Working with The Commons
  • Mission Critical programs
  • Critical programs
  • Tasks and related projects
  • Financing The Commons
  • Closing Thoughts
  • Get in touch

    • The Commons represents a critical part of my work. It is in part my idea mongering and networking contribution to the world sustainability agenda, and in part a great place to learn. If that is not clear to you I can recommend that you shop around the home page here to see if there is a focus program that may interest you, and then to dig in and see for yourself. Let us leave that as proof, one way or the other.

    We continue to receive abundant feedback indicating that the work of the work of The Commons: Open Society Sustainability Initiative is well worth continuing. Each day anyway from one hundred to a thousand and sometimes more people check in for information and exchanges of views. But it's 2006 in our patently unsustainable world, and in this respect our immediate, rather up-hill challenge is to see how we might secure funding and support so that this can happen. But assuming that this is going to work out one way or another, here in summary is the "shopping" list of programs, activities and priorities that we intend to concentrate on in the years immediately ahead.

    In brief here is how we see the firing order and work priorities, starting now:

    Mission Critical programs

    There are three of these at the top of this list, in addition to the gateway site of The Commons itself. These are the key areas on which in our best judgment we should be concentrating our resources and inputs as a priority in the struggle toward a more sustainable world. (The reasons in each case will/should hopefully become clear upon consulting the sites in question.)

    Standing collaborative programs

    These are the first line collaborative programs that have over the years proven their usefulness and which are worthy of being maintained and extended.

    Worth more work and attention:

    Tasks and related projects worthy of effort and attention

  • Working with Wikipedia: Benchmark definitions of key sustainability terms and actors

    The Cooperative blogs:

    Technical tasks needing attention

    • Coding: The coding behind all our sites is sadly out of date and inefficient for it. A full rehab is called for.
    • Discussions: The various Fora, Cafés and Idea Factories work but they too need a total rehab, not least so that their rich content (thousands of focused messages and leads) can be more easily accessed.
    • Interactivity: The multi-level interactivity of the site is ready for a major upgrade. For now we have one click links to several good quality (and free) video- and voice-conferencing tools, but we can and should now make them more seamless. As part of this, we also need to engage more fully the process of bringing our world colleagues on line more easily with these technologies, which for many pose significant psychological barriers.

    And finally, if you have any doubts about the quality and relevance of our work under The Commons, this is to invite you to inspect the list of some one hundred and fifty leading sustainability agents in more than forty countries world wide who have publicly signed that we are on the right track.

    And while you're at it, have a look at what we have to say about Diversity and Cognitive Dissonance. Real stuff for this suddenly too hot planet.

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    Last updated on 19 April 2006