The teachers and students, a definition of our technological relationship.

A few weeks ago a few people from around the places started a project. Sara Allen facilitates and moderates a Sustainability roundtable on “The Green.” It’s a great idea and I’m glad she thought of it. The concept is simple: you get a bunch of aspiring Sustainability bloggers together and structure a sequence of topics to get them to cross promote. In the age of social media, this is ingenious.

The conversation is growing on me. I have read through everyone’s content and I am excited by what I see. I cannot agree with all of them 100% of the time but I do see a lot of momentum in this group. Everyone is doing something. We aren’t just bitching and moaning online, we are also struggling in life. I use my blog to vent and gripe, but the others are teaching me things and indirectly giving me a boast. This is a wide diversity united by a common urge, a lot of creative people putting their efforts towards a good goal. It’s as close as we can come to a civil society focused on a constructive goal, sort of the same irony you would get from life and the theory of thermodynamics.

All bad jokes aside, I have been frustrated at times and reading everyone’s blogs gave me the kind of jolt I needed. Sponsoring a multi-disciplinary research and development project about Technology and Sustainability with IU is hard and my soul takes a beating at times because of it. It was good to know there are people out there doing what needs to be done, “achiev[ing] more than we could separately, lone ranger style.” (Jeffrey Davis - Eco Snobbery Sucks)

“That's why I've moved on from working on research at Columbia University in sustainable behavior to trying to implement that research entirely in online communities.” Edward Hall - LghtSrc

Kropotkin

I have always considered myself as a functional anarchist, a lone ranger amongst lone rangers. From deep down inside, I hope this project success because I see this as my chance to observe technology help harmonizing society through a transition to a different mentality towards life. I want to see people start to take notice of the interconnectedness of things and begin making steps towards something better.

This is also one of the cores of Confucius philosophy that is often missed today: building a meaningful social structure and mutual respect (human rights) through a keen focus on education and experiential learning. Confucius’ social building process tragically involved his exile and difficult travels for most of his life. Technology has made that unnecessary today, but we are still struggling with being outcasts. Living in Indiana, one of the leading coal producer states, I face an uphill battle. I knew what I can gain from this community are valuable lessons to help me stay focused now.

I also know this project Sara has put together will help me through some rough climb in the near future. It is good to know there are people as ideal as I am and believes in things like “using social media to create the change you want to see.” Shane Shirley-Smith - Environmental Booty 

Be the change you want to see.








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Here are the other bloggers featured on The Green not listed above, enjoy:


Meris Michaels - Towards Better Health

Jessica Reeder - Love and Trash

Brendan Seale - The Interconnectedness of Things

Follow the Experts on Twitter
Jeffrey Davis - @EcoSnobberySux @JSDavis82
Edward Hall - @TedwardHall
Jessica Reeder - @JessicaReeder
Shane Shirley-Smith - @EnviroBooty
Brendan Seale - @BSeale
Sara Allan - @TheGreen_Blog