Rural Community Carbon Network

Architecture of participation & inspiration

I just read about how large corporations are embracing idea-sharing networks... "creativity is no longer about which companies have the most visionary executives, but who has the most compelling architecture of participation. That is, which companies make it easy, interesting and rewarding for a wide range of contributors to offer ideas, solve problems and improve products?"

Following on from my earlier post about the development of ruralnet|online and the possibilities for Web 2.0 and the RCCN....I wanted to point you towards a blog by ruralnet CEO Simon Berry - where he describes how he conducted an experiment at the weekend into social networking.

Simon has illustrated how effective Web 2.0 technology can be at putting people in touch with each other. Imagine being able to converse with others that have developed a similar community energy project and who are writing about it somewhere 'out there' on the web.  Web 2.0 technology will enable us to track what that person is doing, when they are doing it and would allow us to contribute and add to that knowledge.  Now, that is 'collective genius' at work -and in this way the RCCN is the architecture of participation and inspiration.

An interesting, if depressing, read this morning....

I came across an article this morning about a new report from the Department of Health which suggests that climate change could kill thousands in the UK by 2012. The report said that "Climate change could lead to a heatwave in the south-east of England killing 3,000 people within the next decade."

It put the chances of a heatwave of that severity happening by 2017 at 25%. 

A 'blogging' great week...

The first of two consultation focus groups took place this week, to establish how ruralnet|uk can support rural communities through their online services; I blogged about this process earlier and highlights of the day have been summarised by Dave Briggs on the consultation blog-site.

We were delighted to be joined on the day by Tracey Todhunter, resident of Ashton Hayes village. Self-confessed 'technophobe', Tracey was inspired to set up her own WordPress blog documenting her diary "to chart my days of living low carbon".

Blogging and Web 2.0 technology enables people to put their 'stuff' out there, for  everyone to access and stay up to date with what you are doing. It's really not scary - as Tracey will confim - but it holds so many real possibilities to network effectively. Wouldn't it be great if communities taking a low carbon approach were to all have their own blog-site diary, like Tracey - so other communities and environment advocates could all stay in touch.....this is something that will form an integral part of the RCCN; enabling groups to link and up and learn from each other.

To learn a bit more about Web 2.0 tools, take a look at our IT guru Paul Henderson's I-See-T blog-site about blogs, RSS and shared bookmarking.

Forget chocolate, give up your carbon for Lent

Taking a few moments at lunch today to look at the latest news, I came across this - a call from two senior Bishops to cut back on carbon this Lent, instead of chocolate or alcohol. As I had already scoffed a mini Curly Wurly and was mid-way through a Chomp bar, I felt inspired.  I am already taking steps at home to reduce individual and household carbon emissions, so I will do more to get the message through to my friends and encourage them to also be more energy efficient over the next 40 days :-) 

CoRE on its way to biggest project yet...

CoRE (Community Renewable Energy),  the national pilot project based in Berwick-upon-Tweed,  has embarked on what will be its biggest project so far; aiming to generate a whopping £4m for the town of Berwick.  CoRE is funded and supported by the regional Regional Development Agency One North East and this latest venture involves Berwick Community Development Trust; Berwick CoRE has submitted a proposal to put a community owned turbine on a site just north of The Ramparts Business Park, Berwick.

This renewable energy development is a really great example of a what progress can be made by new organisation (CoRE is only a year old!), when the motivation, commitment and co-operation exists amongst key stakeholders. 

Berwick CoRE will be holding public meetings to discuss the proposal. They are keen to hear from anyone about the idea, or from those interested in getting involved in this project, or who have ideas for other projects anywhere in the North East. For more information contact ross@core.coop or go to www.core.coop

Good luck with the project to Ross and the team!