PRACTICE

Software for Connected Communities

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0100

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Contents
1 Introduction and summary of features
2 The social context
3 Overall architecture and requirements
4 Overall portal specification
5 Discussion system
6 Exchange system
7 Development process
Appendix 1 - Detailed specification for discussion system
Appendix 2 - Detailed specification of the Exchange system
Appendix 3 - Detailed specification of the recursive portals

1 Introduction and summary of features

We are in a time of growing perception of social and environmental difficulties, and also of growing social movements to engage with them. I and many others see collaboration and communications between these groups as a key to their success. Electronic communications seems to be a necessary medium for part (but not all) of this, and there is a growing number of projects developing such software.

This is my contribution to that, building upon the social visions in my book, eGaia, Growing a peaceful, sustainable Earth through communications, and upon many years experience with online learning communities at the Open University.

More specifically, this is a first draft of a specification for a software platform to support a network of local communities seeking sustainability and local resilience, and seeking to work with other similar communities across larger scales, regionally, nationally and globally, as for example, the Transition Network. It describes a set of linked portals: social networking sites enhanced for these purposes.

The principal features are:

1. For individuals, a personal profile page giving basic information about themselves and summarising their contribution to the network, and which can be expanded to a personal website if desired. To enhance the sense of connection, people have ‘partners’ (who are people who do favours for each other) instead of ‘friends’ as in conventional social networking sites.
2. Each group/sub-group/region/etc. has their own site that feels individual and has a clear (somewhat customisable) identity, with content created easily by its members (using simple templates), yet is clearly connected with information to and from other groups at the same, larger and smaller scales.
3. Standard facilities are included such as events listings with calendars, news/blogs, resource centre for sharing files, pictures, and media with good indexing and search, map pages. All are individual to the group but with feeds and links to and from other groups as desired.
4. Organisational support such as group editable pages (wiki), member lists with roles, agreement lists, task trackers.
5. Enhanced communication facilities including a discussion system optimised to promote groups coming to agreement, with email notification and online archives, and also group chat, telephone conferencing and community telephone call centres.
6. Exchange/trading system designed to promote exchange on a basis of personal relationship, integrity, quality, need, and environmental soundness rather than simply for money. (But it does include exchange for money.) It includes an innovative moneyless exchange based around favours.

The sections following describe the social dimensions of the system the platform is intended to support, the overall architecture of the platform, its general features and with appendices for extended descriptions of the discussion system and exchange/trading system.

2 The social context

This platform is intended to support the rapidly growing movement of groups, organisations and individuals who are working to create sustainable communities at a local level, linked at larger scales. The key characteristic is the desire to collaborate within and across groups socially and economically.

Typically, as for example in the Transition Movement, local groups will set up an initiating group to engage in a series of awareness raising events for the public in their area. They will then form a set of theme groups to look in detail at such issues as food, transport, health, energy, local government, etc. They will look for help and co-operation from other similar groups locally and to national support organisations. The platform is intended to support all of these activities.

This raises communication needs at the local, regional and national levels.

Enhancing communications at a local level:
• The need for initiating groups and theme groups to communicate with their members and each other, to maximise synergy and handle problems and conflicts.
• The need to keep the local public informed of events, activities, initiatives and encourage engagement and involvement in them.
• The need for initiating groups and theme groups to find out the best and most efficient ways of doing things, learning from the experiences of others, avoiding problems by and through accessing public resources and most importantly through contact with relevant people who can help and advise. 
Within regions or cities where there are several or many local initiatives:
• The need for nearby initiatives to keep abreast of what each other is doing, to enable them to work together where appropriate, share ideas, share resources, run joint activities, support each other
• The need for newly forming initiatives to get help in starting through the experiences of nearby initiatives.
 Within a national context:
• The need to provide a public face for the network that is clear, informative and dynamic, presenting the changing events and activities of the movement.
• The need to create a library of resources to help newly forming and currently active local initiatives.
At all levels - exchange and trading
• The need to develop means of trading and exchange based upon personal relationship, mutual support not competition and environmental soundness.
• The need to put conventional, market-based exchange onto a more ethical basis, driven by well-being and community service rather than money and profit.

3 Overall architecture and requirements

Centralised or distributed?
A key issue is whether the platform should run on one centralised website or be decentralised at various scales. Centralisation offers simplicity in maintenance and upgrading. However, it also creates vulnerabilities and the possibility that the local is lost within it.

