Getting close

I've created a new kind of online tool, for building community ... and it's almost ready for the world.

I tell people that I'm trying to take care of two tightly interwoven problems with community projects, which keep them from being the potent force for good they should be.

The first problem is community support. the second is effective serving of the community.

The solution in both cases is transparency (so people know what you're doing, and so can support it) and ownership (so the community can shape what is being done in their interest). To me, this needs to be done in a directly democratic manner, which is terribly uncommon these days. But it has to be coherent, and mutually supportive, or it can be a mess.

Jaimes, dancing above with Rebecca this Thursday, is about to use the tool to organize a tango center in seattle, with his colleagues Shorey & Kathryn. I'm about to use it to run the Tango Center here in Eugene. We're getting very close, I believe, to a revolutionary moment, when communities and community organizers will finally be able to easily do what they need to, to make a better world. It's exciting, so I have to get back to work. I'm dancing as fast as I can.