PLANETWORK-- NETWORKING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

How are we using technological tools to mobilize, strengthen civil society and promote a more just, peaceful and sustainable world?

Technology has come a long way since the advent of the Internet in the late 1980s. From email-to-fax action alerts to geographic information systems (GIS), to the simple speed of email networks, we are now armed with powerful tools that can be used for moving us into a more sustainable future. Amid accelerating crises across the globe, new social and technological forces continue to advance.

The Internet has enabled citizens around the world to mobilize with unprecedented speed and precision. We have seen what the Internet can do in this regard: On February 15th, millions of people worldwide spoke out for peace. For the first time we could see and hear our vast numbers from around the world.

Why stop there?

This gathering brings together, in rare dialogue, representatives from information technology, environmental advocacy, sustainable living, peace and social justice activism, independent media pioneers, progressive entrepreneurship, software development, online communities and many others to examine critically - and collaboratively - where we are, and what is possible.

We invite you to join us.

Planetwork will focus on the ways in which information technologies and the Internet can continue to play a key role in accelerating progressive change and establishing how we can harness the tools we have for creating a healthier, more just and civil society.

We are asking:

• How can the Internet be used to mobilize global citizenry around other critical issues affecting our future: ecological destruction, resource depletion, human rights and economic justice?
• How might we use the financial resources of a newly networked global citizenry to implement system-wide transformation?
• How can the Internet allow us to see ourselves, and our collective aspirations, even more directly and productively? What role does geographic imaging play in the ability to think and act more systemically?
• What communications strategies would best enable us to mobilize networks, draw attention to specific issues, envision alternative solutions, and bring about change?

Planetwork is a unique international forum that will bring together participants representing many of the key social and technological components necessary for a sustained global change movement.

You are invited to join us, to hear from and interact with luminaries and pioneers across the digital sector, including:

Douglas Engelbart Inventor of the mouse, hypertext, and windows who has a forty-year track record in predicting, designing, and implementing the future of organizational computing.

Hazel Henderson Worldwide syndicated columnist, advocate for and consultant on equitable ecologically and sustainable human development, and author of several books, including Creating Alternative Futures: The End of Economics, Building a Win-Win World: Life Beyond Global Economics, and Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics.

Joan Blades Cofounder of MoveOn, the online phenomenon that has moved online mobilization and international peace and justice activism to new levels in the past year.

Jeff Gates President of the Shared Capitalism Institute and author of Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street.

David Dill Professor of computer science at Stanford University, leading the fight by computer professionals to expose the fraud inherent in touch screen voting machines.

Neil Sieling Independent media consultant working with the Rockefeller Foundation, WorldLink TV, Digital Independence and other organizations.

Greg Steltenpohl Founder of Odwalla Juice Company, and leading authority on cooperatives and local and regional economic initiatives.

Annette Riggs Founder of Barter.com and several other Internet based barter initiatives.

Leif Utne Founder of Utne Online and the Utne Café, key innovators in the emergence of web-based communities.

Cynthia Typaldos Founder of RealCommunities.com and leading authority on online communities and community software.

Brewster Kale Founder of the Internet Archive and veteran of numerous successful software ventures.

Tom Matzzie National Interactive Campaign Manager, AFL-CIO

Bill Pease Creator of ScoreCard.org, and founder of GetActive Software, a leader in online activism platforms and Internet campaign technology.

Tim Foresman Leading advocate for the Digital Earth Initiative at NASA and UNEP, currently VP at the International Center for Remote Sensing Education.

Henri Poole Noted open source “free software” developer, and active with Apache, founder of Affero peer-to-peer philanthropy software.

Joe Firmage Founder of US Web and ManyOne Networks.

Also featuring: Sharif Abdullah (Commonway), Gary Alexander (Open University, UK), Wendy Brawer (GreenMaps), Atom Constantino (GTV), Owen Davis (Identity Commons), Leda Dederich (United for Peace and Justice), Brad deGraf (Venture Collective), Heather Newbold (Earth Charter), Amber Nystrom (Social Entrepreneurship Incubator), Hardin Tibbs & Peter Layden (Global Business Network) and many more... Presenters

The event is organized into five major themes:

The Internet as a tool for Mobilization:
The peace movement has given us dramatic examples of how strategic, cross-platform messages, such as those delivered by MoveOn via email, can galvanize immediate action on the part of millions of disenfranchised people. The forum will explore different communications strategies that support rich, vibrant, and diverse global culture. How can we use technology as a tool to support grassroots organizing efforts and enhance our communication efforts, rather than create more work and opportunities to misunderstand each other?

Global Systems:
Over the last century, "systems thinking" has allowed scientists, environmentalists, philosophers and technologists to re-conceive the world in terms of holistic networks and emergent properties rather than traditional hierarchies of control. An ecological view of natural and human systems requires such a perspective. How might the Internet enable us to further develop a systems view of both our most pressing problems and their potential solutions?

Social Networks:
We will be discussing how the design philosophy of the open source software movement, which is accelerating across the globe, has also inspired a variety of software initiatives intended to empower social networks. These social network tools, many of which are now coming to fruition, have the potential to once again transform the Internet. Not only will they radically increase the ability of millions of people to cooperate and self-organize around shared goals, but they will also enable us to see ourselves as a whole - as a global community that share a commitment to common values. Social network tools will give us a new sense of collective empowerment and political potency as citizens of the planet.

New Economic Models:
With the fall of communism and the accelerating hegemony of corporate globalization, people are questioning the very foundations of our economic system. Many see this system and its ideology as the root of both our social dysfunction and our essentially suicidal environmental behavior. Now we must move beyond such critique and focus on testing and implementing alternative economic models and complimentary approaches designed to work within the existing system. These models range from Internet based barter, to virtual complementary currencies, to local currencies using smart cards.

Collaborative Networking:
Planetwork is a living example -- the entire event is designed to support an active networking process for all participants. A Collaboratory facilitated by Blue Oxen Associates on-line, and The Knowhere Store on-site, will run throughout the conference, with multiple opt-in creative sessions, and a high-speed wireless network, as well as Ethernet, will be available throughout the building and grounds. All three parallel sessions, and much of the Collaboratory will be captured on digital video, streamed live, archived on-line and burned to DVD. In addition, this conference portal site is built on a new open source collaborative platform, which many communities are adopting and extending as a universal adaptor to interconnect a growing number of existing systems.

THE TIME IS NOW TO COME TOGETHER AND EXAMINE THE TOOLS WE HAVE AT HAND.
PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS UNIQUE GATHERING.

updated May 9, 2003 - 10:17 am PDT