November 21, 2008
Louise,
It is VERY late, but perhaps you still have time to do this dress website? I will have a window installation in Providence on Dec 6– March 13 and will be bartering Utility Dresses in it. I will have images of the dress soon, but until then, can you make a single page that says the following:
FINAL DAYS!!! IT IS THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!!! THANKS FOR YOUR LOYALTY. GETTING OUT OF BUSINESS!!! BARTERS ACCEPTED!!! BIG DISCOUNTS FOR LOCAL ARTISTS DESIGNERS CRAFTSPEOPLE!!! MAKE ME AN OFFER — I trade NEW UTILITY DRESS for ceramics, jewlery, painting, web design, and other artwork. SLIDING SCALE!!!
I accept locally grown vegetables, old photographs of RI/NY, window space in Manhattan, 50s-80s design patterns, haircuts, massage, dental work, shoe repair, yoga instruction, health consultation, hydroponic/indoor vegetable training, canning tutorials, secret recipes, conversational spanish tutoring, accounting help, liability law services, and many other skills... If you cannot barter, you can pay a penalty of $200 and take a dress. LAST DAY MARCH 13, 2009.
Then I just need you to create a form they fill out to make me an offer, or a button they click to contact me... also a Buy Now option would be good for those people who want to fork over the money. And, if you have time to respond conceptually, maybe instead of my GETTING OUT OF BUSINESS vernacular (which is really a call for the end of capitalism) I should just offer another approach (bartering) triumphantly from the outset...then the text should read:
INTRODUCING COMMUNITY CURRENCY, a fashion line which can ONLY BE EXCHANGED FOR LOCAL GOODS AND SERVICES. Utility Dresses by Caroline Woolard can be exchanged for: ceramics, jewelry, painting, web design, fabric, furniture, photo/video documentation, locally grown vegetables, old photographs of RI/NY, 50s-80s design patterns, haircuts, massage, dental work, ... etc.
What do you think?
Caroline
“So I’m at WOW, and I’m sitting in the circle, and I for the first time raise my hand, and I say, ‘I need someone to design the lights for my show.’ This was terrifying for me for a couple of reasons, first of all because I’m not totally sure they’re going to do it right, and second of all because I’m not totally sure I’m a person who deserves that kind of help.”
—Jen Abrams, 2013
CAROLINE’S STRENGTHS / WEAKNESSESHave no unenumerated expectations of individuals: This is hard for me. I’m not sure that I KNOW everything I expect. I will keep thinking about it...this is what I can think of:
Be RELIABLE: Show up, honor your word, etc. Be loyal. Give me credit and respect my work. Work hard! Hold me accountable. Work through problems with me. Address problems as they arise (this will be hard if we have short meetings and then represent the project publicly... working through the mission will help this. Perhaps we will agree through writing grants and testing our ideas in presentations/interviews with friends)Voice your own project-related strengths/interests/likes:
Understanding personality types/needs-this facilitates project strategy/effect. One-on-One socializing/planning: I love meeting new people and have broad interests (weakness: I am TERRIBLE with names) Interests... Skills of my close friends: 5 Environmental Activists, 6 Public-Art/Project-Based Artists, 1 dancer/chef, 3 Architects, 1 Social Worker, 2 new media/web people, 3 graphic designers, 1 painter. I love exploring the city, sourcing materials, digging up information, finding a way IN... I go to too many lectures/workshops/tours and cannot stop myself. I’m pretty even-tempered and try to be nice to as many people as possible. I feel best when I sense that the community respects me, values my integrity (my priority is to be acknowledged for hard work and intelligence by the group)Voice your own sensitivities / areas with a slow learning curve / motivations:
I have a bad long-term memory and hate myself for forgetting what I’ve learned. I have a pride issue with being told how to do things unless I ask for it—I am working on this. Basically, I would rather volunteer than be told. I may take on more than I can actually manage—I hope to deal with this. I gave you my schedule, but we can go through this again to predict time crunches! For example, I’m about to go MIA from March 18-30. I need to learn how to delegate group tasks (perhaps less relevant here) I procrastinate and build things last minute—I HAVE to change this: this is less of a problem with OurGoods because I am managing it rather than building it! I HATE public speaking/dealing with groups. I’m trying to get better at it. I have a complicated relationship to authority and access—I want power, but I distrust it. I have a hard time working with people who love hierarchy.Know who you’re dealing with: my WORK: You can see my new work if I send it to you, but most of it is offline.Know who you’re dealing with: my CONTACTS: These people can tell you a lot about me:
1. 2.Chris Kennedy, my friend/past co-worker 3.Natalie Jeremijenko, artist/past employer at NYU 4.Alexis Thompson, my current employer 5.Nancy Austin, my momKnow what you need and when you need it:
We need the code person now! But we need to fundraise to pay this code person first. I think our “tactics of deployment” need to be discussed.