A major consideration is that many of the groups for whom this platform is aimed are already well advanced with their own communication tools, ranging from simple html websites, through CMSs like Drupal, Wordpress or Plone, to commercial systems such as Google groups and Ning. This creates a double challenge:

1. To create a system that can link to those existing sites that have the ability to give and receive feeds.
2. To be sufficiently attractive that at least some of the groups with existing sites will move over to it.

A major problem for software systems is the need for high-quality professional development teams, for ongoing technical maintenance and upgrading, and then for a social support team that supports and encourages the grassroots members to use the system effectively.

We propose a somewhat decentralised system where the existence of good technical and social support is the main deciding criterion for the scale of a local/regional site.

Resilience and linking
To promote resilience, we propose that each site should also function as a mirror for one or more other sites, organised so that every site has more than one mirror. This is to provide backup and re-building in case of difficulties.

• Sites should mirror the other sites with whom they are most likely to exchange feeds of content.
• The particular feeds selected are to be decided at the level of individual groups and sub-groups within a site.

Site architecture
Each site should be structured as a recursive set of portals, all with a similar structure and function, each supporting a group, sub-group, sub-subgroup, etc, with the lowest levels being the portals of individual users. Thus the home page would appear as a portal for the overall group, and it would prominently list the sub-groups, which themselves would appear semi-autonomous. The overall home page might belong to a national group, regional group, or local group (if it were sufficiently active and had sufficient support).

To create a sense of local ownership at each level of group,
• the home page of that portal would include summaries and links to recent content created by the group (ex. events, news, new pages, documents, media, discussion items, exchanges, etc.)
• the portal would be somewhat customisable, perhaps through an individual logo, choice of colours, choice of content types and feeds to be displayed.
• the navigation system would display the content at that level, but with some links to larger-scale levels.
• It would be desirable to create urls at the level of each group that are subdomains of the higher level: i.e. http://sub-group.group.overallsite.org.
• all content in that portal would be created by members of the group or would be feeds from other places as determined up by the group.

Usability
Our intention is that larger numbers of people will use the platform, many of whom will have relatively little technical sophistication. Thus great attention must be paid to its usability both for casual browsers and people creating content.

For ordinary users creating content there should be simple templates with only the most essential commands, and for ordinary users administering groups there should be simple administration pages to manage them (delete, assign permissions).

4 Overall portal specification

Group areas
At every level, members of a group would be able to create/add a range of standard types of content, such as those in many common CMSs such as Plone or Drupal:
• event listings with an optional calendar display
• news listings in blog format
• images, audio, video (the latter two may possibly simply be embedded from external sites such as YouTube or MySpace)
• descriptive pages that include rich text formatting, images, tables, links
• folders to group content where desired
• file storage for common access
• map pages

In addition, there are some special types of content:
• A discussion system enhanced to encourage people to come to agreement, to promote collaboration. See description below.
• Exchange/trading system designed to promote exchange on a basis of personal relationship, integrity, quality, need, and environmental soundness rather than simply for money. (But it does include exchange for money.) It includes an innovative moneyless exchange based around favours. See description below.
• Organisational support such as group editable pages (wiki), a list of members with fields for roles and responsiblities, a template for lists of agreements, task trackers.

Individual user areas
Individual users should be identified with a user name that normally would be there real name and an avatar. Clicking on either should link to their profile page.

An individual’s profile page include a description of them entered through a set of fields including name, location, and a WYSYWIG editable field for general information.

They should be able to create the same types of content as a group, and the profile page should include lists of the content created by them, arranged by content type.

It should also include their exchange ‘partners’, as described in the exchange section below.

5 Discussion system

Good communication is what makes a community work together effectively. What is important is:
• that people are able to contact each other easily.
• that they know they have been understood and are able to come to agreement.
• that when their views diverge, they are able to resolve conflicts creatively, in ways that satisfy all parties.

Thus we are proposing communication tools that go well beyond standard email and online forums for this purpose.

In addition to the main online discussion tool (described below and in more detail in Appendix 1) we propose to provide
• group chat to allow online simultaneous meetings by groups using text
• telephone conferencing, to allow voice conferences by groups that are easier to attend than face-to-face meetings
• a community call centre, in which a published telephone number can be connected to people who take turns at being on call to provide immediate help or telephone connection to someone else who can help, in a range of different areas. (for example, technical help with computers, rides wanted, emergency help of some kind, etc.).

The need for moderators
Skillful facilitation is important in any group discussion that has a more serious purpose than casual chat, whether face-to-face or online. A good facilitator will help keep the discussion on track, ask leading questions to move the discussion on, make sure everyone is heard and acknowledged, and summarise important points and decisions.

