Worldchanging to Worlddoing Tues afternoon


 "What would a Worlddoing.com look like? (Worldchanging --> Worlddoing)"

August 28, 2007 2 p.m.

 

Mark Tovey

Tom Atlee

Jan Keller

 

Books & Websites & authors we talked about

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A Writer's Time: Making the Time to Write by Kenneth Atchity

How to Escape Lifetime Security and Pursue Your Impossible Dream: A Guide to Transforming Your Career by Kenneth Atchity

www.earthportal.org

www.brightfuture.us

http://appropedia.org

http://www.conservationeconomy.net

Designing the Green Economy by Brian Milani

http://www.smartmoney.com/marketmap  (example of treemap)

http://www.saltmonument.org

http://www.hivegroup.com/

http://www.instructables.com   (people instructing others -- not specifically re sustainability)

http://www.whynot.net/

http://www.innocentive.com/   (problem-solving site)

Mindkiller  by Spider Robinson  (and another book by Spider, the sequel to Mindkiller: Time Pressure).  The latter book

offers an interesting take on a utopic future -- one where all peoples from all times dialogue peacefully.

Pliny the Younger's account of Pompeii

Thom Hartmann's books  (drawing out the neglected stories of the past that can lead to a sustainable future)

Howard Zinn (pointing out past examples where nonviolence worked)

Gene Sharp  (nonviolence -- specific methods)   http://www.peace.ca/genesharp.htm

Change Handbook by Peggy Holman ( & Devane & Cady)

 

Phrases

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Pattern languages  (see Conservation Economy Web site above)

Treemaps   (there's an Excel spreadsheet plug-in)

 

Question

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What about follow-through from Worldchanging articles-- ask the community to help -- where there's been an interview describing someone & what they did -- the follow-through would be focused on "How did you do it?"

 

Mark talked a bit about the state of Worldchanging at the moment, specifically about the Worldchanging Canada site.

The idea of "Worlddoing" would be similar to Worldchanging.org but would be more of a shop-talk thing... like the difference between Rolling Stone magazine and Musician magazine.

Mark also mentioned -- Canadian Research Council (is this name correct?) -- researching the question of how to make a sustainable world.

 

Some articles for Worlddoing could be obtained when people writing for Worldchanging write an article that's really more of a Worlddoing sort of thing -- the article could be redirected to Worlddoing.

 

Jan described some of her background... including being in a Masters' Program at Antioch University Seattle's, Center for Creative Change, and other things.

 

Worlddoing could also help people who are looking for jobs & volunteer opportunities related to the Great Turning-- green jobs and so on.

 

We talked about the "Godzilla" size of the problem and the appearance that those who are working to create a new system are "small"-- then talked about "Empire Walkers" and little flyers that can wrap cables around the ankles of an Empire Walker.  Also talked about synergy as well as leverage (leverage of course being mechanical, so we're looking for the idea of "leverage" as it applies to a nonlinear system).

 

Possible idea: have a little "contest" for people to send ideas about the best how-to Web sites -- give a prize for the best one.

 

A LIST FOLLOWS: different kinds of information that could go on Worlddoing

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How to facilitate conversation: strategic conversation, fostered in a well-designed space/setting, is a very powerful tool for transforming systems.

 

Frameworks help you see possibilities you hadn't even been aware of before.

Visual representations of data -- treemaps are one example-- can help ordinary people grasp patterns and see what's really going on.   For example, a Treemap could be used to represent a single household's energy use--like the refrigerator.

 

Entrepreneurial skills -- these tend to be very useful to social entrepreneurs.  Project management, marketing, publicity, and so on.  Info about such skills could be useful to help change agents.

 

Imagineering -- fiction that depicts in a very real way how people can make change. (The Monkey Wrench gang being an example.  Another example, believe it or not-- The Little House on the Prairie.)

 

Fiction can also show people modeling a new way of seeing and acting -- where you just go along with what the character is doing and find that you're thinking about things differently without realizing how you got there.

 

Nonviolence: Another set of methods that are important to help people learn. Nonviolence of course has a spiritual dimension, but also has a very practical aspect.

 

Social movements focus on issues --   but it's important to look at the social dynamics -- changing the system/worldview that we live in -- the underlying systems out of which we act.

 

Part of what Tom also wants to do as an extension of this conference is research on evolutionary dynamics that can be used to change social systems.  What does it mean to become conscious evolution instead of unconscious evolution?  --an activist application of biomimicry -- evolutionary mimicry.

 

Feedback loops (vicious cycles and virtuous cycles): There are possibilities for teaching people about feedback loops in social systems -- and helping people recognize shift-points (leverage points) that can change the system by changing the feedback loops.  An example is a citizens' council (randomly selected people who are convened... repeat again and again)... it might appear to not have much power, but can generate energy that involves more and more people each year, and out of which the community can put together its best thinking (with really good facilitation and so on).  It's important that it is repeated. It helps the community see itself and see its own process.

 

Examples of feedback loops that have worked well: Wisdom councils... in organizational settings... also in Ashland, OR...  which at first didn't look like it was really cooking, then really came to life... then fizzled a little although the energy spread to other activities.  There's another in British Columbia.  MacLean's magazine did something a bit like a citizens' council in Canada in 1999 (a documentary was created about this too) -- this was unique in the amount of coverage that it received. But McLean's never asked themselves, What if we did this every year?

 

Another example of a feedback loop -- a corrective kind of feedback loop -- is the self-corrective mechanism built into wikipedia.

 

(Side note: George Bush has removed the balancing loops in the U.S. -- which paradoxically has the effect of causing systems that formerly were solid to shake at the roots. He's done a lot to open the way for those once-solid systems to change.)

 

 

What are three how-to things that Tom would like more people to know about?

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Emergent conversational process tools (e.g. what's in Peggy's book)

Application of conversational process to democratic systems

 

What would Tom like to learn?

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How do you figure out where change potential or evolutionary potential is greatest?  How do you identify where to put your "acupuncture needle" in the system?