About the Scythe Network

The casual visitors of this website may not be overly concerned with who we are; if they find the presented material useful or inspirational they read on, if not they zoom elsewhere into cyberspace. The people seriously considering attending the 2006 scythe-related event in Canada understandably have more specific questions. In response to those already received, others yet to come, and the unspoken speculations, some explanation regarding the nature of "The Scythe Network" may be in order.

We are not an "organization", although we co-organize some events and learning processes, and have conducted and motivated scythe-related research and design development. For lack of a better term to accurately describe our work, we use "network" to describe a very loosely-structured, ever-changing web of learning and working relationships. Far more of these are with people in Europe than in North America, some dating back to my first journey to Austria (Jan./Feb. 1999). We may work intensively with representatives of one or more institutions for several months while organizing an event; then our connections sometimes fade and new ones are born. Of all those contacts, only a few have remained steady and reliable. A percentage of them, however, can only be maintained by periodic visits in person, because some of the people do not have computers, or don't write letters. Overall, the telephone has been by far the most useful means of keeping the energy moving (learning of new developments, getting more people involved and sharing useful information).

However, this site's content itself is for the most part the work of one family, with Peter doing the initial writing (in longhand), Faye typing, and Kai editing--before he transfers the final version of a page to the web, it may only remotely resemble the original...

As I've explained elsewhere, this website's birth pre-dates our own direct association with the world of computers. It might still not exist had it not been for the motivation of David Patriquin of Dalhousie University, who was the first to suggest that this project "needs" a website. Then, with our content and input, he designed the site and for the next three years was its unpaid webmaster. Interim he gave us a digital camera and his previous computer and spent additional time to teach Kai to operate it (and, as of this winter, manage the website on his own). David also arranged Dalhousie's gift of a new digital camcorder for the purpose of producing an instructional video, which along with his paying of the web hosting fees for the first year, has been the only direct financial support this network has received to date.

Reading certain sections of this website separately, you may get the impression that we "know it all" or try to generate that image. Our strong opinions notwithstanding, we have reiterated that we are still learning (with respect to the scythe as well as otherwise) and anything we think and say today is subject to change - maybe tomorrow. That does not mean we are wishy-washy; it does mean that we encourage the communication of opinions. If you perceive that, knowingly or unknowingly, we are doing anything "wrong", or if you disagree with our technical advice, attitude to business, or related philosophy, let us know and/or make it public if you wish. Only in an atmosphere of creative feedback and relative transparency can we all keep learning.