Ours is at SustainingCommunity.org - most of the tools are functional right now. Some areas need better descriptive text and will be getting an improved look. The site will be pared back some to start and then sharing economy and other tools added as participation grows. We plan to add local micro-crowd-funding as well.
About page has a pretty good description: http://www.sustainingcommunity.org/pages/about
I'd love to see what you're working on but the link just goes to the weebly home page - advertising weebly. No menu there. Could you try posting a link again or could it be that your site is not publicly published yet?
The link seemed to just go to the main weebly site. Food can definitely be a central focus and we have lots of work going on here in the Twin Cities in that area. It looks like we will be piloting our project soon. We are starting local and will extend it out to rural areas as we get the whole thing more solid. It will have crowd-funding and sharing economy features as well as tools to do community visioning online and to support in-person events as the site builds from the initial pilot stage. The tech is largely built and will be integrated as we get adoption from communities. It looks like we'll also be working with Chicago and have had interest from Los Angeles. If our pilot works well, other communities may not need to re-invent the online platform wheel as it could be iterated for other communities.
Here we have started working with City Environmental Commissions for community outreach to citizens via events supported by an online asset mapping and community networking site. They already have the mandates for sustainability focused actions and the need to connect to residents which they have been doing using one-way communication. Our approach is building horizontal communication. We are also moving beyond the climate change denial conversation toward action based on city sustainability goals. People will likely debate those as well - we will try to focus the conversation toward supporting a variety of actions rather than staying stuck in argument over "the right way" as likely no one really knows which ways will work best and we need to accelerate to try lots of initiatives, and see what works and what is possible.
Thanks - I have been reading Millington. Trying to wrap the funding for the tech part as support for on-the-ground efforts in our Community Asset Mapping efforts. With the right tech, we can map in a way that is visible not only to our community but to many others as well. Without it, it just becomes another printed page in some binder somewhere...
Hoping to build to community innovation and even crowd-funding for neighborhood initiatives - but first things first...
Thanks!
Yes I am thinking about all that. I do have a site built that provides for all manner of crowd-sourcing with simple user interfaces. I'm more struggling with how to present it - look/structure/pitch - to gain engagement. It is integrated with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn though it still seems difficult to get people to work with some additional platform on a regular basis. I have option to make it mobile accessible as well - it is now as a website but I mean with more of an app appearance. I'll check out that chapter - thanks!! We are working on funding to pair the tech tools with on-the-ground events in various communities that share interest in being able to map their local assets.
YES! That is the plan that is formulating. Any pointers on how to engage at the event(s) - what questions, etc? That could be mirrored on the site. We're thinking we'll record community assets in a crowd-source fashion on the site starting at the event(s) and then developing from there - with a directory of all assets visible to the communities.
I'm working on supporting on-the-ground community building with an online local community website focused on sustainability, transition, resilience. I hope to bring together the many people and orgs working on energy, food, transportation, housing, etc to help accelerate community responses to climate change.
What suggestions would you offer? How can people be encouraged to work together online as well as off since having online access reduces travel and increases the ability to be in connection between face-to-face meetings and allows sharing of knowledge easily across communities?
What funding sources for a project like this would be most workable?
Other thoughts?
Thanks for any and all insights!
Karlie Cole
SustainingCommunity.org
