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Dropping Knowledge

Challenges Entered: 
dropping knowledge is participatory democracy and idea generation for the 21st century.

 

Are we really to think that the few who sit atop influential institutions governing the world have all the answers to today’s challenges? What if there was a way to harvest the creativity and ideas of all people?

The mission of dropping knowledge international is to help the global public find its voice, name the issues it cares about, and figure out together how to solve them. At dropping knowledge international we seek to create a modern infrastructure for the open exchange of knowledge, vision, and ideas among citizens of the world. The international constituency names questions, engages in dialogue, exchanges information, collaborates, and offers solutions to inform and inspire action regarding the most pressing issues of our time. dropping knowledge begins this process by inviting us to question all that is in front of us, all that has come before us, and all that is to come.

Our vehicles for action/change take form in the following products:

· Living Library® and Web Platform – An online resource for gathering, storing, sharing, and searching information and knowledge, and engaging in dialogue for social change. Knowledge is only of value if it is accessible.

· Table of Free Voices® -- A place-based and/or virtual event that brings a diverse group of people together to offer their answers to and thoughts on questions posed by the public. The responses offered by participants at the TOFV are digitally recorded, stored, and offered freely to the public (via the Living Library) to use. For video of our Berlin ToFV please see: http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/media/show/12284/22616.page

· Question Campaign -- A communication strategy using print, web, television, film, and audio media to engage the public to name questions that they believe the world needs to address. Questions from these campaigns are used to identify questions to be asked at TOFV and to generate dialogue and knowledge exchange on the dki website and in the Living Library.

· Social Media Products – Multi-media educational products developed from knowledge generated through use of dki’s primary products and captured by dki.

WHAT WE NEED:

+Two 17in./1.83GHz iMac desktop computers

+Full-time Senior Software Engineer

+Hosting fees

+Translation, transcription, and transfer fees of content from Table of Free Voices

+Full-time Chief Technology Officer

Project Details
Project url: 
http://www.droppingknowledge.org
Supporting organization: 
TIDES Center
Project Assessment
Sustainability Model: 
Currently dropping knowledge international operates under a partnership model of sustainability. By this, we mean that we seek to strategically partner with organizations who not only provide support through content synergy – but support in a diversity of forms, especially fiduciary. Apart from this operating model – dropping knowledge international seeks to create tangible products out of the content generated both on our user platform and from our Table of Free Voices events. This content is distilled and turned into social products which can be sold to activists or as educational materials. Lastly, we would like to mention the power of the small donation. Just as Wikipedia is supported primarily from micro-donations from its user base – we have found similar success in our history and will continue to foster this support.
Project goals: 
We have identified three key areas for our work over three months and beyond: 1. Re-tooling the Living Library and dki web platform and presence § Actualize the functionalities that make it possible for people to create from dki material. § Offer the dki platform in other languages, beginning with Spanish. § Implement new question and answer model § Increase bandwidth and speed of site § Create low-barrier entry points into the platform 2. Partnerships to refine dki products and build global community and impact § Explore possible partnerships § Criteria for network partnerships: ü The organization has a network or constituency that cares about dialogue for social change. ü Among dki partnerships, include a few that focus on key social issues and/or constituencies that dki seeks to impact. ü The organization agrees to abide by the principles of dki in its common work with dki. ü The partner is interested in a learning relationship. ü The partner collaborates with dki on the design and financing of the partnership. § Work with partners to figure out the appropriate product designs for dialogue, learning, and action to support social change. 3. Structuring the dki organization § Launch dki as an independent organization – i.e., a 501c3. § Build staff and partnerships for delivering dki core functions. § Build the financial solvency of dki, short-term and longer-term. § Build dki boards to provide the leadership, resources, and connections to support dki’s success.
Identified Obstacles: 
We believe that if you know something to be true or beneficial – it belongs to the public. The current intellectually property and information environment is modeled after a closed society. There is a natural tendency for individuals and organizations to restrict, hoard, and limit the use of information that may somehow promote social change. Since all of the material in the dropping knowledge platform is published under a Creative Commons license – we face a serious obstacle when running up against this aforementioned tendency. The second primary obstacle we face in reaching our mission is a technological hurdle. As we seek to maximize on the newest in both Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies – we grow further from peoples of the world who are unable to meet the technological standards to support these platforms. It is our belief that this is an obstacle that requires creativity. We have begun to experiment with alternative modes of interaction with the dropping knowledge platform in the spirit of making it universally accessible.

Location

Cambridge, MA
United States
See map: Google Maps
Submitted by droppingknowledge on April 6, 2007 - 10:22am

 I was really impressed by

Submitted by Elenaki on April 10, 2007 - 4:33pm.

 I was really impressed by this project.

The scale is big and idea is fresh.

 

__________________  

"All the changes are only in the perceivers." - Baruch Ashlag http://www.kabbalah.info

Opinion

Submitted by Roxie (not verified) on April 10, 2007 - 3:07pm.

I consider this project awsome and having a noble cause.

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