Welcome to the N2Y2 Remote Conference Environment chat. Below you'll find the transcript for the chat session that took place Wednesday, May 30, 9-10 am PDT. Guest expert Dawn Danby of WorldChanging joined us to discuss how online tools can help organizations acheive their environment-related goals. Lars Hasselblad Torres moderated.

Aaron: Hi Dawn (and hi to everyone else, too)
dawnd: Hi Aaron, and everyone else -
jonl: Hey, all!
EmilyW: Hi all
n2y2: hi good morning everyone - this is lars and i'll be moderating this morning's discussion on the environment
dawnd: That's my colleague Jon Lebkowsky, also at WorldChanging - good to see you
jonl: Hi, Dawn.... happy to be here!
dawnd: Terrific.
n2y2: dawn, welcome! jon, great to see you here
n2y2: Well, I'd like to open with the question, What is the biggest challenge for organizations seeking to help the environment using online tools? How is that to start?
dawnd: Big question, yeah? It seems to me that it depends on what you're hoping to do with the online platform...
EmilyW: depends what online tools you are talking about
dawnd: that too, yeah
dawnd: ...some projects are focused on connecting humans in real space
dawnd: what we do at WC has to do with information, and is less community-focused
n2y2: So let's narrow it down a bit: which tools do you think can have the greatest leverage to influence naughty consumer behavior - behavior that, at the collective level produces large environmental costs?
dawnd: (in the sense that we don't provide a networking platform)
jonl: Though the local blogs we've set up may evolve communities, I would add.
jonl: At Worldchanging, that is.
dawnd: projects that enable access to things that otherwise might be hidden, such as the ones that connect us to local farm networks
dawnd: I'd be curious to know: has anyone here has experience with actually changing environmental behaviours of participants in projects? What's the best leverage point for really making those changes?
n2y2: Access to things that otherwise might be hidden - what I hear are innovations that, for whatever reason, remain below the radar of NPOs and yet could have huge benefits for the environment?
dawnd: The reason I ask...
n2y2: This seems like a key role + value that World Changing brings. Can you think of a couple of examples?
dawnd: ...is that the tools we use online follow from that. If that makes sense.
n2y2: Great question Dawn! How about examples from a few of our guests out there?
dawnd: What I was referring to was that, even in an immediate sense, there are solutions in our own communities that we wouldn't know about if it weren't for the internet. Part of what WorldChanging does...
n2y2: "I'd be curious to know: has anyone here has experience with actually changing environmental behaviours of participants in projects? What's the best leverage point for really making those changes?"
dawnd: ...is connect a wide readership to solutions all over the world, with the hope that they can implement them in their local environment
jonl: In creating the blog network for Worldchanging, we were hoping that we would create points of presence in various locales that could facilitate solutions locally.... harder to do from a single point of presence.
dawnd: true
dawnd: let's see...
jonl: So it could theoretically be a matter of combining online and offline, if effective online meetings evolve from within the local points of presence.
jonl: Ooops, I meant effective offline meetings.
n2y2: jon, i like that " oint of presence" - is that like "nodes" in a meetup network: a motivated convenor who organizes locally around WC content?
jonl: That was the idea.
dawnd: I can only really speak for myself. I've found that pointing to successful precedents can be really useful for getting people to feel like something (for instance, green roofs, green urban transformation, certain kinds of tech) was viable
n2y2: its interesting. how might a network like freecycle connect with this idea?
jonl: But as a small NPO, we don't have resources to push that... it has to emerge from the local teams.
dawnd: that's very true.
n2y2: do you have the resources to, say, pump out some yahoo ads to freecycle users?
dawnd: This gets to my main point, I think. Online databases annd education sites provide essential, worldview-shifting ideas and tools. Getting people organized to actually put things into practice locally is a whole other set of tools - and most essential
n2y2: i think you are pointing to the exact 'sweet spot' the dean people missed: translating that online network into a locally organized force for change...
n2y2: getting people to "show" is the easy part. how would you incentivize, through WC, the longer term challenge of sustaining engagement and local action in neighborhoods?
dawnd: very good question. thinking on that.
n2y2: older networks that pre-date Web2.0 like HandsOn groups around the country need to evolve into this new online ecology of ideas emerging around spaces like WC.
jonl: It's not necessarily easy to get people to show up, but it also depends on the mix, I think. You really need at least one motivated person to do coordination.
jonl: To look for and leverage motivated volunteers.
dawnd: tapping into local networks is also really essential. for whatever your geek happens to be: local Emerging Breen Builders; Green Drinks; local food people; beekeepers; whatever. Many of these people have their own, established toolsets.
jonl: Nobody does the combination of online and offline all that well at any scale, I think.
dawnd: So I'm wondering about what the main link is to all of them, the people on the ground
dawnd: yeah. Because what WC does on its main site is global-ranging, it casts a wide net
jonl: Dawn has a great point... coordinate and network the local groups.
dawnd: And maybe this is a space that WISER can fill. I haven't spent enough time going deeply into their database yet.
n2y2: yes. one thing we have with web2.0 is what i can only call "network proliferation" - maybe there is another word for it - which is creating alot of "noise" for people who are involved in local groups to cut through.
dawnd: oh, yeah. absolutely.
n2y2: what are some strategies to deal? guest298100: WC has a large network of experts. How has the power of that network of experts filtered down to the local level to create action on the ground? Is there a mechanism or intention at WC to do that?