JEN’S STRENGTHS / WEAKNESSESI will strive to be:
Reliable. When I say I’ll do something, I’ll do it. Competent. When I do something, I’ll do it right. Clear. If I’ve said I’ll do something and it turns out I can’t, I’ll tell you. If I have an expectation, I’ll articulate it. If I have a problem, I’ll talk about it. Honest. If I’m concerned about something, not sure of myself, or know I’m getting close to a discomfort area, I’ll let you know. If I’m bad at something, I’ll tell you. If I screw up, I’ll admit it. Supportive. When I appreciate what you’ve done, I’ll tell you so. If you are struggling with something, I’ll do my best to help. Receptive. If you have feedback, I’ll listen. My main expectation of a collaborative relationship is that both parties strive toward the above, value them, and work together to fulfill them.Some strengths I think will help:
When I make a commitment, I keep it. Period. I’m extremely organized, good with schedules and accountability. I’m good at public speaking, good at articulating ideas verbally and on paper. I do really well with groups. I’m really good at offering positive feedback. I handle conflict pretty well. I’m a really good manager, good at working to deadline. I have a good sense of my own time and what I can and can’t realistically get done.My weaknesses (that I know of):
When I make a commitment, I keep it. Period. This can make me inflexible, and it sometimes means I don’t know when to quit. I’m a control freak. I’ve been working hard on this for.....ever, actually. At this point I’m pretty good at noticing when I’m control-freaking, but I am definitely capable of lapsing. This comes up the most when there isn’t trust. I feel pretty good about our trust level at this point. I can get impatient. I’ll want to do things in the most efficient way, which sometimes causes me to miss stuff I’d have seen if we’d been more exploratory. I have an excellent long-term memory, which sometimes translates into holding onto stuff too long. I like to keep moving forward—can be resistant to going back over ground I feel we’ve covered already. Issues I/we should keep an eye on: - I have many more obligations than you do. My partner and I are about to buy a place together that will require a lot of fixing up. I’m working 20 hours a week at a job I can’t do other stuff at. And I’m trying to finish making an evening-length work. I work hard, smartly, and efficiently, but I don’t think I have as much time to work as you do. I tend toward the very practical. I’m more interested in the practical aspects of this than in the philosophical aspects, whereas I think you’re more interested in the philosophical aspects. That can be a good pairing as long as we both keep respecting both. I need this to generate income for me and you don’t. If that looks like it’s not going to happen, I’ll have to ratchet my investment way down at some point (but I won’t abandon the project, and I’ll let you know in advance if/ when that time approaches).
The Challenge: Since the 2008 market crash, cultural producers have struggled to come to terms with the new economic landscape.
— Caroline Woolard and Jen Abrams, from Rockefeller Foundation’s New York City Cultural Innovation Fund Grant Application, 2011
If politics is something that helps people think about the way power is organized, and the way they live it in their lives, then OurGoods is a political project.
— Caroline Woolard, 2010
The difference between a simple website, for example, an art portfolio, and a peer-to-peer Web 2.0 website like OurGoods.org is that OurGoods.org enables peer-to-peer communication. This means that each person must have a unique account, be able to log in, and have conversations with other users. To make the user experience fluid, designers, developers, and user experience experts need to create user experience maps, wire frames, and front and back end designs such as these.
