permaculture

["Jesse Van Wollingen" <jesse@permaculturehub.com>]

Hey All

 

This might be the first time I'm posting to this list - please be gentle! J

 

I would love to see this thread of thought about collaboration and
cooperation become the central mantra and action plan of permaculture folk
over the next few years. There is such a great diversity of experiences,
networks, guilds etc but to-date we have failed to crack the nut of
large-scale regular permaculture networking, collaboration etc (beyond the
IPC's). This year has already seen some exciting new regional developments
with the Florida convergence, upcoming Southern CA convergence, Bolivia
holding their first international convergence and a Michigan team putting
together a convergence there, not to mention the many existing gatherings
that are expected to continue this year (such as the Northern CA, Pacific
NW, the Inland NW, and Northeast convergences).

 

My personal view is that if we can collectively commit to seriously up-ing
the ante in our online collaborations it could be a catalyst to drive the
dual benefits of (1) creating visible at-scale networking (regional to
national to global) while also (2) becoming a significant collaborative
"attractional brand" that has the potential to dramatically expand the
exposure of permaculture design (and in turn facilitate larger uptake of the
work).

 

Permaculturehub (permaculturehub.com) was started in 2011 as a first attempt
at moving this idea from concept to reality. It's a first effort that I
would love you all to think about and engage with. Koreen, Skeeter,  Andrew,
Alan and I'm sure others on this list have had conversations with me in the
past and are also currently members of the site. Andrew's
beaverstatepermaculture.com uses the same online social platform.

 

Here's what I see as some of the strengths of Permaculturehub and important
differentiators from what we - the permaculture community - have been doing
to-date:

.         Graphical/visual - Plenty of rich-media options e.g. video's and
photos. Online forums have served the community well for a long time but are
old text-based technology (read: "irrelevant to younger generations") in an
increasingly visual-learning focused world;

.         Online and open - Majority of site content viewable and searchable
from anywhere on the net by anyone, restricted areas designed to encourage
engagement. Listservs by contrast have served the community well for a long
time but are now also old technology and definitely limit the potential
audience size (not necessarily a bad thing) and are generally not visible to
non-members;

.         Social media savvy - Interactive options that enable users to
contribute their own content, provide feedback on other peoples content and
link to other social media sources;

.         Transparently integrative - Large capacity for group setups such
as guilds (private or public), multiple page administrators while the very
existence of the site is focussed on growing relationships;

.         Not just for permaculture people - Permaculturehub opens our
permaculture world up to anyone with an internet connection (there is even
an active mobile phone version of the website). The PermacultureGlobal
website is a fantastic addition to the community and a great resource for
those looking for a permaculture consultant, but arguably and unfortunately
probably does not have much content that is of interest to anyone else.

 

Permaculturehub is not the perfect solution and may not be the final
solution that the community settles on but I think it provides a solid step
forward and if we can gather a group of quality permaculture people and
build momentum around the site (or something similar) I really believe that
we could see some exciting things happen from this (or something like it).

 

There are lots of conversations that need to be had including whether this
is a step the community thinks is worthwhile and if so what ideas there are
for organization, priorities, governance etc so let's get the ball rolling!
Oh, and there's a Teachers group on Permaculturehub that was setup with the
intention of encouraging collaboration, you'll find it here (but will need
to be a member of the site to gain access):
http://www.permaculturehub.com/group/teachers.

 

And apologies for the very long email.

 

In community

 

Jesse

 

PS. The next two weeks are crazy busy for me so please be patient if you're
expecting me to respond to something.

 

Jesse Van

ph_header_sm_o_f

w: permaculturehub.com

f: facebook.com/permaculturehub

e: jesse@permaculturehub.com

p: +61 411 790 712 (Australia)

 

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From: Michael Pilarski <friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com>

To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org> 

Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 5:58 PM

Subject: [permaculture] cooperation between permaculture teachers

Koreen 

 

Totally agreed about the cooperation, including marketing cooperation, and
about your comment? "we might learn more from one another and become more
effective as teachers."

 

Sorry, but I don't know what part of the US you are in and about the level
of cooperation between permaculture teachers there.? 

 

But I would like to point out that there already exists a lot of cooperation
between permaculture teachers in many regions of the US. The area I am most
familiar with is my home region of the Pacific Northwest.? There has been
lots of collaboration and cooperation and exchange between pc teachers in
our area over the decades.? Lots happens at our annual Pacific Northwest
Permaculture Convergence.? A lot is coming together right now in our
regional association of pc teachers, Cascadian Permaculture Institute. It
aims for high standards of teaching and for collaboration between CPI
members.? CPI is just now coming together formally, but we have many years
of informal working together.? 

 

I know that there is lots of intra-regional cooperation in many other parts
of the US as well. California, Southwest, Colorado, Northeast, Southeast,
upper Midwest, etc. 

 

Of course there is a long ways to go and much more to do, but I didn't want
any new reader to get the impression there is no cooperation among
permaculture teachers.? 

 

At some point we will have a North American Permaculture Convergence to
further this process on a national level.? Until then every permaculture
teacher should be doing their due diligence to connect with and cooperate
with other permaculture teachers in their region.

 

Permacordially,

 

Michael Pilarski

 

Michael "Skeeter" Pilarski

Permaculture - Wildcrafting - Medicinal Herbs & Seeds

 

Sign up for my newsletter at www.friendsofthetrees.net

www.facebook.com/michael.skeeter.pilarski

 

 

--- On Mon, 2/11/13, Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

From: Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com>

Subject: Re: [permaculture] Who is this?

To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>

Date: Monday, February 11, 2013, 1:59 PM

 

I think we can learn from successful marketing techniques no matter who is
doing them. I have ethical problems with some things he does, like start
"social" Facebook pages and hide who he is on them and then use them to
market his products.?

 

I would like to see more cooperation between permaculture teachers. I think
it would be easier if we pooled marketing and made more effort to get to
know one another and our strengths. I think that if we worked together more
and used some (ethical) marketing strategy, we would all have more than
enough students, and we might learn more from one another and become more
effective as teachers.?

?

Koreen Brennan

 

www.growpermaculture.com

www.facebook.com/growpermaculturenow

www.meetup.com/sustainable-urban-agriculture-coalition

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