I have a whole pile of books to get through this semester, most of which seem like they will be rather interesting and informative. At the top of my pile right now is Guy Kawasaki’s: The Art of the Start. It’s language is very male (not sexist), more specifically: direct. It is a no nonsense, handbook for anyone with some entrepreneurial blood in their veins.

Guy spent considerable time with Apple and also as a venture capitalist so his opinion is well qualified from what I can gather. Some gems from the first few chapters:

Ch. 1: Forget a mission statement, figure out what your mantra is (in a few words).
Ch. 2: Start with a niche focus. Clearly differentiate from your competition. Pick a “verbable” name like Google.
Ch. 3: When pitching observe the 10/20/30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30pt font).

So far I’m impressed. It is definitely a book I’ll hold on to and refer back to after I graduate and I find myself back in an entrepreneurial mode.

peace
Justin

Reading

Whoa! Quite the fire hose but generally very interesting. It was helpful to have the reading organized into pre-Elluminate, required and recommended. I think it would be good to give future classes a heads up at the beginning of the semester that the bulk of the reading is pre-loaded to give people the knowledge to create effective social change projects.

Videos

I love learning with on-demand video. I generally get more out of it than when I have to read something. Plus I can put on a talk and wash the dishes or just sit back and relax and give my eyes a rest.

Activities

I loved the hands-on nature of the course. Even with my 12 years mucking about building web sites and an intimate knowledge of ecommerce and blogging with Wordpress, I learned a ton. I’d become somewhat complacent and reluctant to get with the times. Getting a bit of an ass kicking was part of my motivation for taking the course and it delivered. I’m now tweeting, tagging, using delicious and am comfortable making and editing videos. My blogging has evolved and I’m connected with a whole bunch of other bright folks who are similarly motivated to use the web for good.

I think the required learning journal posts were particularly helpful and I hope that other courses will make this a required part of the in-class learning. I learn so much more when I have to read, reflect on, and write about what I am learning in class vs. read and forget.

Guest Speakers

Spocko’s Brain was outstanding. I was very encouraged to learn about how effective he has been in making life difficult for media channels that air offensive and bigoted hosts while keeping his profile anonymous. Frank Lopez’s mashups at submedia.tv encouraged me to get a video camera and start shooting.

Projects

Publishing my first video was a blast. This was a great process and as it pushed all of us into new territory that most of us thoroughly enjoyed upon arrival.

For the social change project I chose to build yesand.tv with Julie Mihalisin. I have mixed feelings about my decision. I learned a bundle about the YouTube API which was great and Julie and I produced something in a very short period of time that could add value by spreading good vibes around the planet. Also great. But In retrospect, the project team was too small. The team needed someone with web design skills who could polish the aesthetics, look and feel and usability. To really fly, the site also needed/needs the attention from someone who can think about how to market it and monetize it. I could have done the later part but not at the same time as I was coding it. LESSON: If I set out on another project like this again I need to make sure that the people on the bus have the technical skills to hit the ground running. If not, consider a different project that fits the skill set of the people on the team.

Conclusion

For version one of a new course, ChristopherA hit a home run. This was one of the most empowering and useful courses I have taken in an academic setting. He is the only teacher I have ever seen who sat in on other classes so he could figure out how to integrate course work. This is something that teachers are evaluated on and he is the only one to have made an attempt to actually do so. Much appreciated. It was great to feel my efforts getting amplified by synergistically weaving material together across multiple courses.

My sincere gratitude to all those who gave so much to this course.

be well
Justin

BJ Fogg nailed it when he said that “savoring hope is more pleasing than facing reality“. It’s time to face the reality if people aren’t ready to get on the bus.

Bill Mollison reasons it this way:

• At about 100 income-producing people, a significant financial institution can be village-based
• At about 500 all people can know each other if social affairs are organized from time to time
• At 2000 people theft and competitiveness is more common and sects are set up in opposition

He goes on to add:

Perhaps we should start small at about 30 or so adults, build to 200-300 people, and proceed slowly and by choice to 500, then “calve” into new neighbourhoods or new villages

He supports this reasoning with the Mondragon Cooperative example from Spain which:

at first grew large (3,000 – 5,000), but later reduced to 300-500 to preserve the identity of every individual

This reasoning seems sound to me. Obviously, village-scale needs to be matched to the local environment’s ability to supply food, energy, water and other resources as well work for the citizens of the community.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you know of any communities that have followed this development path?

Many of my classmates are working on videos for their social change projects. If you, like those in my class are interested in creating in this medium it is essential that you take a few hours and familiarize yourself with the terminology and legal constraints associated with producing and distributing video. First off, start with these three concise and readable posts:

IP & Copyright, Copyleft & Trademark, and Patents, Trade Secrets & Licenses

Next you want to get a handle on “Fair Use”. Check out Fair Use & Copyright by the Center for Social Media. In a nutshell, “Fair Use” lets you, as a creator of video use bits and pieces of others’ copyrighted works without permission if your work follows several best practices:

• One: Employing copyrighted material as the object of social, political, or cultural critique
• Two: Quoting copyrighted works of popular culture to illustrate an argument or point
• Three: Capturing copyrighted media content in the process of filming something else
• Four: Using copyrighted material in a historical sequence

There is some fine print for the above situations. I recommend reading the very concise: Best Practices in Fair Use Guide, Recut Reframe Recycle and visit the Center for Social Media for more info.

