Hi Fabi, Hi All,

You ask about collaborations - and sometimes there are times when
collaboration is tough. Here in the EU there has been a huge, across the
board cut in cultural funding, support and available resources.

Sometimes when people go quiet it's not because they aren't interested -
it's because they're WORKING LIKE HELL to survive, and haven't got
enough time to discuss the projects they're working on.

What I like about the Brico list is that I know that people are working
on their own projects - sometimes I don't see or hear from Bricos for
several years - and then I interact with them again, and it's like
there's been no gap at all. Often I find that moves we make, and
interests that we develop, are common, even though we haven't discussed
them.

So just to give you all an update, we, in Sheffield, have been WORKING
LIKE HELL to get resources, and keep going... and a lots of the actions
we have undertaken have been small and local. This year we have been
involved in around UKP 1200000 of funding bids (social/digital research,
digital inclusion, community arts, adult education...) this year. I
personally wrote around half of those (that's a LOT of funding bids, and
not interesting to discuss) and up until this week we had raised just
UKP 5000!!! In a normal year we would expect to raise around UKP100000
from UKP 300000 of funding bids.

It seems that things have changed. I expected, with the economic crisis,
for our funding success rate to go from 30% to around 15% - but not the
<0.5% that has actually materialised!!! It has (quite suddenly) become
almost impossible to exist on cultural, educational and economic
development funding.

But are we giving up? Hell, no! Because we are small, and cheap (for the
scale of what we deliver) and flexible, we can adapt. So we have an open
public centre to run, a team of six, and we've been running out of money
to pay people FAST. However, it has been conceptually very interesting,
and we have made lots of changes which will allow the project to
continue and survive - and even grow.

There is lots to say about this - but first I have to get some more work
done. Watch out for some interesting announcements in the next few weeks.

...and maybe over the holiday period I will have some more time for
reflection and discussion!

James

P.S. Patrick, good luck with your eyes!
====

On 02/12/11 04:34, Patrice Riemens wrote:
> Hear! Hear!
> I have very little to add since I am mostly a lurker on this list, and
> only pick up the things I find interesting, but I think we should keep
> these words by Atteqa in mind - also re: other lists and activities.
> And on a personal note: I am undergoing eye surgery nest monday. Serious
> but chance of success are high.
> Cheers patrizio + Diiiinooos!
>
>
>> to add to the question posed by Fabi
>> My analysis of the diluted flavour on this list could be due to the
>> following reasons:
>>
>> a) many people on this list are male and do not have a habit of expressing
>> their feelings and if they feel they have shown any then they need to
>> apologize as they have gone against the status quo
>>
>> b) its a european thing
>>
>> c)the kind of people and environment that readers and writers here want to
>> create is a noncommiting one, stay objective and youre safe. Its great
>> academic gimmick, I've seen it used in many conferences that I've attended
>> all over the world
>>
>> Theres nothing wrong with it, asking people to open up their Pandoras is
>> much more difficult to control for admins and time consuming no?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 7:07 PM, fabi borges<catadores@???> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Why everybody apologizes in this list?
>>> why when I put some video or work, everybody answer to me particularly,
>>> it is just for serious, very serious subject?
>>> there is some order I don't know?
>>>
>>> this list could be more simple and more colaborative, isn't it?
>>>
>>> apologize, apologize,,,, or.... what?
>>>
>>> with love ,
>>>
>>> fabi
>>>
>>> --
>>> cAsSaNdRas
>>> http://cassandras.multiply.com
>>> http://catadores.wordpress.com
>>> http://www.youtube.com/user/catadores
>>> http://picasaweb.google.com.br/catadores
>>> http://estudiolivre.org/el-user.php?view_user=fabiborges
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Brico mailing list
>>> Brico@???
>>> http://lists.dyne.org/mailman/listinfo/brico
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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