Hope and naivety

I’ve just been listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s Wednesday Morning 3am and it made me feel a pang of regret that from what I can see there was a kind of naive hopefulness that pervaded in some groups during the late 1960s – maybe up until around when I was born in the early 70s – which acknowledged that the world was a mess but genuinely believed that people could actually do something about it and ultimately fix things, and that in the climate of cynicism of my adult years there’s been very little space for that kind of attitude. It’s what I called “faith in the future” here.

I think that one of the things I’m hoping we can do with Swopaplot, and with other projects in the future, is help demonstrate that there’s a lot of good in human nature, irrespective of all the bad. Recapture a little of that naive hope. As a bloke who was expelled from my old primary school a long time ago once put it, you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope not anyway.

Mr X is on board!

Good news. My lawyer friend Mr X (see here) has said he’s happy to help with putting together our basic suggested contract between gardeners and garden owners. And I’ve also heard that friends of friends are starting to tell people what we’re trying to do here. All positive feedback so far – so thanks!

🙂

Nice idea – but what’s in it for Chris?

Thought you’d never ask.

Well, aside from the vast satisfaction of turning London into a (put on best Pearly King accent) bloomin’ paradise, I’m hoping I might make a few quid out of selling some advertising space around the edges of the site. Useful links for gardeners – that sort of thing. So if you’d be interested in advertising on swopaplot.com let me know! There won’t be any advertising on this blog though (in its current form at any rate). The idea is to cover the running costs of the site as it develops, and to maybe have a bit left over for me to plant somewhere else.

The core service of matching up gardens and gardeners, and the related core community features – whatever they turn out to be – will be free of course! Although I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of charging a modest amount for optional extras at some point in the future – especially if they were things that were going to cost to set up.

Sound fair?

A few more resources

OK, I’ve registered swopaplot accounts at flickr and youtube – for future use (there’s nothing there yet). And we’re now on MySpace too, if that’s where you prefer to hang around.

I’ve come down with a nasty cold that’s had me off work for a couple of days. Bleugh.