Original (un-edited) Foreword
The Outsider's Guide to Melbourne is a project born with the intention of becoming an interactive journal of the city's present history.
Focusing on the stories of characters, places and institutions that often remain outside of what the mainstream media consider of interest, our wish is to portray a small but tasteful sample of that certain something that makes Melbourne such a fascinating centre of culture.
Our conception of the word Outsider goes beyond any geographical, religious, racial or cultural connotation. In this sense, the Outsider’s Guide project is conceived as a space for Melbourne’s emerging artists to start exposing and publishing their work, while contributing in the making and updating of this interactive archive of the city. The Outsider’s Guide is a journal that is to be kept by the people who are witnessing history, while being a part of it.
As an emerging artistic and professional entity from the XXI century, our main belief is that physical contact and face-to-face interaction will always be the most satisfying experience for the human species, and as citizens of a global, multicultural planet, we will always feel compelled to remind the world of the beauty in witnessing things first hand.
(Mauricio Rivera R. April 2008)
What is the Outsider's Guide Points Per Content (PPC) system?
Story of the Outsider's Guide explaining the PPC
The Outsider's Guide's Points Per Content system
To achieve the goals expressed in the foreword above, the Outsider’s Guide is developing its Points Per Content system (PPC). This system is conceived as an alternative media model. In this model, the access to information is free to the public and the ownership of the media belongs to the people generating the information.
The Outsider's Guide PPC is founded over 3 core principles, which must remain unaltered as long as this media is running. These principles are:
Outsider’s Guide Points Per Content system’s core principles
1. The Outsider’s Guide it’s a media that must operate under a point system. In this system, the ownership of the media to must belong to the people who contribute the information being published in the Outsider’s Guide. In this system, the percentage of ownership must be proportional to the amount of information contributed to the Outsider’s Guide.
2. The ownership points granted for submitting information can only be redeemed voluntarily. To redeem them, the contributor must open an account and register to the Outsider’s Guide. A minor can earn “ownership points”, but he/she can’t redeem them until he/she is 18 years old.
3. The “ownership points” must be made redeemable periodically. The period between the times “ownership points” are made redeemable must be no longer than 1 year. The amount and percentages of ownership must remain open and accessible to anyone who wishes to consult them.
If at any given time the Outsider’s Guide’s administration system violates any of these 3 core principles, this gives any contributor the right to demand the current administration to restore the system, until it’s agreed that the system compels with the 3 core principles stated above. If the administration refuses to do so, the contributor has the right to demand the closure of the Outsider’s Guide.
The administration of the Outsider’s Guide will be selected by its owners/contributors. The participation of each owner/contributor in this selection process is proportional to the amount/percentage of ownership that he/she has.
The administration has the right to change and establish new parameters for the development of the point system (as long as they compel with the principles stated above).The parameters established for the first Outsider's Guide's administration are stated below.
Original Points Per Content system
The first PPC developed by the Outsider's Guide (which determines how the ownership points are to be granted) it's based in 3 main features:
PPC Main Features
1.) Annotations: these are single contributions to the Outsider's Guide.*
2.) Items: these are works that generate more annotations by other contributors.**
3.) Special contributions: these are contributions that help in the technical development of the Outsider's Guide as a media.
* An annotation can be made by a person or a group. When an annotation is done by a group, each person of the group receives 1 ownership point.
** An Item can be created by a person or a group. When an item is created by a group, the points granted for the complementary annotations (0.5 points per annotation) are divided between the members of the group that created the Item.
During this stage, the Outsider's Guide is conceived as an artistic journal of the city. Based on this, the current administration will have the editorial judgment to select what goes in the journal and what does not.
The ownership of the Outsider’s Guide will be passed on to its contributors on December 22, 2010. On that date, the ownership points originated from the PPC will be made redeemable . To redeem the points, the contributor must open an account and register to the Outsider’s Guide.
The PPC will work retroactively. Therefore, the stories submitted so far are already granting points to its contributors.
The following interactive timeline it’s based on the development of the Outsider’s Guide and explains how the PPC works.
Development of the Outsider's Guide between April 2008 and April 2010 based on the PPC
Origins February to April 2008
Development of PPC System - April 2010
April 2008.
Beta version of the Outsider's Guide website.
Starts with 4 stories (4 Annotations).
(The original Flash document of this animation it's lost
and its links are no longer online...
The first original Annotations are:
From the Gatwick's Perspective
each of the contributors involved in these stories receive 1 point per story.
Of this 4 original Annotations 1 becomes an Item
the Gatwick's original annotation leads to a series of works: starting with 2 written articles by Mauricio Rivera R. ("From the Gatwick's Perspective" and "Six Nights by the Sea") and 1 photographic series by Shreya Dube (see slideshow below) produced between june 2007 and april 2008...
(the audios below were first published in the Gatwick's annimation above)
these first works at the Gatwick are later complemented with the series of short documentaries: Sonnets from the Gatwick" directed and edited by Mauricio Rivera R. with the participation of "Budapest" Sandor Szentirmai as host and artistic director (produced between July and December 2009)]
all of the contributors in the Gatwick's item receive 1 point per annotation (each Sonnet from the Gatwick counts for an annotation). As creator of the item, Mauricio Rivera R. receives 0.5 points for each annotation made by the other contributors.
July to December 2008
Mauricio Rivera R. creates the item Capturing Melbourne a photojournalism competition that receives 12 submissions (1 of them is later withdrawn).
A3.jpg)
all of the contributors from Capturing Melbourne receive 1 point. As creator of the item, Mauricio Rivera R. receives 0.5 points for each annotation made by the other contributors.
January to April 2009
Development of current website
for the new website's design Santiago Vergara receives 5 points. For funding the development of the new website Mauricio Rivera R. receives 15 points (1 point per each $100 invested) and Allan McKelvie receives 5 points.
April to June 2009
Sudeep Lingamneni creates the item G-20; submiting 2 series of images. Each image is complemented with 2 written articles: "Anti-Globalisation: Eulogy for a Movement" (by AC Storr) and "A Placebo for the Thin Cows" (by Mauricio Rivera R.)
Mauricio Rivera creates the item: Illustrated Stories: a workshop for Illustrated Public Transport stories that receives 5 submissions
(sideshow from Public Transport story No 5; by Mathew Walsh)
July to December 2009
Production of "Sonnets from the Gatwick"
Development of the Outsider's Guide PPC
Mauricio Rivera R. creates the item News from the Future
News from the Future is a work of collaborative art, which is a new feature of the Outsider's Guide. Inspired in the game of the exquisite corpse, this feature is a call for people to create artistic dialogue. This particular work of collaborative art (News from the Future) is related to the research that Mauricio Rivera R. is doing about the development of digital technologies and its influence on 21st century societies.
COMING SOON...
The theory behind the Outsider's Guide's PPC system.
