The big picture, and a Transition response

In Transition we’re taking part in something which could lead to enormous change by relying on everyone’s inherent creativity, commitment and generosity…Whether or not Friedman is right that only a crisis can produce real change, there’s no doubt that we’re facing one now. Transition is responding to that crisis and showing the power and potential of seeding and growing alternative ways of being.

#OccupyWallStreet and the new forms of revolt

– NYT: Wall Street Occupiers, Protesting Till Whenever
– We Are the 99 Percent – protestors tell their stories
– The Nuts and Bolts of #OccupyWallStreet
– The Danger of Simplicity
– Leninist assumptions and cult hierarchies
– Murdoch and Berlusconi: the fall of two media empires and the network multitudes

Welcome to the Social Reporting Project!

Today begins a grand experiment in Transition — a national blog created and compiled by 12 writers around the country that aims to communicate the real-life issues and experiences of being in Transition. From tomorrow we’ll be posting every day for the next three months on subjects ranging from economics to food to inner change. Each Sunday a guest editor will write on a chosen topic and set the theme for the following week.

The term social reporting was first coined by David Wilcox, one of the media crew at this year’s Transition Conference. He defines it thus: Social reporting is an emerging role, a set of skills, and a philosophy around how to mix journalism, facilitation and social media to help people develop conversations and stories for collaboration.

Abandoning the middle class, governments lose legitimacy

People who care about climate change and peak oil have long despaired of convincing their national governments to take decisive action or even, in some cases, to acknowledge that there’s a problem. Now, the world’s democracies seem to be losing the confidence of their citizens to deal with the economic crisis too.