At the Open University, with large numbers of students online working collaboratively, each small group had a moderator, who was trained in moderation skills. The moderators had a discussion which was well used and very valuable. If we expect our community discussions to work well, we will need to do something equivalent.

There will also need to be a well constructed set of help files, and pop-up hints created for users and especially for moderators.

Summary of features of the discussion system
This proposal builds on best practice in existing online forums and builds on long experience at the Open University:

• Flexible email notification of new messages but fullest display online.
• Discussions available wherever needed: in groups at all levels, in individual folders for small private discussions
• Simple linear chronological display, but with ways to display comments on given messages.
• Special message types: ‘summary’ messages, message type for ‘sensitive’ issues, and polls for checking agreement
• Clear indication of new messages in a discussion (since last logged in)
• Facilities to support moderators to keep discussions effective.
See Appendix 1 for a more detailed specification.
6 Exchange system

The essence of a Connected Community is people doing things for each other on an organised basis: seeing each other as partners rather than in competition or against each other. The exchange supports the practical, daily embodiment of this: helping people to obtain their food, transport, childcare, services, goods, etc. and enabling them to ask for help or support for themselves or for a group.

The exchange consists of 3 parts:

1. Current listings of offers and wants for money or as favours. These will be one-offs, short-term, or transitory. It could include such things as goods that are no longer needed that are offered for free (a Freecycle function), special offers from a business, help or services needed by an individual or group, etc.
2. the Directory, of shops, tradespeople, or other businesses made up of entries that record ongoing offers of goods or services. The entries may ask for monetary payment or may offer favours, perhaps only to specified people or groups. The entries may have feedback attached from previous recipients.
3. a Partner Network, which enables people to see their connection to others in terms of exchanges given and received. This is built out of a Feedback record system, containing acknowledgments for favours and other exchanges received and given. With it, if they are asked for a favour by someone they do not know, they can see if there is an indirect link: that person has done something for a group or a person that has done something for them, perhaps through more than one step.

See Appendix 2 for a more detailed specification of the exchange system.

7 Development process

The specification in this document is large and rich. Building it in full and then trying to recruit communities to use it is likely to be an expensive, slow and perhaps futile exercise. It is better seen as a vision, a pointer to possibilities. Implementing it should be a process working together with target communities, starting with some limited functionality, seeing what works for them, and building from there.

Ideally, this platform should be entirely an open source project, freely available to all with further development by whomever wants to do so. The most suitable starting point would thus be some well supported open source CMS like Plone or Drupal.

In practice, the starting points and development process are likely to be more pragmatic. We will need to investigate what existing platforms can easily put together a starting point that incorporates much of this specification and allows further development.

It may even be necessary to build prototypes out of commercial software such as Ning, with mashups to add extra features, as a quick start that tests the functionality.

At this stage, I welcome comments and suggestions, especially for suitable starting points and teams that want to implement this.

Appendix 1 - Detailed specification for discussion system

Overall structure:
The discussion system should consist of ‘conversations’ that in turn are made up of ‘threads’ that in turn are made up of ‘messages’.

Conversations:
1. A conversation can be created by any registered user in the context of any group of which they are a member or the user’s personal folder.
2. A conversation has a list of members. By default, the members of a conversation created in a group folder are all the members of that group.
3. Members of a conversation have rights to create new threads, write messages to existing threads, and edit and delete messages they have previously written.
4. The creator of a conversation is its owner. The owner has additional permissions to delete the conversation, to remove and edit threads and messages in threads, and to remove members.
5. The owner of a conversation also can create and remove additional owners, and can create and remove ‘moderators’, who are members with additional permissions to remove and edit threads and messages in threads, and to remove members. (So there are three classes of member: owner, moderator, member.)
6. A conversation is normally visible to anyone who can access it, whether or not logged in, but non-logged in users cannot write to it.
7. When a conversation is created, the owner can adjust the usage and membership: it can be made private, so it can only be viewed by users who are members of the group containing it. If it is created in a group folder, it can be made open to other groups. If it is created in the owners personal folder, the owner can specify groups or individuals to whom it is open.
8. Upon creation, a conversation should be given a short description.
9. Display of a conversation: A conversation should be displayed on a portal-like front page of the place where it is created: a group folder, or a user’s personal profile page. Each conversation displayed should first show the owners’ avatar, its description and creation date. It should then show a sequence of small avatars of the members who have created messages in it, in order of most recent contribution, up to a maximum limit of members. It should then show lines giving summaries of each thread (see threads).
10. Before the list of threads there should be an ‘add new thread’ button, which should appear greyed out to users without suitable permissions (i.e. not logged in, or not in group).
11. Upon creation a thread should be automatically created called ‘moderation’ which is visible and writable only to members who are moderators or owners.

