oneVillage Foundation

My Arcosanti-Be-In Connection
Basically the Be-In is a celebration of digital culture in the spirit of the original Be-Ins which took place in SF in the 60s. There is a bit of history for me in regards to this event. I have known Michael Gosney since my Arcosanti days when he was director of the Paradox Project at Arcosanti. He and Ron Anastasia came up with an idea of how to link Arcosanti with the cyberspace community and Arcosanti founder Paolo Soleri supported it, and the first Paradox Conference was born. The first and second conferences in 97 and 99 brought together various cyberspace innovators – many from the Bay Area. No doubt this was chance for many of these techie folks to come out to Arcosanti - a unique experiment in urban architecture that aspires towards what its founder Paolo Soleri calls Arcology – was life changing. Soleri's theories and specifically his exploration of the paradoxes of technology formed the overall thesis of first two conferences.

The final Paradox III event was different from the last two; it was much more of an interdisciplinary approach which brought in various progressive and sustainability groups who saw the potential of cyberspace as force for human empowerment. It was at this event that I made my first connections and got my first taste of the Bay Area Cyberspace culture. Jim Fournier one of the speakers at Paradox III, continued the momentum created at Paradox by organizing Planetwork along very similar lines to the 3rd Paradox Conference. It was at PlaNetwork Conference in June of 2003 that I met with Joy and Mark and others from the oneVillage team leading me to where I am today. The third paradox event was an important event for me that brought to where I am today in terms of my consciousness.

The April 22 Planet Code Earth Digital Be-In was very much a continuation of this tradition; a convergence of cyberspace culture, networks and knowledge dedicated toward the formation of effective global approaches towards solving urgent ecological and social issues. This is very much in line with the integrated approach that OVF has continually emphasized in its communications and work and this includes exploring the role of cyberspace in relation to sustainable development. I also see this Be-In event as supporting a convergence of efforts regarding the development of more eco-friendly products and services.

Be-In Blogging and Networking
Tribe.net furnished a blogging site that gave a play by play of the event by several onsite Be-In bloggers. I had heard about how Tribe.net, - a social network site - had “new technical features apparently that were to be used to promote live events and provide ongoing forums on the event themes that can be presented on various websites as well as within the Tribe community.” I did not see much about this in terms of specifics but it’s obviously a way to link the various networks together to more promote more cooperation among Bay Area sustainability and social justice groups and networks.

Planet Code Symposium
The Symposium was of course the highlight of the event for me as it featured several speakers talking about issues of cyberspace, social justice and sustainability along the lines of this years Be-In theme “Planet Code” which implies the need align our cybernetic codes with the natural and cultural coding that define our place within and interaction with the natural environment. The event “calls upon the high technology community we have encouraged and celebrated over the years to empower the sustainability movement with bold, forward-thinking initiatives.”

I was interested in the San Francisco Alliance for Urban Sustainability as it sounds very similar to a group OVF started called the Bay Area Sustainable Action Coalition. I also noted that they basically want to create what we refer to as a Unity Center in San Francisco.

Kaliya Hamlin of Planetwork and "Identity Woman" expressed concerns about the role of government and corporate meddling in the Net.

In one of Be-In/Tribe blogs, Long time Green Century staff member Sofia Hanifa reported that Erik Sundelof, of the Digital Visions Program at Stanford spoke about using technology to help strengthen social networks and community building among those who lack access to information technology.

Of course when I think of David Ulansey I will now register mass extinction. He was one of the more interesting speakers. He said that we have only about five years to reverse the trend of massive species extinction which he predicts will happen in 30 years and result in the loss of half of the planet’s species. His emphasized the point that his MassExtinction website is the highest ranking website pertaining to research on mass extinction. He is also co-producing the documentary "Facing the Mass Extinction"

Randy Hayes is a familiar name. I saw him speak about globalization at the symposium. He is Executive Director of the International Forum on Globalization and the City of Oakland Director of Sustainability (see article about his work here). I liked a lot of what he had to say but saw him as well as many of the other speakers as still stuck in the problem based thinking instead of solution based thinking which is needed to fully engage the sustainability tipping point. We have to shift the energy. Globalization or even corporate globalization is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is the lack of accountability and effective governance within the global economy.

I would have liked to have met Greg Steltenpohl who is a man of many hats: founder of the Interra Project along with Dee Hock; the former Visa Card founder and writer of the book Birth of the Chaordic Age. Greg is also founder of the Odwalla juice company which has almost become a household name; and most recently he has founded Adina World Beverage. Adina produces a series of juices from developing countries that promote small farmers and Fair Trade.

I did meet Laurent Pacalin co-chair, California CleanTech Open while I was at their table just briefly but was not around for his speech. I am very interested in the CleanTech Open competition to promote alternative energy business development started by Bay Area venture capital firms and major corporations.

Looking Forward
OVF has discussed collaboration with Green Century before (specifically in relation to the proposed Green Community Network) and I hope that our support of the upcoming Califia Ecocity Planning meeting will be a critical point to gain momentum for collaboration. What I see is that Michael has put many of the pieces together to enable the movement to the next level in this evolution.

This is of course much more ambitious but also very necessary to true sustainability - the development of more sustainable built environments along the lines of the proposed Califia project which is an evolution of the Arcology vision put forth by Paolo Soleri.

I met Scott Fossel nearly two years ago at one of GCI’s salons has played an increasingly pivotal role in the development of GCI. Cinnamon Twist’s blog goes a bit into detail about Scott and his role in GCI and also the current planning for Califia.