Transition Town initiative

[Philder]

Just reading through some of the posts on this forum when I remembered a news item I'd seen at the tail end of last year regarding the "Transition Town" initiative. Looks like an interesting idea :-

 

http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwo...tionCommunities

 

Having mooched about on their wiki page, the thought struck me that in this day and age, there is no reason why such an initiative need be constrained by physicality. Whilst it's good to see some decent sized towns and cities signing up, I can see scope for a similar virtual "Transition" system where individuals not in towns signed up to the physical initiative can create virtual towns. Consider it a sort of environmental Second Life. Each user signs up having confirmed they have taken various environmentally beneficial steps (green energy, reducing waste, less car usage etc). This would be a good way of making people get over the mental hurdle that one person doing something has no impact. You also have scope for discussion and interaction in a more dynamic way than bulletin boards, useful though they are. I have personal experience of a few virtual communities where you feel like you are part of something gathering momentum, and it's very empowering. Prime example would be open source / Linux community - 18 months ago I was curious about Linux, so started investigating the online communities (forums, social networking, podcasts etc). Spin on a year and I'd ditched Windows to go Linux full time, which has really opened my eyes to a wide range of issues I had no interest in before.

 

Anyone have any thoughts?

[drbubb]

"Consider it a sort of environmental Second Life. Each user signs up having confirmed they have taken various environmentally beneficial steps (green energy, reducing waste, less car usage etc). This would be a good way of making people get over the mental hurdle that one person doing something has no impact. You also have scope for discussion and interaction in a more dynamic way than bulletin boards, useful though they are"

 

Interesting concept.

 

But how do you know if the "sign up" is genuine or not?

And what's the advantage if it is?

[Steve Netwriter]

I'm just bumping this up as it's connected with the Bernard Lietaer things I've been posting:

 

Bernard A. Lietaer - The Future of Money, A very good book relevant to a finite world

http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=5083

 

The more I read of his book, the more I am amazed. If I was going to recommend just one book, it would be that one.

 

[lupercal]

Interesting concept.

 

But how do you know if the "sign up" is genuine or not?

And what's the advantage if it is?

 

Encourage small groups of local people to form after sign up. In cities there may be 2 - 4 of them living in the same street and not know about each other. They are less likely to lie as a group. Also less likely to drop out.

 

The advantage is they are connected to a network of like minded people and actively participating. You can then target appropriate products to them. At a discount and with advice how to use them. Reskilling.