A Potentially WISER Jim Benson
I spent the last two days in the company of some very engaging and intelligent people. We have all come to Portland to discuss the future of the WISER Commons and the Interra Project.
My friend Jon Ramer has been cajoling me to become more active with Interra and WISER for some time. When I've asked exactly what I'd do, he said, "You'll figure that out." So basically an open offer to come into what is rapidly becoming an expansive organization - now two organizations.
In a nutshell:
Interra Project - A transaction system that links daily personal transactions to both charitable giving and a personal social statement. Not only can you define (easily and on-line) where you want your charitable dollars to go, but each month you are provided a statement which tells you what impacts your spending is having on the world. It is complex, so I'll stop here and maybe post later as I figure out ways to better summarize.
WISER Commons - Originally called the Sustainability Commons, WISER Commons is the result of a partnership between Betsy Power (of WISER Business) and Jon Ramer. The WISER Commons is part of the growing WISER sites. The WISER ship was launched by Paul Hawken and now he's gently guiding it, but trying to let the people on board take more credit. The WISER Commons seeks to create a data transfer mechanism to automate information exchange between Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) worldwide.
For a better idea of WISER overall, go to the WISER Business page. WISER Earth will be fully live on the 21st of April. I'll announce it when it is no longer password protected.
So anyway, on a pair of beautiful days in Portland at the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center in Portland, I sat and talked to people and can now officially announce that I'm on board with Interra and WISER Commons.
While I'm not sure what this means yet for long-term committment, at least during this dating phase I will be starting on a project with Brad DeGraf, Andy Hook, Kit Seeborg, and Brian (who I need to get info for). We will be creating essentially a distributed programming shop to support the needs of WISER, Interra and other non-profits. The goal here is not to create yet another body shop, but to pick specifically already funded projects to work on and, in the end, create an open-source platform that NGOs can easily deploy. This platform will (likely) allow NGOs to quickly publish information on their own sites and distribute that information globally.
Sound vague and ambitious? Well, it is. As I see it now (subject to change of course), my major role here is to help take all this from vague and ambitious to well-defined and obtainable. I've got a great group to work with and if anyone can do it, these people can.
Blogged at Mark Spencer Hotel, Portland Oregon Using Windows Live Writer
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