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InCommons.org will soon be closing down. For an update on what’s next for the work of InCommons, please check out Bush Foundation President Jennifer Ford Reedy’s latest blog post. Thank you for being a part of the InCommons community!

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Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age

"The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy was assembled in 2008 to recommend policy reforms and other public initiatives to help American communities better meet their information needs."

The commission identified three objectives for local communities to pursue:

(1) "Maximize the availability of relevant and credible information to all Americans and their communities."
(2) "Strengthen the capacity of individuals to engage with information."
(3) "Promote individual engagement with information and the public life of the community."

The full report can be read via the attached link. The report provides many interesting insights, recommendations, and useful resources.

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City Conversations in Region Five

In March, a group of mates from the Initiative Foundation, Region Five Development Commission,and University of Minnesota Extension, teamed up to convene City Conversations in central Minnesota on multi-jurisdictional collaboration. We'd like to give a special thanks to the Bush Foundation for supporting our efforts on this project, but also for bringing us together for the Art of Hosting training.

The link button to the right will lead you to the notes from our meetings. We used several of the Art of Hosting methods, including Circle and Open Space Technology. You'll notice cities identified a wide array of areas for multi-jurisdictional collaboration, here are only a few: Recreation, Safety Trainings, Environment & Sustainability, Administrative Duties, Infrastructure & Resources.

If you'd like to learn more about the facilitations or the outcomes, contact:
Region Five Development Commission: Cheryal Hills and Lee Miller
Initiative Foundation: Dan Frank
University of Minnesota Extension: Lori Rothstein

We're all in the network. Send us a message or give us a call!

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ResearchGate - Online Collaboration Site for Scientists

ResearchGate is a website that allows scientist from across the globe to collaborate or simply share their work. The site has over 900,000 members and is all the buzz in the scientific community. The premise of the site is similar to InCommons in that it brings people together to share stories and develop a collaboration.

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Beginning Again North Dakota

This was a North Dakota project, but it is very applicable to Minnesota.

Beginning Again North Dakota is an action-oriented, locally led, inclusive approach to rural community economic development. It is designed to bring about positive, lasting change to communities. The program is intended to improve the residents’ quality of life, promote a stronger local economy and enhance the region’s environmental health.

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Apps for Communities challenge (federal)

In the spirit of some of the InCommons challenges, which solicit information about already-existing ideas and actions, the Apps for Communities challenge from the FCC and Knight foundation is challenging public information sources, programmers and developers to win $100,000 by designing software that adds value to rural and small communities via the internet.

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Project Sweetie Pie

Project Sweetie Pie

Project Sweetie Pie is the story of a city that came together/worked together on a common goal for the common good of the youth of its ...

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Community approaches to healthier eating -- forum highlights

Did you miss the forum? Watch the presentations, get a summary of the day, and get the handouts.

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Workshop Press Release

A unique coalition of non- profits, University and Government agencies is developing a special workshop designed to encourage friendly interaction between upstream and downstreamers.

The workshop is being offered April 12-13 in Montevideo will explore how fun and friendly upstream/downstream dialogues and tours can excite public participation when working to improve water quality.

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Northwoods Regional ATV Trail System

The Northwoods Regional All-terrain vehicle (ATV) Trail System, originally named the Aitkin-Itasca 70-Mile All-terrain vehicle (ATV)/Off-highway motorcycle (OHM) Trail Project, includes the development of an extensive, first-rate trail system designed to be environmentally sensitive that aims to avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts as much as possible, economically beneficial, and community supported in Aitkin and Itasca Counties, Minnesota.

Motorized recreation, including ATVs, on public lands has evolved into a traditional and controversial use. In 2006, Aitkin and Itasca Counties put forth a proposal in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) to develop an integrated ATV/OHM trail system that would connect existing trails, enhance the economic impacts to local communities, and move the growing recreational use to a designed, managed trail system using cooperative decision-making to locate motorized recreation trails on public lands in Northern Minnesota and to preserve/protect diverse land, water, biologically sensitive areas and other natural resources.

Contributor

Mary Straka
2011-03-18 04:33
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Seven Lessons for Leaders in Systems Change

Center for Ecoliteracy

A report from the field.

The first guiding principle of the Center for Ecoliteracy's framework for schooling for sustainability — Smart by Nature™ — is "nature is our teacher."

Taking nature as our teacher requires thinking in terms of systems, one of nature's basic patterns. Systems can be incredibly complex, but the concept is quite straightforward. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, for example, defines a "system" as "any collection of things that have some influence on one another." Individual things — like plants, people, schools, communities, and watersheds — are all systems of interrelated elements. At the same time, they can't be fully understood apart from the larger systems in which they exist.

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