Free Geek Chicago

September 6, 2008 at 3:36 pm | In technology, Chicago, friends, globalchicago | No Comments

At Michael’s urging, I’d love to share this video from Free Geek Chicago, except I can’t get the video to show up here, so head over to Michael’s post and watch it there. :-)

Conference Location Decided!

June 27, 2007 at 10:20 pm | In open space, Chicago, friends, invitations, globalchicago | 1 Comment

I’m very excited to have the Conference right here in my neighborhood. The full (updated) invitation:

You are invited to co-create the 4th Annual Chicago Conference for Good. PLEASE join us, bring friends and add spirit! Share this invitation with neighbors and colleagues, people you’d like to connect or reconnect with this July!

“…cuz people
who do stuff
need to know
more people
who do stuff.”
- ted ernst

Localizing Global Change: Issues and Opportunities

July 19-22 in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, IL USA

Discussion

What kind of stuff
have we been doing?

  • hosting and attending green dinners,
  • community gardening,
  • blogging,
  • digital excellence & inclusion,
  • chicago conservation corps training,
  • growing food,
  • organizing block clubs and parties,
  • depaving your yard and inviting neighbors,
  • restoring a riverbank,
  • planting native prairie in your local park
  • organizing your neighbors to work with the alderman or CAPS to get a camera,
  • or get one taken out,
  • recruiting volunteers,
  • organizing safe routes to school,
  • buying organic foods,
  • experimenting with new tech ways to connect people,
  • and living with less tech
  • driving less,
  • recycling more,
  • ensuring all differently brained people are seen as human beings,
  • seeing to it that the ADA laws are followed,
  • making social activists are supported and nurtured,
  • urban chicken egg farming
  • block clubs
  • traffic calming
  • peace parks
  • “doing.”… ,

The momentum of community is rising. Please join us! …for More and More.More and more people. More and more resources. More and more easy. More and more connected. More and more green. More and more power to do good things, in more and more local neighborhoods and organizations.

Three years ago, some of us convened a small but national conference on the future of philanthropy, technology and community action. Two years ago, more of us joined in to create a second and international conference which was also the first-ever omidyar.net members conference. Last year we did it again, and along the way these conversations have sparked half a dozen more conferences and action on at least four continents.

All the while, you’ve been busy doing all the things you do to try make the world a better place, and you’ve been noticing that more and more people are getting together for global community good. This year’s global gathering in Chicago is going to focus on “doing”. All good work. All kinds of local action. We welcome good people from everywhere to join with people we are actively inviting who are “doing” in Chicago neighborhoods. Bring your own local doing to share. We want to do more and more in all localities, and to do it more together.

This year’s conference will follow the same simple and active format as all the previous conferences. We’ll gather for one big opening, create a working agenda that includes all of our most important issues and questions, meet with friends and colleagues to actively address everything on the agenda, document and publish our notes online, and head back out into all the things we are doing with more energy, more clarity and more connections.

The momentum of community is rising. Please join us!
…for more and more global good on the ground where you live.

WHEN? July 19-22, 2007 …music and barbecue on Thursday night, conference all day Friday and Saturday, finishing by noon on Sunday, with airport drop-offs or excursions for out-of-towners on Sunday afternoon.

WHERE? General Robert E. Wood Boys & Girls Club, 2950 W. 25th Street, Chicago IL 60623

WHO SHOULD COME? Anyone who wants to get more and more into community, technology, environment, and other social justice kinds of work and practice. Anyone who wants to make more and more connections between all these sorts of things. And anyone who wants to have more and more fun and friends in the process of community leadership.

WHAT TO BRING? Food to eat/share, materials to show/share, ideas and questions, issues and projects that you care about and want to inform and be informed by others AND a total of $40 (scholarships may be available) to pay for basic costs of site and materials for all three days of meetings.

NOW WHAT? Send an email to register@globalchicago.net (or any other address we like), make a payment at paypal (details forthcoming), forward this invitation to friends and colleagues, people you work with — and people you want to work with. we’ll send you details about places and times and be glad to answer any other questions. Stay tuned to www.GlobalChicago.net for more information.

