[artinfo] the DIEM25 launch

[Geert Lovink]

an update where DIEM25 stands at the moment

There is a core group around Yanis Varoufakis and they have been busy 
with setting up a website including a separate forum for discussions:

http://www.diem25.org/forum/

The next milestone is the DIEM25 event in Rome on March 23, 2016:

https://democracyineurope.eu/

There is also an event in Amsterdam called the G-10 of the Economy:

http://www.g10vandeeconomie.nl/programEN.php

Here are more articles and news snippets: http://diem25.org/news/.

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This is the update from March 17 by Yanis Varoufakis:

Hello everyone. I feel a certain trepidation posting my first comment 
on our brand new Forum. So, let me go straight into the one aspect of 
DiEM25 that has been at the top of everyone's mind: How to kick start 
our Transparency in Europe Now! campaign in a manner that is not only 
effective 'externally' (i.e. making the Rome event a success, helping 
attract numerous signatories to our petition etc.) but also in a 
manner reflecting our capacity to bring transparency to DiEM25's 
internal operations.

I have followed with interest some criticisms waged at the way 
members have been observing "things happening in DiEM25 out of 
nowhere" (the very announcement of the Rome event, the choice of 
stuff that appears on the site etc.) and without feeling they have a 
say in any of this. Undoubtedly, this smacks of hypocrisy for any 
movement that places transparency at the top of its list of 
priorities. But, let me assure everyone, that this is also the view 
of those of us who have been working behind the scenes.

Every initiative needs initiators - even initiatives that seek to 
embrace a flat management, spontaneous order, horizontal organisation 
way of doing 'stuff'. We were hoping to be able to move quickly from 
the initiation phase (during which a number of us would get DiEM25 
together) to the open source phase (where the rest of you would take 
over and run with it). Unfortunately, our digital platform proved 
unequal to the task immediately after Berlin. So, we spent a great 
deal longer than we wanted at the initiation phase.

We are now close to the moment of the Great Transition (to the open 
source phase). To the moment when DiEM25 will be able to practise 
that which it preaches regarding transparency. But before we get 
there, perhaps it is pertinent to ask everyone:

HOW DO YOU SUGGEST WE GO TO THE OPEN SOURCE PHASE?
WHAT WOULD THIS PHASE BE LIKE IN TERMS OF ORGANISING DIEM25 PER 
LANGUAGE, PER EUROPEAN COUNTRY, AND EUROPE-WISE?

Let's talk about this, shall we?

Yanis Varoufakis