Biketour 2013

So far...

12 people from the Europe wide Biketour Collective met in Berlin in the snow for the annual Winter Meeting. You can read the agenda and a summary of the minutes here...

As you can see from these pages, many things are still up for debate- so if you have some ideas - make your self a login and add them to the relevant pages or contact info@ecotopiabiketour.net.... and remember 'You are the Biketour!!'

So why another Biketour??

1. Because we believe in DIY, slow travel and Doing it Ourselves!
2. Because we have a 23 year legacy of creating incredible experiences / skills sharing / self organising / experiential education ... and we want to do it again!
3. Because we want to use our energy and momentum to further the campaigns that matter to us most
4. Because we want to learn from the existing social and activism projects that are happening all over Europe NOW!
5. Because we want to make things happen - and believe we can do that together
6. Because you know it will be the adventure of 2013!

This Years Theme

THEME

Brainstorm from the recent Winter Meeting:::::

• WHAT; Migrant Struggles; Fortress Europe; physical borders and ownership of space; social; psychological; on and offline borders; the virtual and cultural borders. • HOW; by having a strong focus(s) on what we can achieve; being sensitive to local border perception.Visiting historical and modern day border struggles and traces. • Action suggestions raged from joining up with existing actions such as the Berlin Wall / East Side Gallery or refugee protests; creating moc border control points; bespoke passports; comparing policies; finding commonalities and sharing skills and cultures, stories; recording and documenting them as radio / video / blog posts and e-activisim tactics. Slogan words brainstorm: commons / community / borders, boundaries and beyond / recycling borders / rethink borders / cultural exchange /granica, hranic, Granit, Grenze, granični / mapping, remap borders /reclaim / open (your borders, boundaries) / identities / identify your borders/boundaries / .. of the commons / geh an deine Grenze(n)! / Allmende / iron wheels / limits / crossing / terre / pedal movement / paddle / libre (freedom) / movement (body, social)

We have a consensus about 'Borders, Boundaries and Beyond' as a (broad) theme, but need to focus snappy slogan and focus one one or some of the above suggestions, depending on the projects and campaigns we wish to highlight for 2013.

Biketour 2013 is cycling for a slogan!

We are looking for a slogan, preferably something positive and imperative eg "cycling towards degrowth!"

Check out some ideas on the 2013 Slogan page

Route Ideas

This year the tour is likely to

• start in ((north)/northeastern Germany (most likely Berlin, but could also be somewhere at the coast)
• end somewhere in the wide region between the adriatic and the carpathian mountains, between the tatra and northern dinaric alps

This rough decision was taken during the Winter Meeting 2013. During the following month, the route will be concretised in order to have "skeleton".

See the 2013 route page for

• ideas for places to visit, routes, contacts (add yours, too!)
• maps with route ideas and existing 'borders'

Do you use FLOSS ? the Biketour does ...

One aim for 2013: To move towards only Libre and Open-Source communcation tools for Biketour, whilst telling people why!

Based on a key decision of 2012, a major goal of the 2013 coordination team is to further go towards a set of information and communication technology tools, which allow us to own our data, not "feed" transnational corporations, whilst protecting ourselves and others against surveillance, and empowering future generations of the incredible and usable "alternatives" online.

While for some people, data safety, privacy and conscious online communication has always been an issue - for others it is simply not considered. Out of a mainstream perspective, this can seem understandable - especially regarding technical knowledge. However, out of ecotopiabiketour's perspective, it seems paradox. If we use bikes instead of cars, eat tofu instead of meat, drink water instead of coke, cook communally instead of passing by the next McDonald's, visit grassroots communities and selforganised groups instead of shiny corporations: Why would we not act as "consciously" online? Here is a page with further arguments for FLOS biketour ICTs.

Here is a page with suggestions for FLOS biketour IC tools: Feel free to add your recommendations and knowledge about the suggested tools!

Kick-off days

This is likely to be a weekend in the first weeks of july. (to be confirmed)

What can we do during the kick-off days?

• A Radical History Bike tour of the Berlin Wall
• Link up with Bike Surf Berlin [1]
• Bike repair workshop
  • Regenbogenwerkstatt?
• Rocket stove workshop
• Organising Ourselves: BT 2013 structure
• First aid workshop / course? (Red Cross, THW, etc.?)
• Workshop planning
• Action planning
• City Critical Mass
• Coincide with exisiting bike or border event
• Organise a Bike or Border event ...

Keep your proposals coming ......!

Things needed for biketour

Biketour as a collective "has" some collective stuff (pans / trailers), which are collectively transported and used during the tour. During the rest of the year, these things are stored in different places and should all come together again by the start of the next tour. Things used in 2012 and planned to use in 2013 can be found on the 2013 Equipment page. Please update this page with the things you have and write how they can get to the starting point of the tour!

Every individual joining the tour will have to use some private stuff. See page what to bring for ideas about what participants need.

The tour lives from its different people and all the (material and immaterial) things that these people bring and share. On the 2013 Equipment page you can announce what kind of additional things you will bring to the tour. This can help us to make sure in advance that we won't find ourselves in the strange situations of having 25 guitars but no single bike pump ;). You can also find some inspirations on what to bring.

Print Material On the Road

• BT booklet 2013: including schedule, description of places
• small language book
• maps?
• stickers?

Propaganda

• Where to publicize it
  • some ideas on last year's page [Biketour 2012]
  • put new ideas here!

Text that Needs Translation

These texts need to be translated into key languages (of countries we are passing through - in every case german and polish; maybe czeck, slovakian, hungarian, slovene, naš jezik; and any other language you like!). Please translate them into a new paragraph onto the page of the specific text linked below:

• email info@ecotopiabiketour.net if you can help with translations

Archive of Mailing List Communications

2013 Organization Call-out

2013 Call-out

2013 Host request

2013 Coordinator Call for 2014

Travel plans and advice

Page where people can share this if they would like to.

• to come: list with (cheap) travel opportunities for germany and the greater region

2013 Funding

We are currently seeking funding towards the 2013 Biketour See the Funding page