oneVillage Foundation

This theme of the ecological design movement was totally overlooked by not only most mainstream liberal politicians like Kerry but also more radical progressives and leftists. Yet new sustainable designs, processes and technologies hold great promise for the future of humanity. Sooner or later they (the mainstream thinkers) will come to see the wisdom of the sustainability movement, which was in full form in all its brillant, diverse and interdiscipinary colors at the recent Sustainable Resources conference in Boulder, CO. Lets hope for all our sakes that it is sooner and not later.

So I hope we focus on the difficulty of change as a common theme in the human experience and to see the larger context of contemporary events. All of us are experiencing the difficulty of being what we want to be and doing what we want to do in this life. We have high expectations and we often feel let down by the obstacles that come into our lives. Yet I feel also a hopefulness that it is our power within, that when properly focused on viable projects to promote new models of living can create the change we want to see in the world.

This is the core of the message that oneVillage Foundation wants to communicate to the world. A slim majority of the people in this country have spoken, but they do not speak for all of us. They are comfortable with what they have and they are unwilling to accept responsibility for the grossly unsustainable nature of their lifestyles and the negative impact this is having and will have on others now, and even more dramatically so in the future. Indeed a survey of pressing issues among the American public did not even mention the environment.

And I think this is why we see the relevance of the WRI Conference. While the conventional politicians are waging their partisan battles, we are seeing increasing evidence that decentralized bottom up social systems are more dynamic organizational structures that can more easily adapt and reconfigure themselves to changing events coming up with new and innovative approaches as the situation demands. Such systems of management and governance are becoming more valuable in today’s world of increasingly rapid change and spiraling complexity.So how do we facilitate this natural dynamism that is evident in all life?

Eradicating Poverty Conference: Promoting Bottom Up Economics
I mentioned in the previous blog post that several of us will be attending the World Resources Institutes's Eradicating Poverty Conference as a way to promote what we feel is an integrated program of incubation services for underserved communities. The idea is to use the virtual part of the conference, which will take place in a series of pre-conference events to communicate and promote the oneVillage “Village Economy” concept to conference participants.

Integration Economy, Bottom up Economy and Practical ICT
Using the World Resources Institute’s Eradicating Poverty Conference as a backdrop, we will further explore the economic opportunities of the bottom up economy for socially conscious investors as a way to develop a fund to promote sustainable development in emerging markets such as South Africa.

Look at the work Pip Coburn is doing. We have learned from his Integration economy and it resonates a larger vision within the tech community. Pip is a stock analyst working for USB Warburg. He currently focuses on evaluating technology stocks and specializes on companies that are pushing us towards the integration economy—“in other words how do we make use of all the stuff we have.” For more about Pip's vision read his blog at always-on.

Practical ICT
Developing practical ICT solutions are important to the birthing of the Integration Economy from concept and buzzword to a relevant description of an everyday reality for not millions but billions of people. It is ICT more relevant to the needs of the end-users. So it is not just about integration but how to make ICT more practical to the needs of end-users. First we have to understand why using ICT is not more of a common sense and intuitive process affair and why also that it is so gut wrenching at times for so many of us. Reliability issues continue to plaque the industry and many do not want to discuss this openly for obvious reasons. Also the technologists who develop these technologies often are very disconnected from understanding the real needs of the people they are supposed to serve the customers. And finally there is the issue of the digital divide.

For ICT to be effective in releasing the great and for the most part untapped economic potential in developing markets these issues need to be resolved, otherwise the mistakes that now make ICT of limited effectiveness in affluent societies will be repeated in emerging societies. To address these issues we are now developing the architecture for a village level economic development plan that we see as the key to sustainable development in non-affluent as well as affluent regions of the world.
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This is the first in a series of postings in relation to developing best practices to rapidly expand capacity in what CK Prahala terms the bottom up economy.