Comment

Comment by Mark Stewart on August 21, 2011 at 9:39am

Thanks, Zvi.

Comment by Zvi Baranoff on August 18, 2011 at 9:08pm

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sweetworkproject/pop-up-co-op  This is a great cooperative project that was successfully funded with Kickstarter. The link is to a video. Also, Kickstarter may be a good way to raise start-up money for various projects.

Comment by Mark Stewart on July 19, 2011 at 3:22pm

Hi Dave.  I'm one of the CCC admins.  Transition is part of what we're into, so no, I don't feel we'd dilute.  Here's the intro from the site, which is really the best way I've figured out to describe what we're doing:

"This project was created to share information about how communities become more self-sustaining, use less currency, and create what we need for ourselves. We are a progressive community, hoping that as we feed the current, dysfunctional system less — while still staying involved with all the aspects of progressive change we hope to see — the system may weaken and allow all of us a greater ability to affect positive change. So it's a long view.

American culture has divided us all by teaching us to compete rather than collaborate with our neighbors. If we're competing with our neighbors for hippest consumption while struggling to keep our heads above water in an economy that's sinking most of us, we're not going to last long. We need to work together.

Just think of all the ways that we could be more community oriented! We could learn lifestyles that are more sustainable, allowing us to be more self-sufficient. This project offers a place to store those solutions we find that are alternatives to the current system and a way for people to exchange ideas.

At the same time, many are concerned about peak oil and what will happen when we suddenly reach the point where the lifestyle we've become used to becomes an impossibility. The Transition Movement offers an alternative to fossil fuel-based living based on permaculture principles. There are towns all over America and in other countries that have become, or have resolved to become, Transition Towns. These citizens have committed to work towards all the changes necessary to ensure a soft landing on the far side of peak oil. We embrace this effort and want to combine it with other approaches in order to realize green, DIY, close-knit, and collaborative communities.

There is also a growing movement referred to as maker culture, people who prefer building over buying, creation over consumption, and we embrace this movement as well; by learning (or re-learning) how to make what we need, we can make the world greener, sustainable and more self-sufficient.

As this movement expands, so will the breadth of what we tackle here. We have started various groups here on the site. Links we like are bookmarked within each group. Here's a sampling:

Background—Energy to Food/Peak Oil
PERMACULTURE
RECIPES AND PRESERVING (note: food preserving/canning is more central to what we're doing than giving people recipes.)
USDA HARDINESS ZONES
EDIBLE PLANTS
SEEDS
WATER RECLAMATION
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
SHARING/BARTER LEGAL ISSUES
ALTERNATIVE CURRENCY
ENERGY
HOUSING AND ALTERNATIVE/HOMELESS HOUSING
TRANSPORTATION
INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES
GENERAL DIY/HOW-TO
IT/OPEN SOURCE/COMMUNITY WIRELESS NETWORKS/REFURBISHING
COMPUTERS

We envision this site as a social forum, not just a link library. Although the administrators will remain responsible for providing groups to post in, we want readers to help us police, propose, and (politely!) critique bookmarks.

There are other ways to become involved as well. If you look at the top left of the page, you'll see tabs for blogs, bookmarks, members, groups, the wire and pages. "The Wire" is what we hope you'll use, in addition to the comments sections under bookmarks and pages, to talk to each other. We're willing to eventually host appropriate blogs for members to share their thoughts and experiences at greater length. As we're still in the development stage with pages, we look forward to your great ideas!

As you can tell, this is a new site, and we're very excited about it. The site embraces a wide and diverse range of subjects. There is much to look at, consider and discuss as we get to know each other. We invite you to join us in making it a dynamic, interactive force for positive, progressive change. The project will ultimately become what readers make of it. We hope the result is a springboard for positive change that leads us all to green, self-sufficient, sustainable and satisfying lives.

Comment by Zvi Baranoff on July 19, 2011 at 3:12pm

Oh my - I think that it is important not to jump to conclusions or make too many assumptions about what others may (or may not) think from a short statements made in this format. 

I personally find this format awkward partially because of the limited space. I formed a group upon joining at Les's urging, but I am far more interested in finding ways to collaborate than to "run" a group. There are 400 groups and 3 thousand members...you do the math. There seems to be a whole bunch of duplication. After all, they each represent an aspect of Transition. Except for those that are region specific, I could "join" them all comfortably, but how many could I actually be active with? I'll gladly fold my group into another. 

Like I said, I'm very new to this format, but my initial sense is that it is very cluttered and I am still finding it so. I certainly don't have all the answers, but I will gladly raise questions and offer suggestions. 

Comment by David Eggleton on July 19, 2011 at 2:18pm

I regret all the discomforts of my phrasing and I will leave you all to your decisions.

Comment by trina on July 19, 2011 at 2:13pm

i didn't misread, it's just that i read the spirit of - can you tell me how you DON'T dilute - as the same as - you do dilute, in my opinion, correct me if i'm wrong.  and the spirit of that is decidedly unwelcoming and unfriendly.  i hadn't received Zvi's published concern, however, the spirit of his initial interactions was one of friendliness and welcome.  i think it would have been nice to have been given a minute or two to become acclimated to this site so that we could begin to see how to best merge into it before being told how tiny we are, suggesting that we are diluting Transition, and pointing out the group that we should merge with.

Comment by David Eggleton on July 19, 2011 at 1:44pm

Hi Trina.  Read again; I did not go so far as to accuse.  I hoped to better understand, especially in light of Zvi's published concern about duplication and small groups, so I raised a question.  It's one that could be asked of me, a group starter, too.

Comment by trina on July 19, 2011 at 1:08pm

In THIS context this group is tiny, not in its other forms.  The members haven't moved over here yet.  While I am not the founder and have no control over the group, and while I am certainly in favor of coalitions, your initial post when CCC was just days old on this transitions site (Hi there, you dilute Transition...) turned me off the idea of merging with any group that you are associated with.  but that's just me.   dearest mark, i sincerely apologize for responding, please forgive.

Comment by David Eggleton on July 19, 2011 at 6:17am

Picking up on Zvi's idea of group mergers, this new little group could be merged with Building Transition Coalitions (33 members).

Comment by David Eggleton on July 18, 2011 at 6:12pm

I dropped in to ask how this doesn't dilute Transition.  Is it entirely additive or enveloping?  Or simply different strokes for different folks?

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page