The dominant economy values the outputs of our production (completed artworks) far less than it values the inputs to our production (rehearsal space, materials, skill, time, energy). OurGoods sidesteps this persistent imbalance by helping cultural producers exchange directly with each other, creating an alternate economy based on shared values.
— Caroline Woolard and Jen Abrams, from Rockefeller Foundation’s New York City Cultural Innovation Fund Grant Application, 2011
The five of us did not always agree on everything, so we learned to have productive conflicts.
“More and more we’re coming back to the importance of community building that’s face to face. So in the same way that we meet around this table and we hold each other accountable based on mutual relationships of trust, we do a lot of in person events as a compliment to the software. It’s not a replacement, it’s an addition.”
— Caroline Woolard, 2014
* NOTE: We also applied for funding from the CUE Foundation and from Creative Capital, among many other applications, but those applications did not advance very far. I began to understand that there is a real difference between a service organization and an art project, and that OurGoods.org was a nonprofit in the eyes of funders.
June 12, 2011
Hi all,
Rockefeller expects three major site updates in the next 12 months. We have $16k for each of you to make that happen.
1. What we're envisioning is three 10-day coding caves: one now, one in December and one next March/April. The $16k covers those three sessions (plus some travel money). Can you tell us: Are those three coding cave sessions doable for you guys? When would you know? Is Louise’s concurrent availability important and if so, Louise, are you available?
2. If they are doable, when could the first one happen? What can you envision getting accomplished in the first session? In the second?
Looking forward to hearing from you—we’re incredibly excited to suddenly have all this momentum!
Jen
As individual skills, spaces, and items for barter are aggregated on OurGoods, we will be able to see where we need to build capacity in our community, individually and as a network.
— Caroline Woolard and Jen Abrams, from Rockefeller Foundation’s New York City Cultural Innovation Fund Grant Application, 2011
June 17, 2016
Beloved OurGoods team,
It’s time to shut down our software. Caroline sent me this article by Christina Xu called Every Project Deserves a Good Death (2015) a while ago, and I found it to be quite profound. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
Caroline and I have had a bunch of conversations, all of which lead to this: It’s time to shut down our software. So we wanted you to see the letter we are sending to our members next week before it went out. We also wanted to tell you that we are going to work on some kind of documentation of the project that will live at www.ourgoods.org, so that the project will not just disappear.
I wanted to tell you (and I’m sure Caroline will concur), that the five of us changed my life. OurGoods as a project changed my life, but before OurGoods was OurGoods, it was the five of us, holed up for an uncountable number of hours, hammering out visions and relationships, and what is life if not that. I’ll be forever grateful to you all, and you will always be my family, regardless of how much distance and time might grow between any of us in particular.
Together (and with so much love),
Jen
This “experiment on the side” ended up being far more popular
SO YOU WANT TO START AN ONLINE PLATFORMBy Caroline Woolard, 2015Dear founder,I’m glad to hear about your idea for an online platform. Congratulations! I’m sure we both agree that a diversity of opinions is a good thing, and that platforms should benefit their participants, as participation is what makes an online platform valuable. What follows are a few questions that I wish someone had asked me when I started four multi-year projects.I am sharing these four questions, along with bits of advice, because I hope that you will succeed in contributing toward the cooperative culture we want to see. To live in a democratic society, we all need more experiences of democracy at work, in school, and at home. Thank you for helping push the cooperative movement forward.You will notice that a lot of what follows also speaks to founders of non-profit organizations or social impact businesses. I am writing this especially for young, educationally-privileged people who have big ideas but are newcomers to the neighborhood they live in. This reflects my own experience as a college graduate, waking up to working class histories in New York City while trying to build cooperative software and resource-sharing projects.It took me a while to learn outside my immediate group of friends, to reach beyond the academy and beyond the Internet to learn.
In cooperation,Caroline Woolard