Threads:
1. A thread has a creator, a creation date, a subject and an initial message. (Individual messages that make it up do not have their own subject.)
2. The creator of a thread has no special privileges in it. Only moderators and owners have additional privileges.
3. A thread can be displayed as a summary (in the display of a conversation) or in full.
4. The summary display of a thread should include its subject and creation date, the number of messages, the avatar and date of the most recent message.
5. For logged in members of a conversation, the summary display of each thread should be preceded by the number of messages that were created since their last login, to give an indication of how much new content has been added.
6. The full display of a thread should consist of a linear, chronological sequence of the messages in it, oldest first, so it can be read in sequence. For logged in members, there should be a suitable symbol in front of each message added since they last logged in so they can easily scroll to what is new.
7. At the beginning of the full display there should be buttons for ‘new message’ and ‘delete thread’, which should be greyed out for users without suitable permissions. (For other controls, see below.)

Messages:
1. Messages have creators, creation dates, and a body.
2. When a message is created or edited a standard WYSIWYG editor such as Kupu, TinyMCE or FCKeditor should appear, but with a fairly limited set of styles.
3. In addition, the editor should have buttons for three types of special message: ‘summary’, ‘poll’, ‘sensitive’, intended to promote convergent conversations, where people are encouraged to come to agreement.
4. A ‘summary’ message, is an ordinary message, indicated in some fashion, such as a different coloured border. It’s use (purely social, no attempt to enforce it through software controls) is to summarise recent messages. Thus users wishing to get an overall sense of the thread can scroll through, looking for the summaries. At the head of a thread should be a ‘show summaries’ button, changing to ‘show all’ when pressed. When pressed, all messages that aren’t summaries should be greyed out to make summaries stand out clearly.
5. A ‘sensitive’ message is meant to used in situations where there is an actual or possible conflict between users. It is an ordinary editable message with three fields defined headed, respectively: ‘Your view as I understand it’, ‘Where I agree’, ‘Where I disagree’.
6. New messages in a thread can be created simply as an addition to the thread, or as a comment on an earlier message in the thread. Each message should have a ‘comment on this’ button (greyed out if the user doesn’t have suitable permissions.) Messages that are comments are still displayed in linear, chronological sequence.
7. Each message should have a ‘display comments’ button, greyed if there are no comments. Pressing it should grey out all subsequent messages that are not comments on that message, making them stand out. (It should change to ‘display all’ when activated.)
8. Quoting text: If a user selects text either in the initial message of a thread, or any other message, the new message created will include that selected text, indicated stylistically as a quotation.
9. Each message should have a ‘report to moderators’ button (greyed out to those without suitable permissions). When pressed, an editor should appear with a field headed ‘reason for reporting this message’. When sent, the message will appear in the moderators thread.

Email notification
Email is still the dominant application for most people, many of whom don’t check it that often, and would not be likely to check a website to find out if there are new messages in a conversation. Thus, we need to offer an option of email notification of new messages in an online discussion.
1. There should be a control at the level of a conversation and each thread saying ‘email on off’ with the ‘on’ and ‘off’ buttons highlighted as appropriate.
2. Switching email on at the level of a conversation switches it on for all threads in that conversation and for all new threads created. Switching email off on a thread overrides this. If email is off for a conversation, it can be switched on or off for each thread separately.
3. If email is on for a thread, then when a new message is created, a mail message is sent to that user that includes the full body of the message. The sender of the message should be the creator of the message, the subject should be the subject of the thread. The body of the message should be preceded by a statement such as “You have requested email notification of this message. You can see it in context, reply to it, or switch off email notification at: [URL].” The body of the message should then follow.

Appendix 2 - Detailed specification of the exchange system

Preamble:
The essence of a Connected Community is people doing things for each other on an organised basis: seeing each other as partners rather than in competition or against each other. The exchange supports the practical, daily embodiment of this: helping people to obtain their food, transport, childcare, services, goods, etc. and enabling them to ask for help or support for themselves or for a group.

It is designed to promote exchange on a basis of personal relationship, integrity, quality, need, and environmental soundness rather than simply for money. (But it does include exchange for money.)

The major innovation of the exchange is that it sets up a system of money-less exchange based around ‘favours’, which, unlike a currency, are not measured or denominated. This is a simpler alternative to complementary/community/local currencies that are denominated in hours or arbitrary units. Favours are acknowledged with feedback and recorded so that people’s contributions to each other, to a group or organisation or to the community can be seen and appreciated. [Appendix to be written fully explaining and justifying this.]

