Open Sustainability Network – building on what’s here
October 24th, 2008 at 2:02 pm October 24th, 2008 at 2:02 pm by Chriswaterguy
In early discussions within the Open Sustainability Network, it was agreed that we didn't want Yet Another Website. So we use existing resources: We didn't set up a separate wiki, instead using Appropedia.* We didn't set up a new social network, instead using an existing, like-minded community of people doing serious sustainability and knowledge-sharing work: Global Swadeshi. When someone suggested that OSN should be building a knowledge base, Lonny Grafman expressed that this is a job some of us are passionate about (indeed, that's what Appropedia is doing) - but it's not the role of OSN. OSN is for supporting and connecting these initiatives.
I like this approach - we exist to connect, and this new community is avoiding fragmentation and building on existing initiatives in very practical ways.
There is much more to report on OSNCamp last weekend - the first meeting of the Open Sustainability Network. Stay tuned.
*Appropedia is not the only wiki in the network, but it's active one, a number of the organizers were Appropedians, and no one objected. (I was the one who suggested a separate wiki, but happily went with the flow when no one agreed.) In that spirit, when Vinay Gupta suggested an OSN social network, I objected and suggest we use the one he started: Global Swadeshi.
(Pardon the recent silence on this blog. There's a backlog of inspiration in the Appropedia community, and we'll be sharing it here again very soon...)
