall the same fate and to be powerless to effect
> change.
>
>
>
> I write to you in the hope that you can help Michel mend some of his
> disnegenuous ways.  At the very least you know that there is another
> side to the coin, and that I, and perhaps others (oh, yes, there are
> others) can tell you our experience.
>
>
>
> Hopefully at the very least you will take my advice to examine more
> carefully the road you choose to guide people on.  The wiki is
> Michel’s, and is not a commons.  Prove me wrong, please, and do
> endeavour to do so before you proclaim it so to more people.
>
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Alex Rollin
>
-- 
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