Where conventional social networking sites have ‘friends’ with no real function other than some sort of play, with the exchange we have ‘partners’, people who do ‘favours’ for each other. Through the exchange in a connected community you can build up a network of people for whom you have done favours (directly or indirectly) and from whom you can reasonably expect favours in return.

An important function of the favours-based exchange is to encourage voluntary contributions to a group or the community, as these will be recognised with feedback.

To improve conventional (money-based) exchange the exchange provides a Directory of local services and businesses that includes opportunities for customers to post feedback, recommendations and reviews. Customers can post Feedback indicating satisfactory completion of a transaction. Also, Directory entries should include some way of commenting/indicating environmental soundness and community participation. Note that this is a directory only, not an online trading system. Contacting, agreeing, carrying out the transaction and paying for it are outside of the system.

A secondary purpose of the exchange is to create a social mechanism for promoting integrity and quality in transactions and to handle disagreements and conflicts. For this to work effectively, the exchange needs to be supported by a team of mediators. The feedback of transactions, whether favours or paid, must either be positive or if not, should be passed through the mediation team.

Overall structure
The exchange consists of 3 parts:

1. Current listings of offers and wants for money or as favours. These will be one-offs, short-term, or transitory. It could include such things as goods that are no longer needed that are offered for free (a Freecycle function), special offers from a business, help or services needed by an individual or group, etc.
2. the Directory, of shops, tradespeople, or other businesses made up of entries that record ongoing offers of goods or services. The entries may ask for monetary payment or may offer favours, perhaps only to specified people or groups. The entries may have feedback attached from previous recipients.
3. a Partner Network, which enables people to see their connection to others in terms of exchanges given and received. This is built out of a Feedback record system, containing acknowledgments for favours and other exchanges received and given. With it, if they are asked for a favour by someone they do not know, they can see if there is an indirect link: that person has done something for a group or a person that has done something for them, perhaps through more than one step.

Current Listings
1. A summary list of current listings should appear in several places:
1. On the front page of the portal there should be a limited number of entries, including the most recent urgent wants, and the most recent other additions.
2. In a dedicated Listings folder, similar to the front page but with more entries displayed by default.
3. In a Group’s front page, but restricted to entries indicated as visible only to that group.
4. On a user’s home page, but restricted to listings the user has created.
2. The summary list should be displayed as a table that enables a choice of displays: ordered by date available, by name of person entering it, by urgency (i.e. listings marked urgent first), by key word clickable from a tag cloud, through a search field.
3. The summary of a listing should include:
1. date available
2. name and avatar of creator linked to their profile,
3. offered or wanted,
4. favour or paid and if paid, a price,
5. option of ‘urgent’,
6. a descriptive title with a small character limit,
7. a thumbnail picture.
4. The summary listing should be accompanied by a tag cloud of key words of the listings included.
5. The summary listing should include buttons
1. to go to a separate page with the complete, or longer summary table of listings
2. to allow a user with suitable permissions to add a new listing. Activating this should open a template allowing creation of the full listing.
6. Full display of a listing: Two possibilities should be considered: 1) That a full listing be displayed on a page of its own or 2) That a listing in full should be displayed in place, with the following listings sliding down to make room for it when it is selected.
7. The full listing consists of the following fields to be filled out by the creator:
1. The name and avatar of the creator should be inserted by default,
2. Categories: Key words displayed as a tag cloud.
3. Time limits of availability: A choice between various times, probably with a maximum of one year, and ‘until date....’ with available now as the default.
4. Quantity limits: Unlimited, or number.
5. Contact information: (phone, email, address)
6. Availability: (ex: direct from address, through shops, markets, mail order, etc.)
7. Display to: all, specified group(s).
8. General description. This should be a full WYSIWIG editable field, with formatting, pictures, links.
9. Field for ‘Comment on environmental soundness’ (or equivalent).
8. Listings created in a group folder are a special case. In addition to being offered by an individual they should offer the option of coming from the group as a whole although they are created by a member of the group. This enables people to give to or receive from a group, or the overall community, and be acknowledged for that.

The Directory and its Entries
The most important aspect of the Directory is ease of finding relevant entries when people have specific interests, but the default view should also present some serendipitous entries such as recent additions or changes.