CO-CONVENERS? Ted Ernst, Hermilo Hinojosa, Kachina Katrina Zavalney, Michael Herman, Michael Maranda, Julie Peterson, Jean Russell, Dave Chakrabarti, and You…

Chicago Report on Digital Excellence

June 16, 2007 at 4:40 am | In technology, Chicago, globalchicago | 1 Comment

Excellent news from Michael about some of his work bearing fruit:

The long awaited report from the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Closing the Digital Divide was released Friday June 15th at the Community Media Summit convened by the Benton Foundation and the Community Media Workshop under the title The City that NetWorks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence.Digital Excellence is both means and end for Chicago as the City of Excellence. The Chicago Digital Access Alliance (CDAA) had a large hand in bringing this vision into the public sphere. We’ll turn a critical eye to the details of the report, as is our duty, but for now we celebrate it’s release and the vision that has been established, and we offer our deepest gratitude to Julia M. Stasch for her service to our city in chairing the Mayor’s Advisory Council and shepherding this visionary and historical document.

Videos About Action You Can Take to Impact Climate Change

March 4, 2007 at 2:48 am | In globalchicago | Comments Off

Check out these great videos and vote in the Convenient Truth Contest

post-dinner musings

September 26, 2006 at 12:08 am | In humanize, Chicago, friends, globalchicago | 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Chicago Conservation Corps leadership training orientation and met some cool people. Tonight I had dinner with Julie and some of her friends connected with Beyond Today in the North Center neighborhood. Beyond Today is a really cool local environmental group. Here are some of my take-aways from our dinner:

  • There are people that form corporations so that people can invest their retirement money in real estate (can’t do it directly). Why don’t we do that in a neighborhood and form community-funded co-ops? We can! (hopefully)
  • A community calendar is hard to maintain by hand. WikiMaas does a great job of it using a wiki. Cool.
  • Hey, and why doesn’t Chicago have a city-wiki. Actually, it turns out that it does: WikiChicago.  Unfortunately, it’s not OpenEdit, which means you have to not only sign up for an account before editing or leaving a comment, but you have to verify an email address, which is really, really annoying and will no doubt reduce participation.
  • When two people own a house and also rent to others, not only can they change their percentage ownership from 50/50 to 51/49 or 60/40 or whatever over time if one pays less rent than the other (by prior agreement, of course), but a renter can go perhaps become a partner this way as well.  From 50/50/0 to 49/49/2 over time?  And then 48/48/4?  And eventually 33/33/33?  Or more partners?  Maybe it doesn’t even need to be a co-op?  Can just be a partnership?  Lots of questions.  Cool stuff.
  • Beyond Today is a really cool neighborhood organization.  They host green dinners, play soccer with neighbors in the park, organize protests against west nile spraying, have cool website, and much more.  And they can use some basic help that with stuff that I know about.  The wiki calendering above is one.  A wordpress blog is another.  I learned a lot from them.  I love the idea of them hosting related blogs by neighbors, and then having an editor or three distill ideas from those blogs down to very short blurbs for their mainpage, linked back to the source, of course.  Excellent idea.
  • I want to show the Upward Spiral movie some more.

A todo list for our community

April 26, 2006 at 1:27 am | In the Commons, meaning in life, humanize, note to self, globalchicago | 4 Comments

Interesting beginning of a list here from FootprintsintheWind.com

  • Ecological clean-up and sustainability implementation.
  • Climate change mitigation.
  • Urban restoration.
  • Improving literacy levels globally.
  • Feeding, clothing, sheltering, education, and inspiring billions of humans.
  • Ensuring decent care for the growing percentage (sic) of elderly in our societies.
  • Providing learning and creative opportunities for all.

Doug goes on with his own list. I’m thinking of doing the same. Am more likely to do it if I publish this starter, rather than leave it in my drafts folder forever.

BARcamp Chicago 2006

April 21, 2006 at 10:52 am | In technology, open space, Chicago, invitations, globalchicago | Comments Off

http://barcampchicago.com/  They’re looking for a venue now, something for free for the whole weekend, space for 100 during the day and 50 overnight.  BARcamp is for tech people of all stripes, plus anyone else that wants to hang with techies.  http://recentchangescamp.org was in part inspired by the BARcamps happening arround the country.  They’re shooting for May or June, as soon as a venue can be secured.

Omidyar Members Conference

April 12, 2006 at 9:36 pm | In humanize, open space, invitations, globalchicago | Comments Off

The second annual Chicago version of the Omidyar Members Conference is July 14-16th, 2006 in Oak Park (just outside of Chicago). See our past proceedings and our new invitation. Please join us and pass on the invitation!

test, please ignore

March 22, 2006 at 12:01 am | In admin, globalchicago | Comments Off

test, please ignore

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