dawnd: as to WC's network...
dawnd: Most of us are practitioners, in one way or another, in the areas that we write about.
n2y2: the concept of circuit riders as applied to environmental problems comes to mind: WC solution riders...?
dawnd: So (again, speaking only for myself) I'm a designer, and while I was working on sustainable urban transformation projects, I was also writing about them. The real question, maybe, is whether we've leveraged WC to make changes locally...
dawnd: (just to clarify: I wasn't writing about my *own* projects)
dawnd: say more about that?
n2y2: i think the term has fallen out of use, but used to refer to geeks who would travel to the outer nodes of NPO networks solving problems as they (the NPO) implemented some new IT solution...
dawnd: I love it.
dawnd: although...
n2y2: troubleshooting and providing capacity building. same thing could apply to WC experts someone mentioned earlier?
dawnd: I think, to see things through (and not just do triage on eco problems) you need to have your feet in one place
dawnd: at least for a while
n2y2: great point: not triage around the environment problem though but the solution implementation. build the local capacity and they tackle the problem ie have their feet in one place. geek corps for the local environment...
n2y2: if its okay, let's take this in a slightly new direction. building on the idea that WC has a pool of experts with practical experience(s) to draw from...
n2y2: what role does or can WC play in donor education to help close this "gap" between networks and local action?
dawnd: I'm laughing, because this is actually a really hard question.
jonl: WC does spend a lot of time talking to foundations and other potential donors, and though part of that is in the interest of funding WC's efforts, it's also partly about educating them.... and they're hungry for more knowledge in this realm.
jonl: I also hoped in setting up the local presences that we would be sort of like a swarm of knowledge affecting everybody, donors included.
dawnd: though I'm not sure if that gets to the heart of this
jonl: Well, I could imagine us doing more.
dawnd: If you can build feedback into that, so that donors and community members can both see how the info they're providing is going into practice, then you've got something that actually works. Which grantmakers like a whole lot.
jonl: I started to say it hasn't been an area of focus, but it might be that I'm just not aware of it.
jonl: Sort of like demonstrable ROI?
dawnd: Sure. Like demonstrable SROI (social return on investment). With pictures!
jonl: Heh.
jonl: So how can we facilitate that?
dawnd: ((I don't mean to suggest that WC is without a key set of goals - only that it covers a range of things, and isn't completely focused on, say, helping people in rural Ontario get off the grid))
n2y2: have there been multiparty conversations you've been involved with at WC that address this question of turning network "buzz" (some combination of attention and discussion) into local organizing?
n2y2: and how have donors been involved?
dawnd: Jon has more to say on WC and local organizing than me, actually.
jonl: The answer is yes.
jonl: But I haven't necessarily been part of all the conversations. I know that we got funding specifically to build the network of local blogs, and the intention was to create local points of presence around which community could form.
jonl: So a donor made that happen.
jonl: But I can't say for sure how that project may relate to future donor relationships.
jonl: I think it's a very long range endeavor, for one thing.
dawnd: And I don't mean to suggest that *all* change is local. Lots of the more interesting things we've tracked are all about using online tools to share info across vast distances
dawnd: of course!
jonl: Yeah, definitely.
jonl: And we have to focus quite a bit on our primary project, which is the site itself.
jonl: It's still evolving.
n2y2: kay - let's footnote the network-to-action question. dawn, where do you see overlap between the WorldChanging's goals and the goals of other enviro blogs/campaigns/organizations?
dawnd: All of us want to see a net positive effect on the world's ecology and people. I see overlap all over the place, once again because we cast such a wide net...
dawnd: and
dawnd: (just lost what I was typing, hang on)
dawnd: when we began in 2003
dawnd: there were very few sources of information that sought to focus on solutions. environmentalism has been a story of hand-wringing for a long time.
dawnd: and we've seen a cultural shift, just in the last few years, in how this stuff gets framed. besides, it's been a good practice for all of us, to take in the dark information and turn it inside-out.
n2y2: yes, your "bright green meme" has contributed to a dramatic shift in the tone of discussion!
n2y2: we'll have to wrap soon; i'm curious: at n2 have you seen some potential new allies with areas of overlap that could spur impact-oriented conversation-as-collaboration on WC? are there specific areas of 'greatest potential'?
dawnd: oh, I wish I could've spent more hours digging into each of these projects
dawnd: not just the finalists, all of them..
dawnd: we look for examples of real successes
dawnd: and we amplify them. and I would love to be able to draw out some of the good stories embedded in some of these organizations - especially since so many of their websites are just nascent
n2y2: do others have questions for dawn?
dawnd: Greatest potential? Anything that takes on Big Wicked Problems: we look forward to seeing more things that empower citizens to find better ways to get food, to understand the systems around them... These all have huge potential.
dawnd: And I'm really enjoying seeing projects as they focus and scale up. - making the jump from the stuff in our heads to the stuff that surrounds us. Thanks so very much for having me.
jonl: [applause]
n2y2: Dawn, thank you! And Jon! [bravos]
n2y2: see you all at http://www.worldchanging.com
Aaron: Thanks to you, too, Lars, for moderating. Great discussion, y'all.
dawnd: and elsewhere. I have so many more links to visit, it's insane. Thanks, Lars and Aaron

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