Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

This website is a database about people, things, concepts and movements related to [[Convivial Tools]]. [[Ivan Illich]] coined the term [[Convivial Tools]] in his 1973 book [[Tools for Conviviality]]. Convivial Tools can be defined as tools which allow the user to operate with independent efficiency.

This database website is a companion to the [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org conviviality.ouvaton.org] website, which remains my main showcase on the subject of Convivial Tools. The present website is a grab-bag of more hastily-written or less directly relevant pages. Some articles on the present website were copied over from that other website (they are tagged as [[:Category:Copied from conviviality.ouvaton.org]]), which seems a bad idea, since any modifications to one copy should then also be made to the other.

This part of the website situates Convivial Tools within the broader frameworks of alternative technology and social change. See the page [[Thematic Topics]] for a more detailed summary. The main thematic topics are listed below in approximate order of their chronological development:

*[[:Category:Historical Roots]] of the ideas behind Convivial Tools - see the introductory article [[Historical Roots Narrative]]

*[[:Category:Post-War Cybernetics]] - see the introductory article [[Post-War Cybernetics]]

*[[:Category:Sixties Counterculture]] - see the introductory article [[Sixties Counterculture]]

*[[:Category:Whole Earth]] - see the introductory article [[Whole Earth]]

*[[:Category:Appropriate Technology]] - see the introductory article [[Appropriate Technology]]

*[[:Category:Ivan Illich]] - see the introductory article [[Ivan Illich]]

*[[:Category:Hacker Generation]] and the invention of the personal computer - see the introductory article [[Hacker Generation]]

*[[:Category:Postmodernism]] - see the introductory article [[Postmodernism]]

*[[:Category:Web]]: the web as convivial technology - see the introductory article [[The Web]]

*[[:Category:FOSS]] - see the introductory article [[Free and Open Source Software]]

*[[:Category:Open Source]] as a broad movement - see the introductory article [[Open Source]]

The scope of these thematic topics is too wide. Some of the pages have been transferred or copied into my tentative (and very incomplete) [http://interdb.org Internet Database] and [http://iuserguide.com Internet User Guide] websites. Detailed pages on [[wiki]]s have been transferred to my [http://toolswiki.ouvaton.org Wiki History Database].

[[User:Michael|Michael Slattery]] created and maintains this site.

The website is a structured collection of pages grouped into [[Special:Categories|categories]]. (Note that a page can belong to several categories, and that a category can be nested within others.) All categories are attached, directly or indirectly, to [[:Category:Root]]. Links to pages or categories that have yet to be created appear as [[red links]]. For a look behind the scenes, see [[:Category:Scaffolding]].

*[[:Category:Cooperation]]: a site-within-the-site, the beginning of what could be a separate project on the subject of Cooperation