1. The Directory displays a tabular summary view of entries, which contain links to each full entry.
2. The summary view of an entry should contain some keywords or categories, the name and avatar of its creator, a location, a title, a short description (limited number of characters).
3. The table of summary views of entries should be displayed with a heading row that gives display options in each column. So clicking on the keyword column orders the entries in alphabetical order of keyword (or reverse alphabetical order), and similarly with name of creator, location, title.
4. Searching: a ‘live search’ facility should be included, with entries appearing as letters are typed in. Alternatively, the search results should appear in the same format as the full summary table. A third alternative should be a tag cloud of keywords.
5. The directory entries should be displayed in full on their own page, with facilities for feedback (see below).
6. The directory entry should start with the summary view, and be followed by a body consisting of fields for:
1. Contact information: phone, email, address, map
2. General description. This should be a full WYSIWIG editable field, with formatting, pictures, links
3. Fields for the creator to put in comments on environmental soundness and community connection, with suitable instructions.
7. Once published, a directory entry should have a button to enable people to create comments on their experience with that business.[To be elaborated]
8. When creating a directory entry the creator should be able to specify its visibility: i.e. to all, to specified groups.

The Partner Network
[Note: I see this as both the least formed and the most important part of this specification. I need people’s reactions to the concepts and the terminology.]

The Partner Network is meant to create a direct sense that people are connected and support each other in practical ways. It is also meant to encourage them to be clear that transactions, whether favours or for money, have been completed to mutual satisfaction.

1. For each participant in the exchange, there should be a personal partner network that consists of a set of other participants and for each of those, a set of transaction records. Each transaction record gives a summary of a past transaction between the two participants.
2. A person’s current set of partners should be displayed on their public profile page. For each, clicking on the avatar or name should link to the partner’s profile page.
1. For each partner there should be an avatar and a name, a ‘satisfaction rating’ which is the average of the satisfaction ratings for all the transactions with that person, and a button that displays the set of transaction records for that partner.
2. They should be able to be listed either in order of most recent transaction or by name, up to a specified number of entries. There need to be mechanisms to find those not shown in the default listing, including a live search, and ‘view more’ control.
3. A transaction record describes the results of a transaction which might either be a favour (done without monetary payment) or something done for monetary payment. It may be the outcome of a Current Listing offer or want, a listing in the Directory, or completely independent of these.
1. Controls to ‘create a transaction record [better terminology?]’ should appear both in the Current Listings and the Directory.
2. A control to create a transaction record should also appear with the partner listing, to enable records of independent transactions to be created.
4. A transaction record should include the following fields:
1. The person giving and the person receiving
2. Whether this was a favour or for money, and if the latter, how much.
3. The date
4. Brief description of the transaction (limited number of characters).
5. Fields for both people to record their satisfaction, on a simple scale (1-5, 1-10?) or a star rating.
5. When creating a new transaction record as much information should appear by default as is possible from the context: giver, receiver, description, favour/money. If there are no previous transactions between the creator and the other person, then that other person is added to the set of partners.
6. Transaction records can be created by the giver or receiver but displayed in the partner records of both. When completed by one, a message should be sent to the other inviting them to complete their satisfaction rating.

Appendix 3 - Detailed specification of the recursive portals

Purpose

The purpose of the recursive portals is to help a set of related groups or organisations to work together by:
1. giving them what will appear to be their own individual website, somewhat different from the others, with a range of communication tools and the ability to create their own content, but with negligible effort needed to create the site.
2. embedding their website within a larger site with related groups, with easy and automatic feeds of content between them,
3. offering easy ways of members of one group knowing about the activities of any other and joining, if that is desired
4. enabling sub-groups to similarly have their own sites, if they grow to need that.

Content

Each group will have a list of members and a range of content types that they can create as desired to include:

• Discussion system (as in Appendix 1)
• Exchange (as in Appendix 2)
• Pages with WYSIWYG editing and versioning controls. Editing permissions should default to the whole group so they may be used as a wiki, but with the possibility of being restricted to only some members.
• Calendar of events
• Blogs - A group could choose to have one blog that they could use to incorporate events, news items, general articles or they could choose to have several for different categories. There would be an option for an entry to be included in the calendar if it is an event.
• A range of other types such as images, media, polls, maps, task tracker, etc.

Roles

The person creating a group will be its owner. The owner has permission, within the group area, to delete the group, to add and remove members, to create, edit and remove any form of allowable content. The owner can also make other group members managers/administrators, who will have the same permissions as the owner.

The editor and manager will also be able to restrict editing permission on any content item to managers only or to specified individuals. They will be able to edit the portal itself, changing the blocks to be included, colour, etc.

All other members of the group will be able to create content in the group area, to edit or delete their own contributions.

