Saturday Links for the Week — November 3, 2007 — The Hopeful Edition

“Conversation as Radical Act”: Juanita Brown and David Isaacs of World Cafˆ© fame are trying through real community-based activism to use conversation and self-organization as a vehicle for grassroots change, Thanks to my new friend Nancy White in Seattle for the link. The story of how I ‘met’ Nancy is interesting: My KM contacts led to my doing a virtual presentation for an Australian educational organization last month (about KM in education). The follow-up presentation was by Barbara (Bee) Dieu in Brasil. Bee invited me to Thursday’s Second Life conference on education, where I met Nancy. And it turns out Nancy knows and works with Chris Corrigan. The power of networks!

Radical Renewal: Individuals Taking Charge: Francis Moore Lappˆ© is tired of talk and now acting to reinstitute democracy by working around governments. “Why are we as societies creating a world that we as individuals abhor?”, she asks, and then, in her new book and campaign, tells us what to do about it.

How to Build a Village: My friend Dave Smith points us to a new book that shows, with real life examples, how an Intentional Community can be created.

Making Cars in Community: How about a car that not only doesn’t burn oil, it’s also built in local communities by co-ops on contract, instead of by a leviathan global corporation. Thanks to Rick Wolff for the link.

Wisdom of Crowds in a Minute: Ask500People is a neat little application lets you pose questions to interested’crowds’ and displays the results as soon as they start appearing.

The Psychology of Peak Oil Denial: Fascinating (but long) article about why we choose not to see the realities of the End of Oil. Applies also to Global Warming denial, End of Water denial etc. etc.

Will Atlanta Be the Next New Orleans?: The drought worsens, and water is running out. There is no alternative supply.

Music and the Science of Empathy: Oliver Sachs explains how music helps us deal with crisis. Thanks to ETNBC for the link.

Pueblos de Arena Now Has a Blog: Long-time Peruvian reader and friend Mariella Rebora blogs in Spanish about the same things I blog about in English.

Videos on the Death of the Oceans: A five-part series from Ocean Voyager on what’s happening to our oceans and what we can do. Thanks to Craig De Ruisseau for the link.

George Monbiot on the Shutdown of Human Concern: When the situation gets bad enough, he reports in a review of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, people stop caring about others and look out only for themselves.

Just for Fun Department: An amazing little animation by Alan Becker on DeviantArt (the image above is from it).

Thought for the Week: From Nancy White: “Love is the source of all innovation” (said at the aforementioned conference on education).