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Last week we posted an Intro to the Emerging Leader Labs, an initiative in upstate New York to demonstrate that worldchanging projects can get incubated and launched while being supported by a gift economy instead of typical startup capital.
This week, a video has been prepared by Ben Brownell, one of the participants in the current seed project of the Labs, giving a taste of what the experience has been about for him.
It’s quite inspiring!
Ben’s intention is to support the launch of the ELL (and similar eco-social venture projects) through media production and storytelling. The hope is to attract the resources needed, via sponsorship or gifting, so that he can continue developing his projects.
Current projects include:
Common Storyworks: “Leverage web video storytelling to garner support for early-stage social ventures in the conversion of their documented “common good” achievements into tangible assets and diverse liquid capital for the global transition expedition.”
BrowsEarth: “an open web protocol for aggregating, rating and navigating multimedia content from the Great Transition”
His current requests include:
– digital equipment
– artist’s residency
– food & fuel stipend
– aligned contract work
– patronage gift flow
Offers include:
– media design
– crowdfunding campaign mgmt
– physical site design and build
– community / project organizing and development
– innovation, strategy, coherence consulting
He’s interested in getting involved with projects at the ground level that are focused on sustainable and regenerative living models, like ecovillage design and permaculture. For examples, check out One Community Ranch, AppleSeed Permaculture, Avalon Springs, and Neshobe Farm.
If you’d like to get in contact with Ben, he can be reached at commonstoryworks [at] gmail [dot] com, on twitter @v17us, updates on g+, and you can watch the Vermont video series and VEDA Collective projects he created while working at Neshobe Farm earlier this year.
Stay tuned for a final update about the Emerging Leader Labs seed project coming in the next few weeks!
emergent by design 
love.
Awesome! This is inspiring… keep up the good work and please keep posting as it’s very important that those at a distance can see what you are doing!
Wow; thanks for the spotlight Venessa! This video was fun to put together, and obviously builds on a lot of diverse ‘behind the scenes’ work and passion, not least from yourself.
Suresh, we are in the midst of sorting a content structure for the ELL website which will make it much easier to assemble and navigate those important pieces of the bigger picture on record. We’ll have more to say/show about that next week, as we wrap up and present outputs from the Seed Project run here.
The core of my immediate personal wishes are for some markers of success with the media & storytelling arm of ELL during this startup phase. Demonstrating some concrete results from our outreach would be a gratifying personal and collective achievement in the direction of larger goals outlined above.
I am particularly interested in securing new/used camera equipment for ELL, a dedicated media support person for the next run of the Lab in the Fall, and a clear sign of successful messaging through social media, such as logging at least 500 YouTube views by end of this month. Pitch in if you see a part to play! Plant seeds with us, add value, and watch it all grow…
Please check in on the Wish List page for more special requests: http://emergingleaderlabs.org/Wish_List
Just beautiful, such an inspiring example of the possible positive future we all can co-create – loving learning from watching, and looking forward to having the opportunity to make connections and share energy with this project.
*Update*
One week left in the Lab, and i’m doing some scenario planning for myself to carry momentum forward, creatively. Since the original post here, i have been invited to an appealing “artist residency” situation nearby for the month of September, which will provide some breathing room as i make further arrangements.
This spot on EBD is a great opportunity to be seen and supported as i sort out those next steps; i’ll take it as an interesting experiment in “open venture signaling” based on value alignment (implicit in this readership;), action/interest proximity, and needs/offers outreach.
So far, my project work in the Lab has split in a few separate-but-related directions. Now it’s time to narrow down the follow-on options, amongst:
1) Focus on development of ELL program space through media, enterprise, and process development
needs: production assistant, program support interns, camera equipment
provides: great evolving “success” story line, Lab program enhancements, open source knowledge / experience document and process base, ELL outreach and propagation
leads to: growing role in ELL ecosystem, great p2p tech network and relationships, open enterprise offshoots
2) Go mobile for a while as a lightweight video producer/artist amongst exciting projects and venues around the country, much as I started out earlier this year: https://vimeo.com/40806470
needs: food and fuel stipend, project contacts / invitations, projection equipment
provides: various inspiring creative content, boost projects through broadcast and crowdsourcing, spread knowledge and patterns of collaborative bootstrapping
leads to: new relationships, holistic adventure lifestyle, freelancer reputation
3) Park myself for winter and find a “day job” in order to focus on content curation and architecture a la StoryWorks / BrowsEarth
needs: pro bono web designers and app developers, test user / producer community, free or low-cost housing
provides: prototype and roadmap for an important platform / protocol, attention for subject material / projects, web-dev cred
leads to: full-fledged implementation, sponsor and content provider partnerships
4) Reach out through trust-net to connect with a momentous startup-stage commoning venture (and/or prepare to return to Neshobe Farm next spring)
needs: outstanding project site, capable multi-talented team, seed funding, coherence
provides: new case study opportunity, physical site improvements, project stakeholding, community development
leads to: model accomplishment, regenerative business co-op, spreading to other instances, long-term base / network
Please contact as linked above with questions or suggestions! Will be looking forward to new feelers and fellows. Common good luck all ’round through rich ties and shared wealth, in these simmering, shifty times.
Thanks; & stay attuned~
Hello Ben, check out http://www.imaginezambia.org and http://www.digitbcorp.com, re the last option in your list. Also, http://www.designearth.net (not updated in a while, but gets the vision of knowledgebase supporting transformation).
Regards,
Mark Roest
Nice, Mark. Those are great initiatives. If you have specific offers or requests from anywhere there which may synch up to the prospects noted above (or perhaps your deeper read of my potential!) please connect by email. Thank you & be well underway!
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