Yancey-

That's to be expected.
Thanks again for writing me and reading over the information.

Getting back to the project itself:
Before posting the project, I considered writing someone at Kickstarter, mainly because of how my project differs from the highlighted projects on the site. Any comments you have about this will help me in the future.
The current fundraising effort will not be successful, but as always, mistakes have the most to be learned from.

I've gained quite a bit of perspective from doing the fundraiser, since raising funds to build the site is not my role on the Farmer Power project. I am now a lot more sensitive to my work associate's concerns, and can advise and strategize with more precision.
Also, my associate can now use the project as an example in the pitch to the European Council and Fiat, as he has said he would do. It's so much more fruitful to illustrate actual humans participating in an event via the internet rather than just showing a cosmetic dummy site.

So hopefully, I will be paid for my work soon enough. =))

best,

-elle ko

442 shotwell st.
san francisco, ca 94109
+1 (415)680-3738
+33 0637331866
twitter: elleko

On Oct 22, 2009, at 3:11 PM, Yancey Strickler wrote:

Hi Elle --

I wrote you because I got an email from someone who had their doubts about your project. And I took into account the possibility that that person could have compromised intentions, so I came to you directly.

Yancey

Hi Elle
i'm in Paris,hard period...

but,when i ask to you a an idea about this project www.farmer-power.com i cannot imagine this kickstarter...
i'm really happy about your positive & creative draft.

hi elle --

my name is yancey and i'm one of the kickstarter founders. i wanted to talk to you a bit about your project. i was looking for more about the Ministry of Alternative Energy of the European Union and had trouble finding it. i saw the earlier incarnation of your project as well: http://74.125.155.132/search...

can you explain your project to me? that would be a big help.

thanks elle.

yancey

--
yancey strickler | http://www.kickstarter.com

Hi Yancey,

I understand the concerns and I am glad that you contacted me. I had wanted to contact someone at kickstarter earlier but did not know how to approach you guys with such a long spiel.

First, I must clarify that there is currently no Ministry of Alternative Energy for the EU.

I learned about the initiative 1 year ago from a man I met at fashion week name Pier Giorgio Iberti. He had been one of the founders of Camper Shoes and is the editor of Intersection Magazine. Mr. Iberti's English is not very good, and my Italian is very poor, so he established his creditability to me through his work credentials. I was struck by how little he spoke of fashion and publishing and how much he spoke about Farmer Power, which he could not articulate the nature of. He spoke about it in conjunction with Slow Food and Terra Madre. At the time, I knew nothing about Slow Food beyond their promoting traditional cooking and farming methods. To absorb all this information from a non-native English speaker in 1 single conversation was confusing to say the least. One thing was clear: while he had someone working on the project already, he wanted me to work on Farmer Power.

It is through my own research that I learned how Slow Food came to be, and what Terra Madre is to Slow Food.

Slow Food is explained quite articulately and painlessly by Woody Tasch in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch…

Terra Madre is an organization for Food Producers growing out of Slow Food. They hold large conferences in Turin (apparently not at regular intervals.)

I concluded that Farmer Power is an initiative that grew out of Slow Food as a publishing initiative: Terra Madre attracts rural producers to Slow Food in order that their needs can be discerned, then they would formulate ideas and broadcast them to the public (beyond the Slow Food community) through Farmer Power. But I am learning now that this is not all.

At a later meeting (also during last autumn) with Mr. Iberti, he showed me videos of Terra Madre. He was still unable to give me a clear idea about what Farmer Power is suppose to accomplish. At the time, I did not understand why this is. I do now.

I have to run, but I will continue with explaining my project later today. I apologize but my responsibilities are many; I didn't want to put off replying to you.

Thanks very much for contacting me.

-elle ko

Yancey-

After meeting with Mr. Iberti several times while I lived in Paris last year, I was still unable to discern what Farmer Power was despite of his initial enthusiasm. At the time, farmerpower.net had nothing but a placeholder image.
I left Europe in January of this year without having committed myself to the project because no more information was forthcoming.

In August this year, I visited farmerpower.net again and found that there is not even a placeholder image anymore.
I wanted to find out why, after a year, not only has the website not gone forward, but even taken a step back. I contacted Pier through e-mail; after waiting and not receiving a response, I tried to reach him through someone in the marketing department of Camper whom I met through Pier. Finally, he replied to me and we had a long Skype conversation about the project.

Attached is notes form that conversation.

[attachment]

Pier had told me that Farmer Power is the publishing platform for the "Ministry of Alternative Energy". After the conversation, like you, I researched the term on the internet. According to Google, the only country that has a "ministry of alternative energy" is India. This made some sense to me, because I recall Pier showing me aTerra Madre speech by an Indian woman. The speaker was being highlighted because the Indian delegation was showing that it was making tangible progress to Terra Madre. Europe may be taking a cue from India because Terra Madre highlighted those successes.
Now remember that his English is not very good and we are from different cultures, with different implied information embedded in speech, so some nuance or important detail is lost. We were both aware of this miscommunication.
I did note that Pier gave Farmer Power no tangible form a year ago, and now, when he speaks about it, it takes on an official tone (like using the word "ministry".)

So I can now conclude that:
- Farmer Power, like Terra Madre, is an initiative that grew out of Slow Food;
- Given that (1)Slow Food has been successfully pushing for a trend is to shift away from mass producing agricultural products, and (2) Italy being the home of Slow Food, (3) Terra Madre actively convenes to find out what exactly small farmers need:: those involved in the movement are influential enough and have every incentive to push for Turin to be the seat of the new Ministry of Alternative Energy. Their main concern is agricultural policy: I've written about CAP as well and I'm sure you can do you own research. Long story short (oh, the irony,) the Ministry of Agriculture cannot be removed, energy is a good in for agricultural policy.

He explicitly said that he wanted to show funders (he named Fiat, the EU, and Camper.) what the website will look like.
While I am not an accredited interactive theorist, I do know that existing websites made under those conditions often end up not doing their jobs and waste a lot of time and money. A website is not just a front, it's a chance to create a simulacrum and can perform many more functions. The information is not separate from the presentation.

I felt that to approach funders at the beginning of the project with that attitude is not desirable; I wanted to make that known.

He did not articulate what was happening to create the impasse, but he said something to the effect of "Americans do a lot and talk little. Europeans talk a lot but do not do very much, and they are not transparent (like you.)"
From that statement, I inferred that there had been bureaucratic procedures which slowed down the process, and there was probably some unfruitful negotiations with the people previously working on the website which led to its current state.

Also, to give you an idea how little this man knows about online publishing: while Intersection Magazine has a wide circulation in Europe and can be found in some news stands in larger American cities like SF, it's not listed on Amazon, and there is not even a Wikipedia entry. To even small American magazines, that would be unthinkable. To Pier, it's something he's never thought about. He has said to me before that he is simply "the guy who buys the paper."

I felt it was important for me to explain this, and for him to give me feedback. Doing this in person would help a lot. This requires money.

Now I want to break this long tirade up again so I don't lose you. When I said it was a long spiel, I meant it.

-elle ko