Summary
“Looking Up” (PwG – from Polish “Patrzymy w Górę”) is an online platform designated to educate, inform and inspire individuals, collectives, and communities about the ongoing collapse of our ecosystem and industrial civilization. It provides easy access to solid scientific knowledge about the reasons for the current state of affairs, given in an accessible format; a constant stream of moderated current information from credible sources; inspiration for community-level action limiting the effects of the progressive dysfunction of technical, economic and social infrastructure.
The PwG programme launches from 1 February 2024, with a project to build a prototype of the platform and selected services to test the operation and provide a basis for the subsequent implementation of a ‘production’ installation. All work results will be made available to the public under an open licence. The work at this stage will be carried out on a volunteer basis and the necessary costs will be crowdfunded (crowdfunding, individual donations). The collective author and coordinator of the project is the community represented by the TePeWu Association.
In line with the dynamics of the TePeWu community, the program’s assumptions and progress will be audited periodically every three months.
We invite interested individuals and collectives to collaborate on the project.
Contact for the PwG programme:
- email: pwg@tepewu.pl
- matrix: #PwG_open:min.tepewu.pl
Introduction
If we have a look at the websites of some of the more important international planetary action networks, such as Deep Adaptation Forum, Transition Networks, Extinction Rebellion or Fridays for Future, Poland looks empty on them, or at best (XR) very sparsely populated.
The Polish discourse on the planetary catastrophe and the resulting civilizational collapse, understood as a progressive dysfunction of the technical and social infrastructure, is spinning in a vicious circle of denial, fabricated doubts, disinformation, and business as usual, sponsored by groups holding various kinds of power.
The modest space of allowed discussions completely excludes from the process actors other than business, the state and the “non-governmental sector” — the latter considered only executors of top-down formulated strategies and controlled through economic dependence.
If we want (and we do) to open up this space for contact with reality, we need to do work in three areas.
Education, Information, Inspiration
- We need to bridge the gap between existing and accessible, but not very popular, scientific knowledge and the common knowledge that shapes the narrative in society. This requires the creation of a corpus of educational materials, the more interactive the better, that are based on sound science and use proven forms of delivery: e‑learning, gamification, peer tutoring, etc.
- We need a moderated news stream, gathering current reports from reliable sources – not only in the field of life sciences. It will provide knowledge of events, but also commentary and analysis from different perspectives.
- We require a tool for individuals and communities considering various forms of self-organization in the face of collapse This tool should facilitate the selection of recipes of different types (technical, economic, political and others) to meet specific needs, and combine them in a coherent and optimized solutions. Using various resources, it would provide answers to practical questions such as “How to build a strong resillient community?”, “How to create a neighbourhood food security system?”, “How to launch a neighbourhood energy microgrid?”. Its ultimate goal is to rebuild agency at the community and individual level.
The ‘Looking Up’ action programme is designed to ensure that the Polish public has free access to these very resources.
Programme objective
Launching and long-term operations of an information and education platform `Looking Up'' for countering the effects of ecological and civilisational collapse, with a focus on communicating scientific findings and promoting grassroots, community-based models for responding to challenges.Programme assumptions
- Content and infrastructure made available under open licences (default: CC-BY-SA).
- Full documentation of sources.
- Open communication between authors, editors and content consumers.
- Flexible and inclusive presentation of content for different age groups and interest profiles.
- Extensive collaboration with social institutions and grassroots movements.
- Independence from all institutions of power.
Areas of action
Education (e-Learning)
- Integration and production of the highest quality educational materials at different age levels and from different perspectives.
- Art projects, games, and other ‘play-to-learn’ productions that capture attention and encourage further exploration.
- Reading list.
Information
- Current news from Poland, Europe, and the world.
- “What, where, when” — Announcements of and reports on all kinds of events.
- Interdisciplinary opinions and analyses.
Inspiration
- Exchange of experiences and good practices.
- Profiles of organizations and informal groups.
- Guides and practical tutorials.
Development stages (as successive projects)
Platform prototyping and launching selected services
Time: 6–8 months, beginning February 1st, 2024
Funding: open crowdfunding and partner support. Working on a volunteer basis.
Time: 6–8 months, beginning February 1st, 2024
Funding: open crowdfunding and partner support. Working on a volunteer basis.
- Gathering the project team.
- Budgeting.
- Launch of crowdfunding.
- Temporary IT infrastructure (stack) on a virtual server.
- Integration of selected data sources.
- Production of demonstrators (platform and examples of different presentation formats, back end).
- Usability testing.
- Collection of applications for the next stage.
- Presentation of the platform and publication of the report.
- Transition to implementation.
Implementation of production infrastructure
Time: 12–15 months.
Based on the findings of the first phase, we will be able to determine the scope and value of further work more precisely, which will translate into a more detailed budget.
The first step, of course, will be to secure funding in the form of grants, while planning the transition to the operational phase.
Time: 12–15 months.
Based on the findings of the first phase, we will be able to determine the scope and value of further work more precisely, which will translate into a more detailed budget.
The first step, of course, will be to secure funding in the form of grants, while planning the transition to the operational phase.
- Budgeting.
- Securing funding.
- Concluding agreements with partners.
- Selection of the final IT stack.
- Visual identity.
- Final information structure.
- Implementation and adaptation.
- Data migration.
- Documentation.
- Testing.
- Presentation of the platform and publication of the report.
- Transition to operation.
Operational stage
Time: open.
The operation must, of course, be funded on a continuous basis, including at least two persons of permanent staff (technical and content).
As the operational phase will certainly not begin until 2025, we can assume that one source will be Artel‘s profit-making activities (planned from 2025 onwards), monetizing the programme’s outputs to date (print publishing, gadget production, translation, and IT services — especially for the creation of international versions of the platform).
Time: open.
The operation must, of course, be funded on a continuous basis, including at least two persons of permanent staff (technical and content).
As the operational phase will certainly not begin until 2025, we can assume that one source will be Artel‘s profit-making activities (planned from 2025 onwards), monetizing the programme’s outputs to date (print publishing, gadget production, translation, and IT services — especially for the creation of international versions of the platform).
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Activation and integration events (mini-projects)
Open schedule.
We will always fund events individually, treating them as mini-projects. The specifics will depend on the situation at hand.
Open schedule.
We will always fund events individually, treating them as mini-projects. The specifics will depend on the situation at hand.
- Hackathons with different profiles.
- Competitions.
- Scholarships, grants, regrants and donations.
- Workshops, training courses.
- Building intentional communities.
Special projects
Open schedule.
It’s necessary to plan and fund special projects on the same lines as the program phases, but we’re not in a position to do so yet.
Open schedule.
It’s necessary to plan and fund special projects on the same lines as the program phases, but we’re not in a position to do so yet.
- AI for justice and freedom (we hope to work with https://dair-institute.org, https://www.indigenous-ai.net/).
- Info kiosks to be set up in public places (libraries, railway stations, public institutions).
- For-profit activities — self-financing.
Open call for cooperation
Interested individuals and collectives are invited to participate in a project prototyping the PwG platform and launching selected services (proof-of-concept).
Skills needed (or willingness to acquire them quickly).
- Organization and ongoing management of crowdsourcing.
- Selection and configuration of applications for the platform.
- Creation, translation, editing, and moderation of content, and communication with authors and readers.
- Education design (e‑learning).
- Graphic and video design and editing.
- Own ideas on what should be added to the project. 🙂
We look forward to hearing from you!
- email: pwg@tepewu.pl
- matrix: #PwG_open:min.tepewu.pl