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I'd like to list and describe the topics I hope we can talk about on Wednesday evening having to do with a need I think we all recognize to provide the best possible communications experience for those attracted to IFGT and what it seeks to achieve. My understanding is that presently there is only a Facebook-based forum in place, which is used to enable textual conversations. I want to suggest that, though there is good reason to maintain, and perhaps even expand, our presence on commercial "social media" platforms for certain purposes, there is also virtue in looking seriously at advantages likely to result from setting up a forum we maintain ourselves, hosted through our web site, employing it as the primary vehicle for textual conversations on topics related to the purposes of IFGT. We can also look at audio-visual means of hosting interactions and what would be required to establish and maintain one or more of them, and what would be the likely implications of doing so. Lastly, we must consider, especially in light of experience gathered from the use of the Facebook forum, what is needed to produce what we would all agree to be "good results," primarily by means of a set of guidelines and groundrules (probably a revision of whatever is presently in place for that purpose), as well as some form of moderation or facilitation performed by suitable willing volunteers.

The following section is provided to establish a context for talking about some of the considerations that I feel are properly involved in making good decisions about the choices we make in regard to improving conversational communications among IFGT members and others who are aligned with what the organization seeks to accomplish. I recognize and accept that what I write here is a mixture of fact and opinion. The reason I feel this context to be important is that it helps explain my own orientation, especially as regards the sort of "global transformation" I would personally most like to see come about (whether or not it fully corresponds with what IFGT has established as its own vision and mission), even if it cannot fully manifest during the course of my own remaining lifetime.

I feel I must also state clearly that my intent in providing this information to my fellow team members is solely to help you understand my perspective, not to try to convince you of anything in particular. Though I see this written account as enabling me to make the strongest possible case for handling our present need in the way I propose be considered, I see myself wanting to listen to and learn from those who have opinions that differ from my own. Likewise, though I do want to provide a certain amount of detail in talking about various aspects of what we will consider at our upcoming meeting, done mostly through hyperlinks provided below, and feel it appropriate to do so, I would not suggest that we need to review these matters at that meeting, and would be very willing to agree with and abide by the wishes of anyone who might feel that going into such matters at the present time could easily "sidetrack" our conversation. Thus, I will do my best during our dialogue to follow the direction of the moderator with respect to how we consider the subjects that will be before us.

"Briefly," and by way of introducing myself, at least partially, to the rest of you, I am attracted to IFGT due to its orientation toward what I feel to be critically important subjects concerning the development of ways of getting a better understanding of what might be called our "true nature," and method of improving how we relate with one another and with the world around us. I am and have always been very concerned with what we see happening in the world and have struggled with working out how to discover and apply solutions to the many problems that beset us, including conflict (at all levels) and the damage we humans have done and continue to do, to ourselves, to each other, and to the world around us. My own idiosyncratic path has led me to a recognition that our lack of understanding of who and what we are, and that I tend to feel we can become by means of certain sorts of purposeful development, is the real source of our various problems, on a spectrum from the personal to the global. I want to make explicit that, though I see great personal benefit being possible through various forms of inner development, my own mission in life as I perceive it seems to be oriented toward being of a sort of service to the planet as a whole, and that one mark of success in whatever measure of growth I might be able to achieve personally is the extent to which I can be part of an effort to solve earthly problems of various sorts. One aspect of this personal direction has to do with being as aware as possible of the effects of my activities and those of efforts in which I involve myself, and to develop and actualize a set of ethical principles that I feel can and will lead to the outcomes I desire along the lines just stated.

My experience with what is now called the Internet goes back to the late 1970s, when its predecessor, known as the ARPAnet, was in use, first only at military, governmental and academic institutions. During the ensuing decades, I participated in conversations on a number of subjects mediated through electronic mailing lists and the Usenet forum system, and later using other forum technologies. None of these systems involved any commercial entities. In fact, there was a prohibition on using the ARPAnet for commercial purposes. The software used for these exchanges, most of it on computers running the UNIX (and later also the Linux) operating system, which (like Linux itself) was developed primarily as a "labor of love" by software amateurs and professionals, became fairly sophisticated and was very functional — and those software systems, like Usenet, still exist and remain in use, though most people today are unaware of it, due largely to the virtual control commercial entities now enjoy, and the fact that the majority of activity on the Internet involves the use of commercial sites.

