This is an example of a narrative I must compose for each phase of UPLIFT. Later I can add links to explanatory essays. This remains rough draft. Feedback welcome, especially citing the paragraphs that were least comprehended. Thanks. Larry 6/10/2013, minor edits – I pushed the dates 3 years ahead.
7/24/2016. I had completely forgotten I had written this.
I need help !!
————————————
September 11, 2020 This a report of my experiences during the past two years as participant in UPLIFT, an exciting movement facilitated by BUS, or Boostrap Uplift Scaffolding. A close friend invited me to join her in a special social network she had just joined. She sat beside me as I joined on my computer. This was early in September 2018. The downloading and installation of the BUS app went without a hitch. BUS has a very robust help and orientation system and committed to ensuring each user become proficient in its use no matter their prior experience with computers or social networks. I was introduced to a network of 13 others, all rather recent new members. They were helping each other learn the system, and they would be helping me, and my friend.
What initially attracted them, and what was attracting me, was the strong feeling of fellowship growing and the enjoyment I experienced when online with them. This was my primary motivation to continue, and to begin to do activities on my own through BUS. Early in the orientation I viewed a few videos that gave be a brief introduction about UPLIFT and BUS. I’ll go into more detail on this later; the information was motivating, but what I was expected to be doing would prepare me for exciting and rewarding participation in the future.
After a brief orientation I was surprised to be asked to invite two other persons to join our network. But, I was supported by my 13 new friends and the friend that invited me – I was never isolated or alone. BUS has many resources to assist me recruiting and orienting others, some I had used in my own earlier orientation. Working with my two new recruits reinforced my own learning and the orientation process was dynamic and ongoing. It was an educational process unlike I had ever experienced – and it was working!
Materials we studied explained the importance of this Chain Growth Recruitment Process: to ensure a rapid and exponential growth of networked members in the expanding UPLIFT movement. Our objective was to eventually attract, organize, and educate most of the global human population. This awesome goal had been beyond my imagination – but now I saw it was possible and what a well organized and highly competent humankind could accomplish. We didn’t get deep into all that the UPLIFT movement could accomplish – as our priority was to grow the movement and develop its competencies – then it would be better equipped to learn what was needed doing and how to do it.
I learned how many were already participants, and distributed across the planet. It was quite encouraging to see the graphs showing growth and projections. And, I learned and discussed this with others – it was fun and I was learning as I never had learned before. I was developing not only self confidence, but gaining hope that we really could make a difference.
But the future was not our primary focus. We were learning how we each are different in many important ways and I was surprised to learn that many persons experienced differently than I. But our differences didn’t make one more important than another; we complemented each other in our diversity. BUS provided us with tools to scientifically measure some of our differences in abilities. There were fun questionnaires and guided interviews we took and then discussed with each other. Our profiles were shown along with profiles accumulating for all participants of UPLIFT. We were beginning to understand the complexity and beauty of human diversity. We were offered opportunities to join networked research projects in developing more tools and how to analyze, display, and interpret what we were beginning to learn about ourselves – humankind. In time this would grow to become a continuing global census of what humankind needs to know to account for our individual differences in many things, such as in education and work. We were already experiencing some feedback from these studies as our learning materials were matched with our learning styles.
What was equally important in this process of learning about ourselves, is the increasing sense of community among those interacting. We could learn about the lives of our new friends, their struggles, desires, and achievements – and where we might be of help to each other. During this process our working network changed. After I guided my two recruits through their orientation, I continued with them, helping them as they worked, each with another two new invites. And, one more cycle, I continued to work with my two as they each worked with their two who were now working each with another two. By then I as the apex of a network of 14 new members I has assisted orientating. We became another network community.
Once I had reached this position I could withdraw from the initial orientation process. I was already involved in a number of other activities. My network had expanded. Some from my early group reduced contact, although we were able to follow their activity if we wanted – and had occasional “reunions”. The structure of UPLIFT was emerging, like the early stages of an embryo, and I was a viable and vital part.
BUS arranged it that a working network would include members from the same locality mixed with members elsewhere. There were specific BUS programs assisting those living in the same area to meet and organize for work in their locality – depending on their needs. Many got involved with local food production and distribution, and other activities aimed at providing basic needs. I helped seed a few new UPLIFT networks among persons working in these activities who were unaware of UPLIFT. This usually rapidly increased the participants in these localization actions.
This “seeding” involved my gathering a few others in the UPLIFT network to support me and then inviting a few from my target population to become users of BUS and help invite others from this population. BUS has special programs to assist seeding.
UPLIFT didn’t promote itself in the media and attempted to minimize coverage, even on The Internet. It was not only important to grow exponentially, but that the facilitating networking would be there at the start. One had to be invited to join, using BUS. If a person heard about UPLIFT and wanted to join they could add their info to a waiting list pool for invitations.
