17 October 2005: We are posting this page in this rough and incomplete form because we have to start somewhere in reviving and extending this long term, multi-thread program under The Commons, and the web with its world wide reach and all its built-in flexibility happily provides a good way to get things moving. You can already click around the two menus and find at least some food for thought. And then of course you will pitch in and help us make it better, with your suggestions, good counsel and directc contributions. . Of course.
A Self-Organizing Collaborative Network: We will neither define or defend this concept here for now. But if you are here, you probably already have got the message. Including hopefully, and assuming that you share our concerns about the need for radically different new approaches, that the next step is for us to start to communicate on this. So click Contact above and let us hear how you want to go about this. Hey! let's start to self-organize.
The Commons: Seeking out and supporting through informal international open networks: new sustainability concepts for business, entrepreneurs, activists, community groups, and government; a thorn in the side of hesitant administrators and politicians; and through our joint efforts, energy and personal choices, placing them and ourselves firmly on the path to a more sustainable and more just society.
An admission of serious intellectual limitation:
Even after more than a decade of looking at it, cheering it, writing about it, and trying to do something with it, we have found that the concept of "Information Society" does not seem to be doing the trick (to complicated for us, and apparently the world too, maybe because it mixes up supply and demand). So we, being not all that bright, have come up with a simpler formation of the priority task at hand, as follows. Here's how our rudimentary intellectual model looks at this point:
IT = Supply
SD =Demand
And based on this, here's the goal then for our, let's call it "invisible college in the works". To better balance supply and demand. Which we can only do of course if we have deep knowledge about both. (This is not a plea for more research and more delays, but rather a matter of greater awareness and sensitivity.)
Why are we doing this? Well, in a nutshell because we are looking for new partners and projects with whom to collaborate to advance the ideas and applications that are set out here. We don't need to lead. We don't mind following. But what we do mind is doing nothing. We also hope that the information and leads (and the underlying process) you find here will be of interest, possibly of use for your own work in the several important areas covered. If that catches your attention, you will see here how to get in touch and initiative some first conversations.
Two-three year focus: A specificity of this program is that it focuses on programs and measures that can obtain visible, measurable sustainability impacts within this very short term horizon. It is not that we give up or neglect the importance of longer term thinking and overarching strategies for these longer term trends and goals, but that we simply think that the short term is too critical to be neglected. The search is thus on for short term measures that already get things moving in the right directoin and that in proving themselves open the way for more ambitious and far reaching longer term strategies and structures.
Putting this site to work: While things are still a bit rustic here, you may find some interest by working your way across that top menu, both for information and food for thought. The menu to your left menu will shortly be expanded to provide full program coverage, while the last bit serves to give you a bit of background on The Commons, our host program.
In the meantime you may wish to check in to the xWork Café, a simple group communications and library tool that you can visit by clicking here. Here is where things stand to this date.
Pillar 2: New ways to Work in an Information Society
Work is the "other shoe" of sustainable development. And as we have seen in our own efforts in this area over the last decade, there is a serious deficit of public policy and yes, private practice in almost all parts of the world in this vital area of society and economy. To this end our collaborative xWork program (xWork? Uh huh. Keep reading to find out) offers those who are interested a 21st century group collaborative platform, mediated by a steadily expanding series of electronic and communications tools, and specifically targeted to encourage and support alternative thinking and hands-on experimentation in the troubled world of work. Think of it as an open, electronic "think-tank" there to serve all who want to participate.
The basic thesis behind the program is that the range of ideas that are at present being publicly discussed, and even more of the alternative work concepts actually being tried or demonstrated, is altogether insufficient given the dimensions and the character of the problems before us. In response to this challenge, we propose that this independent international collaborative initiative may well be able to make a useful contribution.
Pillar 3: Extend and apply the full IT toolset in practical ways
Email, that old expensive phone, the odd fax, print publish, hopping on that plane for one more time this year (guilt?) . . . good enough for you in 2006 and on a planet that is undergoing real stress as a result of the collective weight of these choices? No problem. Life is sweet.
But it is not good enough for us, nor should it be. The odds are that you have soem very interesting choices out there which you are not fully realising. At some cost to yourself, and quite possibly to society as a whole. Thus one of the ambitious goals of this project is to get a large number of our colleagues working in these areas world wide onto the state of the art IT tool set. Personal responsibility + heightened work efficiency. What could be better? Click here to get a first view of what we have in mind, and if you like what you see, well we have a first small step that you can try for yourself.
And in parallel: The Gender/Mobility Network - Next Steps?
Our immediate time-sensitive challenge is to provide support for an on-going group
program looking at how best (and if at all) to provide some form of continuing, hopefully at least medium-term support for international exchanges and interactions, between individuals and groups who are working world wide on the problems which women in particular face both in their daily lives and in things which relate specifically to mobility, both in terms of physical transport and IT where that can help them.
This is an important program and there is some good work underway in many distant places. Which is part of the problem. We need to find ways in which they can use today's IT tools for their own networking purposes. Which is the way in which we are trying to help/
(For an introduction to this, please click here and read through the most recent communications on this subject.)
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Email, that old expensive phone, the odd fax, print publish, hopping on that plane for one more time this year (guilt?) . . . good enough for you in 2006 and on a planet that is undergoing real stress as a result of the collective weight of these choices? No problem. Life is sweet.
program looking at how best (and if at all) to provide some form of continuing, hopefully at least medium-term support for international exchanges and interactions, between individuals and groups who are working world wide on the problems which women in particular face both in their daily lives and in things which relate specifically to mobility, both in terms of physical transport and IT where that can help them.
