Evolutionary Life

Voices of the Emerging Movement for Conscious Evolution

June 2007

====  Online Resources that pull it all together to serve conscious evolution ====
==== for a world that works for all ====

 


SHARING INFORMATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY


<<<< WISER Earth >>>>

http://www.wiserearth.org

WISER Earth is a new participatory open-source community directory and networking forum for tens of thousands of nonviolent civil society organizations and millions of individuals addressing climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights, and more. "WISER" stands for World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility. Content is created by people like us from around the world. We can:

This is a brand-new, truly gigantic participatory resource, supported by an open community of editors, with novel features such as a ""visualize network" function through which we can see and explore a chart of how an organization connects with other organizations. WISER Earth is still adding features. Mid-May 2007, it included 105,305 Organizations, 901 People, 1297 Resources, 245 Events, and 111 Jobs.


<<<< The Earth Portal >>>>

http://www.earthportal.org

The Earth Portal is a comprehensive resource for free, timely, objective, science-based information about the environment to engage civil society in a public dialogue on the role of environmental issues in human affairs. It includes


<<<< BrightFuture >>>>

http://www.brightfuture.us

BrightFuture is a new non-partisan website dedicated to solutions to global challenges. It is a Wiki style site allowing knowledgeable readers to publish articles on real-world solutions to some of our greatest challenges. Content is focused on ideas, technologies and programs that are already producing verifiable results. Brightfuture.us also features radio shows and podcasts on some of these ideas. Readers who publish excellent articles have the opportunity of having their material featured on brightfuture's radio programs. The brightfuture.us blog publicizes new ways of looking at how we can best respond to the changes that are taking place in our world.


<<<< Appropedia >>>>

http://appropedia.org

Here, hundreds of people are detailing hundreds of sustainable designs, projects, alternatives, which other people are revising and adding to. This is a very down-to-earth collective wiki project to collect and share what we need to know to handle our physical world with wise, productive, elegant sustainability. This idea of sharing how-to's online is a popular approach and is key to grassroots sustainability, self-reliance, and re-localization efforts. Cousin projects (all of which focus on how-to's, but not necessarily sustainability) include http://cd3wd.com, http://www.instructables.com, http://www.wikihow.com, http://www.tiptheplanet.com, and http://www.howtopedia.org. Whether you are an activist, a concerned citizen, or someone looking for an at-home solution to an at-home problem, take 5-10 minutes to explore each of these sites and you'll likely find at least one that you don't want to leave!


<<<< WorldChanging >>>>

http://www.worldchanging.org

The tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us. The motive, means and opportunity for profound positive change are already present. Another world is not just possible, it's here. The WorldChanging blog attempts to lay the pieces out and put them together, to get our act together, within our marketplaces, our lifestyles, and our movements. Their categories include:

Under each of these categories we find innovations and resources. Overall, there's a companion book in print -- their big sustainability compendium Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century.


<<<< The Conservation Economy Pattern Language >>>>

http://www.conservationeconomy.net

Ecotrust pulled together all the dimensions of a sustainable society that they could think of and organized them into a "pattern language", a concept developed by architect Christopher Alexander. A "pattern" is a design principle, presented as a problem and the kind of solutions that would be required to solve that problem. There are many ways to include a pattern, just as there are many ways to meet a need. A set of interrelated patterns in which it is clear which patterns (design principles) support or are dependent on other patterns is called a "pattern language". (Check out Alexander's original pattern language.) So Ecotrust built a fascinating clickable pattern language with patterns like Wildlife Corridors and Transit Access -- and provide organizations and resources with each pattern. Someday someone will link up this pattern language with a mega-resource like WISER Earth, and we'll then be able to see how each part of the sustainability/democracy movements depend on or support each other....

 

EARTH CATALOGS IN DEVELOPMENT

 

<<<< One Geology - the ultimate map >>>>

http://OneGeology.org

British scientists are leading an international effort to bring together all known geological information about every country in the world. The project's aim is to create dynamic digital geological map data for the world on a base scale of 1:1 million, while accepting a range of scales and the best available data. The geological map data will be made available as a distributed web service through Google Earth and other dynamic map browsers. For an article about the project, see
http://www.nhne.org/tabid/400/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2728/Default.aspx


<<<< Encyclopedia of Life - every species included >>>>

http://www.eol.org

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about biological life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity. For an article about the project, see http://www.nhne.org/tabid/400/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3006/The-Encyclopedia-Of-Life-Is-Born.aspx

 

SPECIALIZED TOOL COMPILATIONS

 

There are hundreds of these, and I would hope that they start getting integrated into some of the giant meta-compilations above. An example that's highly relevant for conscious evolutionary agents are the tools in the overlapping fields of "conversational process" and "change management". Here are three useful references in that field:

 

AND FOR HIGHLY RELEVANT INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION OF ALL SORTS

 

<<<< TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) >>>>

http://www.ted.com

This initiative is known for its annual invitation-only summit of 1000 of the world's brightest minds. But it has just released a free website showcasing more than 100 of the extraordinary short talks that have made TED famous, hoping to help powerful ideas have world-changing impact. Its new video technology -- which allows us to view talks online or download them for playback later, and to rate the talks -- includes chapter-marking technology that lets us find and skip to key moments in a talk. Detailed talk summaries and speaker biographies provide more context around each talk, and social-networking tools -- including Profile Pages, Comments and Favorites -- allow for interaction among members of the extended TED community (membership is free for everyone in the world, and you don't have to be a member to watch the talks). VERY stimulating.

 

AND, OF COURSE, THE MASTER GRASSROOTS ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

<<<< Wikipedia >>>>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Thousands of people -- experts and ordinary folks -- have been building what is arguably the most useful encyclopedia in the world online. The English Wikipedia currently has almost 1.8 million articles and, for many of us, is our first-stop reference. Parallel wikipedia encyclopedias are being developed in other languages.