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I'm [[User:Michael|Michael Slattery]]. Below is a brief description of some of the projects I've been working on - or would like to work on. ==Convivial Tools== I created my [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org first website] in order to promote the ideas of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich Ivan Illich] concerning what he called [[Convivial Tools]]. The underlying theme of all of Illich's work is how to give back to the average citizen some part of the control over knowledge and technology which is exercized by specialized elites. Illich was a precursor of the personal computing revolution and of the Internet. His book Tools for Conviviality directly influenced [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org/article.php3?id_article=39 Lee Felsenstein], whose key role in the invention of the personal computer is little recognized today. In particular, I wanted to apply Illich's ideas to the design of household appliances in order to tranform them into [[Reparable Tools]]. Designing appliances to be easily reparable by their owners would both give consumers more control over technology, and reduce waste by making appliances more durable and easier to recycle. More broadly, I wanted to explore the extent to which [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org/article.php3?id_article=21 social systems] and [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org/article.php3?id_article=20 idea systems] can be considered "tools," and how they could be made more "convivial" in Illich's sense. However, my projects in the field of Convivial Tools got bogged down in the mechanics of fleshing out the several websites that I created on the subject. My attention is now focused instead on the personal discovery of Internet tools. As a friend observed recently, I was diverted from my project of making reparable washing machines to a project of making easily reparable machines for the processing of information flows. ==Cooperative Social Network== Most of my websites are hosted on [http://www.ouvaton.coop Ouvaton], which is a French web-hosting cooperative. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative Cooperatives] are a viable economic alternative to less democratic forms of enterprise. While the Internet abounds in examples of cooperative endeavors, from wikis to open source software, economic cooperatives are rarely found in the field of high-tech. The cooperative form may seem poorly adapted to high-risk endeavors at the forefront of technological innovation - but how often has it actually been tried? The idea would be to create a [[Cooperative Social Network]], similar to social networks such as Facebook or Friendfeed, but structured as a coop. The coop form could be developed on two levels: *A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative worker cooperative] for the team that develops and runs the website *A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers%27_cooperative consumer's cooperative] for the users (which would probably be limited to the paying premium memberships) This social network could be based on the same business model as existing social networks: free accounts for the majority of users, paying accounts for premium users, and operating revenues from advertising and data mining. ==Total Customer Service and Usable Help Sites== Another area in which to develop Illich's vision of Convivial Tools would be customer service. The application of Illich's ideas to commercial customer service implies [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_June_30/ai_n27874517 customer empowerment], which is a growing trend in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management Customer Relationship Management] (CRM). One approach to customer empowerment, advocated notably by [[Doc Searls]], is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_Relationship_Management Vendor Relationship Management] (VRM), which aims to equip customers to be independent leaders rather than captive followers in their relationships with vendors. But VRM focuses on increasing the customer's power with respect to the vendors, rather than looking at how the vendor or service provider relates to the customers. From the vendor's point of view, the logic of commercial relationships always intervenes to limit customer service. For example, after-sales service is a cost which companies inevitably seek to reduce. Thus telephone assistance is often a paying service, or is delocalized to overseas [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_center call centers], or is replaced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IVR Interactive Voice Response] (IVR). How can we imagine a limitless improvement in customer service in the face of real-life economic constraints? We have to go outside of the box of commercial logic with the help of an abstract concept, an ideal, which I call "Total Customer Service." The ideal of unlimited customer service is inherent in the marketing of a Convivial Tool. To design a household appliance that its owner can easily repair, you must also design the after-sales cycle: long-term availability of spare parts, usable documentation, online assistance and so on. The better and more complete this design, the more it approaches Total Customer Service. But this approach tends to conflict with the commercial interests of the vendor: as the effective life appliances increases the sale of new models declines, and as customers become above to repair everything themselves the need for paying maintenance services disappears. In the long run you might even help the consumer to make his own tool, thus cutting the vendor entirely out the process. (to be continued...) [[Category:Projects]]
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