Happy filmmaking!

Most of the questions are close-ended so I don’t think it will take you more than 10 or 15 minutes of your time.

http://bit.ly/regenerative-communities

in gratitude
Justin

It is basically about how we must develop an ethic and practice that places care for the earth at an equal footing to care for people. By doing so we can avoid the perpetual destruction of the global commons and bring about a sustainable society.

Here are some of the highlights from my reading so far:

• Few sustainable systems are designed by those who hold power because letting people arrange their own food, energy and shelter is to loose economic and political power over them
• We should cease to look to power structures, hierarchical systems or governments to help us. We should instead devise ways to help ourselves.
• We start by defining a nation as a people subscribing to a common ethic and aspiring to a similar culture. This culture must be minimally defined by a need:
  • To care for the earth; to repair and conserve
  • To seek peace, and to guard human rights everywhere
  • To invest all capital, intelligence, goodwill and labour to these ends
• A people without an agreed-upon common basis to their actions is neither a community nor a nation
• We lay waste to our lives in proportion to the way in which the systems we support lay waste to the environment
• Meaning in life is lost by striving after status and future glory; it is gained and realized by action towards a common ideal, in serving the whole according to our physical, mental, educational, and revelationary (understanding) capacities. It is never enough to mean well (“fair words plant no cabbages”), rather it is necessary to ensure that it gets done.
• If an ethical and responsible community can establish a durable, dependable and waste-free resource base, then leisure time becomes a plentiful resource
• Until we have demonstrated that we can establish a productive and secure earth society, we do not belong anywhere else, nor (I suspect) would be welcome elsewhere

In my circles of friends the ethics mentioned above are fairly ubiquitous but when I look to the larger society they appear to be largely absent. What thoughts do you have on how you can promote a wide-spread consciousness shift so that people start to live their life based on the ethics of: earth care, people care and fair share?

readily recovering from shock, depression, etc

When considered in the context of community, the definition becomes more specific. The Canadian Centre for Community Renewal (CCCR) defines community resilience as: [an] intentional action to enhance the personal and collective capacity of its citizens and institutions to respond to and influence the course of social and economic change. I would also add environmental change to the mix as well.

According to CCCR, resilience can be understood through four dimensions, each with their own unique characteristics:

1. People
2. Organizations
3. Resources
4. Community Process

People

Leadership obviously plays a significant role in community resilience. To be effective, leadership must be representative of the community – no pandering to special interest groups allowed! It is also essential that the elected officials be visionary, willing to share power and be capable of working to solutions through consensus. This means that leaders must be able to engage community members to participate in significant decisions.

Other factors in the people dimension include: how much pride and attachment people feel about and towards their community. This is sadly lacking in many communities. This often comes back to visionary leadership or a lack thereof. Vancouver is doing a great job on this front, having recently released their Greenest City Initiative. Having a collective sense of pride feeds optimism and an air of optimism generally makes people more willing to co-operate on initiatives that contribute positively to the commons. All of these support resilience.

Finally, a community must contain a broad, diverse matrix of social capital to be able to self-address its major issues. A community can become aware of and enhance its social capital through asset mapping and ongoing educational efforts targeting all manner of residents and organizations.

Organizations

Resilient communities require a variety of community economic development (CED) organizations. These organizations must serve the needs of the community. This is realized through working partnerships that lead to ongoing synergistic and collaborative efforts.

Resources

Control of resources plays an enormous role in community resilience. Employment is the most prominent of all resources in this regard. It is essential that employment in a community be diversified beyond a single large employer and major employers in the community be locally owned. From the garden to the economy, diversity is key to weathering shifts in the larger environment. Systems lacking in diversity are rarely able to adapt to changing social and environmental conditions and thus become the victim of “creative destruction”. This dismal path can be avoided by adopting an active strategy of economic diversification through increased independent, local ownership. Local ownership, means local control which ignites and rewards initiative.

Other beneficial resources include an openness to alternative ways of generating sustainable economic activities and a general awareness of the community’s competitive position in the broader economy. Lastly communities must look outside itself to seek and secure resources (skills, expertise and finance) that will address identified areas of weakness.

Community Process

The final dimension of community resilience is community process. Community process first entails the creation of a community economic development (CED) plan that serves as a guide for current and future endeavors. Citizens and organizations must be involved in the creation and implementation of the plan, including a vision for the community as well as goals to realize that vision. A system must be established to ensure that there is on-going action towards achieving the goals in the CED plan with regular evaluation and course correction built into the process. This community process will be enhanced if it adopts a development approach that encompasses all segments of the population.

Wrap up

That was a mouthful! My brief synopsis of the dimensions and characteristics of resilient communities only scratched the surface. If this topic interests you, I would highly recommend a thorough look into the Community Resilience Project. For more information including a substantial report and tools and techniques encyclopedia, visit: Canadian Centre for Community Renewal.

This synopsis of community resilience was derived from The Community Resilience Project.

1. Reciprocity
2. Scarcity
3. Commitment and Consistency
4. Consensus (social proof) is the idea that people want to follow the lead of similar others
5. Authority
6. Liking (how similar we feel to another person)