Today there are many software systems available to operators of web sites which can be run within the framework of whatever hosting environment they utilize to create and manage their sites. Some of this software is commercial (available at cost, sold either for a one-time charge, or (more commonly) on the basis of an annual license fee), or (quite commonly) it is offered for no cost, under the FOSS (free and open source) model. This software includes a number of forum systems, which often have as much or even more functionality as/than what is provided by entities like Facebook. Thus it is possible for IFGT to have and maintain its own forum system, which comes with a number of advantages, not least of which is that it does not require those who use it for communications purposes to establish and maintain a relationship with a commercial entity,

There is today a growing awareness within the public that many products now in use to perform communications functions (and others), which are offered "for free," but require that users provide information about themselves that allows them to be tracked and that information to be bought and sold and used as the basis of advertising carry a hidden price. Entities like Facebook and Google, among others, employ a business model that relies upon exploiting for commercial purposes personal information collected from users of the "free" products they offer. [The links provided in the previous sentence present very old videos -- I cannot vouch for the accuracy of what is claimed therein, but find them interesting nonetheless.] Facebook in particular has also been shown to employ practices that have resulted in young users (who they often claim are "screened out" and prevented from using their products and services) can and do form addictions that can have severely negative effects on their psychological and social development, as has been established through Congressional testimony given by a former Facebook manager who, through her verbal accounts, details the policies and practices devised by that company to deliberately "hook" kids, while its representatives were making public claims to the contrary. [You might want to skip the first 25 minutes or so of the video linked from the previous sentence, which contains preliminary remarks and such.]

I did not intend to suggest in what I wrote above that adult users of Facebook are necessarily at a great risk with regard to addiction and/or how their personal information is used (but I did once see a British TV documentary entitled Facehooked that makes the case that there is in fact serious risk of addiction involved in its use by adult users). However, I cannot rule out the possibility that it can and will be used in ways that are annoying at best and pernicious, or even dangerous, at worst. Most important to me is that presently, people who want to participate in IFGT dialogues are compelled to establish a relationship with a commercial entity, one which has demonstrated its fairly cavalier policies regarding personal privacy and/or concern for the possibly damaging effects of some of what it delivers to users, especially those, like children, who are most vulnerable. I, for one, do not have, and do not intend to acquire, a Facebook account, and am thus prevented from taking part in existing IFGT dialogues. My own feeling is that, especially since it is so easy to do so, we should seriously explore setting up our own forum, and direct those using the Facebook system to establish an identity on our self-managed forum "where the action is" (or will be).

In addition to making good choices with regard to the tools we employ to facilitate communications, we must spend some time and energy thinking through such matters as how to ensure to the extent possible dialogues that are beneficial to those using these tools and that advance organizational objectives. I feel that some measure of moderation will be required to do so, and that we will have to figure out ways to bring sufficient energy to the task to make that result as likely as possible. This matter, as well as the question of what additinal technologies we might think to utilize, may take some time and research to explore well enough to be able to make good decisions in this regard. I propose we install a forum system on our site based upon FOSS software mentioned previously, if it proves to be sufficient for our needs. I intend to demonstrate one such forum system briefly at the meeting. We can, and I suggest should, use this forum system to conduct communications among ourselves to carry out and communicate about such explorations with one another, and to consider further whatever needs considering with respect to the matters addressed above. I expect to be able to have that system running within a few days, and intend to announce it to team members as soon as it becomes available. I have made a recommendation that our meeting be recorded and that team members who are not present at the meeting be encouraged to view that video and partiticipate in the ensuing forum-enabled dialogue to the extent that they are able.

I look forward to engaging with the team in what I expect to be a lively and productive conversation on Wednesday evening!

Gary Trujillo