Structure

The overall structure of the portal will appear as a nested hierarchy of groups, sub-groups, sub-sub-groups, etc. as desired. However, the actual structure will simply consist of a set of groups, each of which may choose to specify one other group as their ‘parent group’ and a set of others as their ‘related groups’, and the actual relationships that are created may turn out to be more web-like than hierarchical.

Each group will have a front page that will be a portal, meaning that it contains a summary of recent content created in a range of categories. The diagram below is meant to give a sense of how that might work, without meaning to be so specific that it pre-empts the creativity of a designer.

logo/name of overall portalusername
(if logged in)preferenceslogout  (login if
not logged in)helpsearchlogo + masthead of groupmembersblogdiscussionexchangeColumn with optional blocks for
• Navigation
• Parent Group
• Related Groups
WYSIWYG Block for description of groupMembers block, showing the avatars of the group members who have most recently created content, linked to their profile pages.and so forth...Column with optional blocks for
• calendar
• feeds
• free form contentOptional block with feed of summary recent additions to blog, discussion, exchange items, new pages, images, discussions, other new items.Optional block with feed of summary recent additions to blog, discussion, exchange items, new pages, images, discussions, other new items.Optional block with feed of summary recent additions to blog, discussion, exchange items, new pages, images, discussions, other new items.

1. The top box, containing the overall logo, username, personal preferences, logout/login, help and search remain constant throughout the whole site, except for colour, which might vary with each group.
2. When the group is created, a range of options is given to set up the portal page for the group (as below), including a choice of background colour for all the group’s content. These option should be changeable at any time by members of the group with owner or manager permissions.
3. The second box, containing the logo/masthead of each group, plus tabs giving main navigation categories (members, groups, discussion, exchange) remains constant throughout all content created by that group. The logo or some other specified image will be used to represent the group wherever lists of groups appear.
4. The left-hand column is created when the group is created, and can be edited at any time by group members with owner or manager permissions. They may choose to include:
1. Navigation of the content of the group (may not be needed if there is very little content)
2. Parent group: By default, if the group is created from the front page of an existing group, that group will be the parent group. This can be changed as desired, from a list of existing groups. When a group is set up, it will inherit the members of its parent group by default, but that can be changed by the group’s owner or managers.
3. Related groups: This will be a block containing a list of other groups, with the name of the group and its logo or avatar, which will link to the front page of that group. The list will automatically include all groups for which the original group is the parent. Owner/managers should also be able to add other groups from the site, and to include a name and link to any external group as well.
5. The right-hand column should not contain any blocks by default. It should have the option that the owner/managers can add a calendar that displays links to items marked as events, and a set of RSS feeds, internal and external, as appropriate to the group. It should also have the option of adding general purpose blocks containing text, links and images that could be used, for example to highlight featured items, or links, or whatever.
6. The central column should contain a WYWIWYG block for general information about the group, followed by a block displaying showing the avatars of the group members who have most recently created content, linked to their profile pages, with a specifiable number displayed. Below that should be a choice of optional blocks including more general purpose blocks and blocks with feeds of summaries recent additions to blog, discussion, exchange items, new pages, images, discussions, other new items.

Other content

1. The member tab should link to a page displays the name and avatar of all the members of the group linked to their personal profile page. There should be options for the handling of large numbers of members, such as a search, and grouped pages (say of 50 members each).
2. The Blog tab should link to a full display of the group blog on a separate page. If there is more than one blog (say events, news, comment, or whatever), the blog tab should become a drop-down menu linking to these on their own pages.
3. The Discussion tab should link to a page listing the conversations created for the group and threads within them as in Appendix 1.
4. The Exchange tab should link to a page giving the summary of current listings created for that group (see Appendix 2). It should provide access to the Directory through a live search function and a tag cloud of categories.

Diss Connected

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:12:20 +0100

Diss Connected is a first and pioneer ‘connected community’, designed to bring the visions in my book into practical reality. A connected community is a membership organisation whose members provide a range of services to each other to:

• enhance their quality of life providing happiness and abundance
• help them to lead lives more in harmony with the natural environment
• provide resilience and protection against climate change or economic crashes or social difficulties.

It is supported by a community portal DissConnected.Net that will provide its infrastructure. It is a partial implementation of PlaNet the 'dream communications system' I developed with other members of the Open Co-op, and whose use is described in the fictional story Planet: 2010 that illustrates its use. I am hoping that something of that story will be created in Diss through DissConnected.