UPLIFT participants were free to be members of other movements, causes, or groups. BUS did not ever order or direct participants to do things. Action needs were posted and participants joined. BUS facilitated alternative exchange systems, for both local networks and for specific global networks within UPLIFT. UPLIFT strongly discouraged any members from promoting or recruiting for their other causes or actions within the BUS enabled networking. Formal UPLIFT supported political campaign activity was strongly discouraged. There was a separate app provided by BUS for persons and groups to post there other needs; but participants in UPLIFT would need to go there themselves. Spam control was total within BUS. However, UPLIFT participants were free to seed new BUS networks within their other movements and groups – and being dual members of UPLIFT and the other movements often improved the workings of the other movements. These new members were discouraged in using BUS for information exchanges within their other movement. BUS was exclusively for UPLIFT.
As I matured in the use of BUS, and was part of efforts to improve BUS, I began to participate in learning expeditions to explore potential aspects of a nu Humanity that was emerging within the UPLIFT movement. This included topics such as governance, economics, decision making, and other social and societal aspects of the emergent networked organism. None of this was to be directed towards reform of existing societal aspects outside UPLIFT. The only priority of UPLIFT was to become a viable being before it engaged with its societal environment – such as governments, religions, or corporations. Spiritual and artistic dimensions were facilitated by BUS and an integral part of UPLIFT – but ideological argument was not encouraged. Again, persons could worship as before, but like the division of church & state, organizations outside UPLIFT could not be represented within UPLIFT. UPLIFT was like an embryonic butterfly emerging within the caterpillar (societal environment of UPLIFT). The butterfly must be alert to what the decaying caterpillar is doing, but the butterfly makes no attempt to reform the caterpillar.
Although we didn’t engage our societal environment (other than needed economic exchanges, UPLIFT could produce for markets if needed). There were projects within UPLIFT to carefully observe their societal environment (including all information flowing there). There were also projects for forecasting trends in their societal environment and alerts to participants if specific crises were forecast. Actually most UPLIFT participants occasionally participated in actions in their societal environment – as helping in natural disasters or other emergencies – they only didn’t do it as representatives of UPLIFT. It was fully OK to organize other UPLIFT members for “outside” actions, it was just that this was not to be done within BUS. The same applied to actions taken related to Earth Changes. Research project on these issues could occur within UPLIFT, but not specifically credited to UPLIFT.
Most of our advanced learning and organizing was directed to both personal and organizational improvement. New scientific research projects blossomed within UPLIFT as the full power of networked research was applied – mostly directed to the study of the relevant nature of humans and humankind, in all their diversity and similarity. Results of this research was applied for the improvement of BUS. Adult stage development was further researched and programs explored to assist persons move through these stages.
There is considerable technology – both computer/communications related and psycho/social – involved in the creation and continued improvements in and diversification of BUS. Persons with various expertise competencies had to go through the same orientation process as others – as their expertise gave them no privileges. Being participants in the learning/organizing aspects of UPLIFT was more important than that they exercise their special competencies. However, their special expertise would soon be sought by UPLIFT. New types of scientific, technological, educational, and organizational relationships and networks emerged. The material in BUS had to be tailored for different languages, different socio-economic situations, different cultures, and different ages and demographics. Persons from each of these grouping were actively involved in creating the information system available for each BUS to be seeded.
On this day, two years from my joining UPLIFT and three years from the early experimental trials of BUS1.0, we feel confident that the UPLIFT movement is viable and immune from suppression. Movement members are distributed throughout the planet at many levels of society. We have yet far to go, in reaching more resistive populations, further improvement in BUS and the new societal structures emerging within UPLIFT.
The series of experiments with versions of BUS for the poorest, refuge settlements, and urban “slums” . have finally succeeded in organizing UPLIFT movement in these populations where members will focus on UPLIFT and not attract repression by prematurely demanding from the elites what the elites are not yet willing to provide. We expect to witness an explosive growth of UPLIFT among the less fortunate on this planet. We anticipate these populations are primed for UPLIFT once we can break through initial barriers. The “educational goals” of UPLIFT are far beyond basic survival skills and what civilizations have set for their “educated populous”. We have yet to discover the full developmental/learning potentials of humankind and what an uplifted humankind can accomplish.
For those within UPLIFT, where ever they live, life has become almost magical. It certainly has been for me and is being revealed through a project where members are telling their personal stories within UPLIFT. Times may still be hard in many situations – the societal environment remains oppressive – but their new social life and personal growth and achievements gives everyone hope and dedication to continue the evolution/emergence of UPLIFT.