Yes!

We have made one tiny step forward on the intellectual property front.

Developments

Trevor and I had a Meeting the other day, in the aftermath of which we hope to be able to announce some more participants in a few days. We’ve invited people for all the stipended slots save one; if everyone accepts, we’ll have a knock-out lineup, and several interested parties are considering participating on a non-stipendiary basis (which would be great with us, since it would permit us to spread the stipends around). We’ll announce participants as soon as we receive acceptances.

We also have a rough plan for applications to our seminars: we anticipate asking for a letter of interest with email addresses of two references. Our premise is twofold. First, we want some degree of assurance that the participant in question will enter into the effort seriously, so that the referees would be co-implicated in an applicant’s nonparticipation (or, heaven forbid, mischief). Second, we want to extend awareness of the project itself.

We though for a while about asking for a fee for participation, but this seemed contraindicated by the nature of the project itself, and complicated by the obligation that we have some responsible means of receiving and distributing funds. Lacking the latter and acknowledging the former, we agreed to the “references” model, by which we can help raise interest in the project among those asked for references, and to engage a participant’s whuffie as the social constraint on constructive behavior.

We’re working out the details of Wes Avram’s “Technology and Spirituality” seminar now, and should be able to announce them, and thus also receive applications, soon.

Exciting Development

Correspondence with John Mbiti suggests that he may be willing to contribute to our project — probably an article for the Quadriga series, or perhaps in another category.