Diss Connected basic functions:
• The Diss Connected eXchange - mixing FREE and PAID exchange. Support your neighbours and be supported by them. Trade with integrity. Earn respect and money.
• Events: Our own social events, featuring local food. The most complete list of events in the area, with listings from the people that put them on.
• Support for your group or organisation Does your community group or organisation want a website, or would you like an interactive website to link to your existing one?
• The Forum: (under development, but still to come) for local democracy, self-governance of DissConnected, chat and gossip

Transition Towns

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:08:19 +0100

“...a community response to peak oil and climate change”
I see the Transition Towns movement as the nearest to the vision I describe in eGaia, and have begun working with them at several levels, with the hope of adding my approach to theirs.

I’ve been helping to start a local Transition Towns group in Diss, as well as working with other local Transition Towns – Norwich and Bungay to form a regional grouping. The picture shows our stand at the Greenpeace Fair on 7th September 2008.

I have also become involved with Transition Towns nationally and internationally, helping to develop a software platform for them and a social structure. I am a Trustee of the Transition Network.

Food-related projects

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:25:47 +0100

I see the need to develop a much more sensible food system as a key starting point for a sustainable future. That means food grown much more locally and much more community involvement through growing, cooking and social events. I have been very active in quite a few local projects to this end:

• Slow Food Waveney Valley - I started this local branch of the international Slow Food movement in 2005. It has run numerous events promoting local food, including the Taste of Diss festival of local food.
• Taste of Diss festival of local food - This event ran from 12th - 19th July, 2008. It included 5 major public events, 65 special meals at local pubs and restaurants, 9 open days and farm visits, 3 public lectures, a film and much more.
• Food and Craft Fair on the Green - I helped organise this event, on Fair Green, Diss on 1st July, 2006. There were lots of stalls for crafts and food and lots of entertainment. We got a small grant from Awards for All to support it. Here are some photos of it.
• Diss Farmers Market - I organised a support group to re-invigorate the monthly farmers market, which obtained a grant to improve promotion, signs and recruit more stalls, which we did very successfully.

Dance Camp East

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 14:47:37 +0100

See the main Dance Camp East website for current details of this event. See a slide show of my photos from the 2007 camp on Flickr.

It is a 10-day camping event held in August in East Anglia since 1992. It was started by my partner, Madeline, and she and I have been on and off the organising group ever since.

Most years, and now bi-annual, there are about 500 people at each camp, for music and dance workshops from around the world, plus a wide variety of creative arts and crafts. We camp in groups of between 20 and 40 people in a circle around a common campfire for about 10 days. People cook communally and socialise around that fire.

We live much closer to the elements than we are used to. The social setting, with its tribe-like camp divided into band-like camping circles, is much closer to that of our pre-historic ancestors than we are used to. Among the various special qualities of these camps is that they encourage a sense of instant community. A culture grows up among the campers of self-organising mutual support. A mixture of music, dance and creative play pervade the practical work of preparing the food, keeping the place clean, caring for the children - and even cleaning the toilets.

Some of the people who came to these events felt it changed their lives. Many felt they wanted to extend the kind of community there more widely into their lives. I think of those camps as the nursery schools of the new culture I am dreaming about, and which my book, eGaia, explores.

Diss Community Partnership & Cittaslow

Sun, 1 Jun 2008 13:15:08 +0100

Diss Community Partnership CIC is a social enterprise promoting community and sustainable living in Diss, Norfolk. It is a partnership of individuals and organisations working to improve Diss. It promotes and initiates a wide range of activities and groups, including a lot of grassroots consultation. I have been on its Board of Directors since Sept. 2005. Some of its past activities:
• The Skelton Festival - a year-long, 40-event, award winning festival culminating in a Tudor Fair.
• Promoting local food by setting up Waveney Valley Food Group, Slow Food Waveney Valley, and working to re-invigorate the Diss Farmer's Market.
• Ran a Betjeman Centenary festival and a local history festival.
• Set up a credit union
• Set up the Diss Film Society

Diss is also a Cittaslow town. Cittaslow, which is Italian for "slow city" or "slow town" is an international network of towns. A Cittaslow signs up to working towards a set of goals that aim to improve quality of life, and needs to pass an assessment before being admitted as a member of the Cittaslow network.
Cittaslow in Diss is formally under the direction of Diss Town Council, but working in close partnership with Diss Community Partnership. DCP received a large grant from the EU’s LEADER+ programme for Cittaslow projects including:
• rebranding, with lots of new signs around Diss and a ‘snail trail’.
• a Cittaslow Community Chest that awarded funding to a wide range of community projects.
• a clay lump buildings project

DCP now has its own premises, the Cittaslow Centre, which also sells local produce and is a showcase for local artists.