freeDimensional had the chairs arranged in a circle and were already engaged in a passionate debate when I entered the room. The discussion was about the presentation they would give on Day 4 – the question: what is the best way to represent the group’s identity in twenty-minutes?

At first FD began by posting orange sticky-notes to the board – each with a different theme for discussion. Twenty sticky-notes later they decided they would give a brief introduction and then split into separate discussion groups. Since fD is a multi-dimensional network, by breaking into smaller groups they could better target the parts of the Winter Camp audience that share an interest in collaborative writing, education, the use of video for storytelling etc. In line with the fD’s general philosophy, they “hope to use the power of open-space as a meeting tool.”

FD wants to make clear that they are an inclusive network – “everyone is invited: artists, writers, tech people…” On Day 4 they will ask the audience to engage and raise questions. I’m enthusiastic about this approach, for as long as the crowd is willing to interact it could be a nice dialogue. They affirmed, “any type of communication can be seen as jargon”, so rather than hide behind network jargon they’ve decided they’ll open up the discussion and ‘include everyone’.

On the afternoon of the second day of Winter Camp a fruitful encounter occurred between the networks Upgrade! and freeDimensional, a real network-to-network confrontation. But as I arrived early, and freeDimensional wasn’t yet present, I walked into a vibrant discussion between the Upgrade! members. Apparently in the morning they had split into groups, which resulted in a clear division of tasks. On a practical level they discussed the splitting up of responsibilities. So one group being responsible for overall communication (website, mailing list, archive), another responsible for productional issues (Events, annual gatherings, products, etc.), and certainly important, a third group responsible for setting up and controlling a fund raising body. Of course as became clear in the follow-up discussion, several essential questions still have to be addressed. Like for example, will the separate groups have their own decision making power, or will this power be distributed within the network. Nevertheless, this division of tasks could be the actual seed for an organized international Upgrade! Network.

But then freeDimensional arrived and the topic changed to a mutual interest. When looking at the focus, and organization of both networks, this meeting seemed to be quite logical, as there are numerous similarities. Both have the same amount of local nodes that are geographically wide spread, and both offer a platform for artistic as well as activist strategies. But where the focal point at Upgrade! is more on the artistic side, within freeDimensional activism takes a dominant stand, thus in difference offering each other some solid ground for knowledge sharing.

After both groups explained the merits of their organization, previous collaborations were briefly discussed. Each of the networks zoomed in on their ideas and activities and addressed each other several questions. For example, Upgrade! asked freeDimensional if approached art centers ever refused a request for collaboration because they were afraid that activist projects would stir turmoil when being to politically sensitive? As freeDimensional cooperates a lot with human rights organizations, and addresses related issues, in the past they certainly dealt with art centers that were hesitant about collaborating and fearful about political consequences.

Without reiterating the specific merits of the discussion, it’s most important to notice that both networks benefited from this ‘confrontation’ through the sharing of ideas, as well as the sharing of their practical experience. At the end of their meeting even some concrete collaborations were offered over and over, which was certainly entertaining. While the Boston node of Upgrade! offered their Turbulence.org webspace to freeDimensional for exhibiting their net-art projects, freeDimensional responded directly, offering a position for Upgrade! as an affiliation on their site.

As I went with great joy to the screenings of yesterday, today there is another one I am attending. With excitement I entered the (rather small) workshop place of freeDimensional. freeDimensional organised the screening by themselves and all networks were welcome to join. The setting of tonight was more intimate and personal in comparison with yesterday. Around 15 people were attending their screening and we kicked off with a short documentary interview of Issa Nyaphaga. Issa’s story is all about his life as a political activist and his expressions in art; art is his creative therapy.  

The second part of the screening is a short campaign created by a group of young Brasilians. The campaign is one of the projects of a cultural association Casa das Caldeiras based in Saõ Paulo. The campaign starts with a statement in Portuguese; “rights for true people”. Who are true people and who have the rights? By using avatars or so-called dolls they introduce project. The avatars are placed everywhere in Saõ Paulo; in supermarkets, in someone’s house, during classes and more. The group of young people use the avatars to stand up their rights and they are screaming for attention.  

The third and last part of the screening was an installation of a visit to New Delhi. The installation is meant to be shown at galleries and museums. The New Delhi installation was made by an animal activist Shira Golding.

After all, although freeDimensional seem to be an over-idealistic network with great visions and goals to achieve, their screenings give an impression of real work. Work with concrete projects and missions accomplished. Of course, this objective impression is created by just a small account of their complete work, though their shared community value may be a strong or even their strongest force to produce sustainability for their network.