The big problem with consensus is when consensus is not reached. What do you do then?

When decision making becomes too cumbersome a system of delegates can arrive at the best result for everyone.

Join with New Earth Nation who are doing this and are very effective and have the bluprint and are actualizing and expanding it Now See Sacha Stone founder of Humanitad, New Earth Nation and the ITNJ International Tribunal for Natural Justice...

Information and research on effective pay as you can models of sales and/or exchanges would be helpful.

There is nothing much in this section. There are plenty of ways to make money as well as save money. Ask me.

with data probably available:

Dancing Rabbit

Twin Oaks

perhaps no data:

Morehouse
Fellowship Community, Spring Valley, NY

Also, some other factors to investigate: longevity of the community as a whole; turnover rate; happiness index; food security. Thanks for collecting this data, this is vital and helpful.

would be nice to see the comparisons visually, by category: embodied energy (foodprint), electricity, heat, and transportation.

Another example of where you can win more hearts and minds through usability--I heard you bemoaning that someone would be so foolish as not to turn their phone sideways to see your website. It may seem obvious, but if someone hasn’t yet thought of it, then it's not obvious. It's only obvious in hindsight. So, the best tactical response is to put a little message saying "having trouble viewing this page? if you're viewing it on your phone, have you tried turning your phone sideways? if that doesn't work, have you tried changing your phone's settings?” It may seem stupid but hindsight is 20-20, foresight is a blank. It’s not stupidity, it’s a matter of perspective and self-organizing perception.

Technology can be the bane of these efforts, but keeping things as simple as possible helps.

2--I'd like to see somewhere on the site a brief description of 'why this site is different from other organizing efforts that didn't work, and what in particular it's taken from the best of what has been done.’” That would give me a lot of motivation to focus more on thetransition.org out of other priorities I have in my life.

2a don’t assume I”m not already doing something, actively, to change the world, to move to the new paradigm. Some of the language assumes that I’m not doing X because I’m afraid. That may be true in part, but it’s nicer to have the things I _AM_ already doing in spite of their non-comfortability acknowledged as valid. It’s less disruptive and conduces to clarity.

3--I have other resources, little-known and underutilized, for carrying out and managing a project, and I'd be glad to share them if you want.

4--Lastly, "become a contributor" is emphasized a bit sooner and more than seems necessary or beneficial. Put your expenses out there on the site--be explicit about what you need, and people will rise to the occasion and derive great satisfaction from meeting your need. Askf or what you really need, don’t under-ask; ask for a healthy amount of money r other resources that can support you in comfort so you can do your job. But don’t focus on the money as a primary thing, or even asking for alternative currency contributions. Emphasize the "take action" part of how people can contribute (as you, Nicole, did in our conversation). Also, instead of "become a contributor" you might label it something like "what the Transition organization needs to do its job.”

5—for things that your site doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel on, might you partner with other websites or web communities?

I think it's a pretty great thing you're attempting here; I certainly think the part of your work where you went to Twin Oaks and connected deeply and authentically with other people is of genuine value. I

I hope this is helpful. My two cents, take what you like and leave the rest.

In community,

Joshua

Hey Nicole and John,

Joshua here from Twin Oaks/Communities Conference. It was great to meet you and I appreciate the focus and dedication you’re exercising in the work you’re doing. It looks like a promising contribution to the global efforts and an improvement over some past platforms.

I'm just sharing some initial impressions about your site from having spent many 2 hours with it, and perhaps these things are not relevant or questions get answered later on, but the impressions are fresh and I may not visit the site again, the future is unknown. I share this also because I've seen many of these kinds of things come and mostly go, for a while, and have a sense of a larger vision that matches yours, I believe.

1. website usability--if you haven't read Paul Krugman's _Don't Make Me Think_, it's worth reading. It points out how much can get lost in the layout of a website. There are a few places on the site where I felt I got lost or frustrated, and started to give up on exploring the website. I will try to be more specific if I can remember, but you may need to do an actual usability test to really find these places--that is, have a naive subject use the site while you observe and see what they click on.

I may have been an unusual case since you, Nicole, told me to go to "take action" first, so I had a weird experience of sharing all of my list of skills and knowledge without much idea of what was going to happen with the information. But that was a pretty good place to start.

Another thing that had my energy go down was a separate page of "about" and "our mission"--I would want just one page I can clearly start with that's the introduction to everything.

I was really, really, really, really glad that you said you'd talked with _multiple_ people who had decades of experience in the fields they worked in, and that you were going to get it right this time. A list of groups that seem, on the face of it, not to have gotten it right or not to have had much momentum, despite being wonderful in their insight, intent, and potential: idealist.org's new global connector project (I lost momentum with that after a few months); i-neighbor.com (never heard from anyone on it); yardshare.com or something like that (managed to connect with only one gardener who was too rigid to work with); meetup (the permaculture community and the food forest in Boston have ceased having work days or community pot lucks or gatherings of peers and just have classes now) and the old practice of throwing a block party to get neighbors together (it rained, hardly anyone came, maybe it will lead to something down the road but it was not making much of a difference. I am pretty tired and burned out with all of this. I need to be selfish and take care of myself at this point in whatever else I do. Being at Twin Oaks fed me. Being on permies.com often feeds me. Being on sites that attempt to link people for organizing—so far not so much. So--I hope that what you've learned from these other people's experience is really going to make things better. So far, the jury’s out. I haven't heard from anyone on thetransition.org asking me to share a skill or inviting me to a pot luck or anything (it’s been a week—my attention span is pretty short), and I do live in Granola Central--Somerville, MA—so, as I said, I’m not blown away yet, but jury’s still out.

Heal the world - Child Prodigy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6d6Yo3DwVI

Hidden Ones - Missy Higgins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2teyWS4904A

Is pay pal the only way to contribute monthly donation?

https://thetransition.nationbuilder.com/get_trained I get kicked off by clicking on the links inside the paragraph: recruiting, trained activists,

In the list of over 2,000 names who have completed the o seed task. it would be nice to see if my name is on the list. Where is the search for that list please?

In response to Nicole's Q: If the Teacher was Life? A: At our high school over the main entrance, carved in stone, it says "Learn to Live and Live to Learn"

It is both a meeting process method and an organizing method. Sociocracy corresponds most closely to our shared human nature and when done well keeps everyone contributing constructively.

Dan Nocera on YouTube search for Artificial Leaf