World Wide We - News

Webs galore!

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:45:09 +0100

Complex spiders' webs have been an image that I have used to express the ideas behing World Wide We. The weekend before the WWWe launch, I awoke to find the world laced with spiders' webs, covered in dew, and sparking in the morning sun. It was if all the spiders in the neighbourhood were showing their support for the project! Their pieces of delicate and intricate work joined together to express the vision for WWWe in ways that words cannot do. That day was also a day that broke the records for October temperatures in the UK, which reminded me of the urgency of this project to support people working together for environmental and social good in the world.

Let there be cake!

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:22:47 +0100

What better way can there be to give birth to a project than with cake? To mark the WWWe launch Julia Ponsonby (author of Gaia's Kitchen) produced a feast for the eyes as well as the stomachs. As a single candle was blown out, a BIG wish for the World Wide We was made...

A new WWWe patron - Bill McKibben of 350.org

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:25:06 +0100

This week, it has been a priviledge and inspiration to be on a course at Schumacher College with Bill McKibben (co-founder of 350.org). The topic was very timely and appropriate... 'Build Social Movements and Organising for Change'. The icing on the cake (literally) came when Bill agreed to join Fritjof Capra as a patron of the WWWe project.

Hands up for WWWe!

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:52:44 +0100

When the first WWWe photograph was taken at Schumacher College, a number of people in the crowd were wanting to make a 'W' with their hands. Different contortions of fingers and thumbs emerged. When I looked at the resulting photograph, the strongest and simplest seemed to be two flat palms facing forward with thumbs meeting in the middle. I tried it out and it felt good. The next day at Totnes railway station, I asked Bill McKibben what he thought. He tried it out and agreed. I took a photograph then he boarded the train; the start of his journey back to Washington for the big gathering the next day. And so the WWWe 'W' was born.

WWWe goes live!

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 23:54:43 +0100

After two years of work behind the scenes, the WWWe project was launched with much joy and celebration last weekend. The launch coincided with the Schumacher Centenary Festival in Bristol. To mark the occassion, Matt Harvey read the specially commissiond 'WWWelcome' poem to a packed Colston Hall of over eight hundred people. He read it alongside an animation that has brought together the illustrations of seventeen artists, including five year old Martha Byrom.

WWWe on the road

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:53:57 +0000

Over the last few weeks, the WWWe Project has been very well received across the country: in gatherings in a college, a centre of environmental excellence, a high rise office block, Victorian town hall and suburban town house. I've been amazed how many times what was being spoken of tuned in with the values and aims of WWWe. Over the next week or so, I will share some of the supportive comments... and talking of 'tuning in' we have even been offered a song!

Tim Smit talks of the gift of community

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:21:54 +0000

"The word community comes from two Latin words com "together"- munos "in gift". A community describes a culture of transaction that accepts and encourages the sharing of resources. This is distinct from the financial transactions associated with giving all acts, services and products a monetary value. It is in the thousands of acts of kindness, generosity and courtesy that a community is forged. The ties that bind are like a debt whose sum can never be known, thus never repaid, but whose servicing requires ongoing acts of contribution. It is not about liking or love, though some would argue it is. It is nothing less than the definition of a healthy society. We, as social beings know that the fractures of intimacy that see us unrooted from any community make us the poorer. The World Wide We is about providing helping hands to foster and strengthen community in all its forms. It does so in the understanding that community is based on sharing and that in sharing resources of all kinds a community and the individuals that make it so have access to so much more and will need to own so much less which is a form of growth we can all buy into - sustainable growth. This is a future for us to make as we learn to work within the boundaries the earth allows."

Tim Smit KBE (CEO and Co-Founder of the Eden Project)

Peter Tatchell dreams

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 23:56:08 +0000

"Never accept the world as it is. Dream of what the world could be - and then make it happen."

Peter Tatchell, Shared Planet 2011

Lord Mayor of Oxford welcomes WWWe

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:16:51 +0000

"This will be an ethical version of Facebook. For those of us that use Facebook as a campaigning tool, having a network like this will provide a good alternative campaigning hub." Elise Benjamin, Lord Mayor of Oxford

Andrew Simms on how to survive and thrive

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:18:11 +0000

"To survive and thrive in the face of epochal economic and environmental challenges we must embrace our human interdependence, both in our local neighbourhoods and in the global community. Making that real, rather than just a theory, means connecting people by sharing and giving our skills, abilities and understanding. The great transition to a world in which we lower humanities ecological footprint and raise our well being is something that WWWe can help bring about by bringing together people who make change happen." Andrew Simms (New Economics Foundation)

Benny Wenda says "Believe in yourself..."

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 13:56:13 +0000

"Believe in yourself.

Connect with people.

Engage with people.

Become one spirt.

Change the world."

Benny Wenda, Leeds Summat 2011

Ex-Dragon Doug Richard gives WWWe the thumbs up!

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:47:47 +0000

"World Wide We is a great idea waiting to happen."

Doug Richard (Founder of School for Startups)

WWWe Crowd Funding with Buzzbnk

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:35:11 +0100

To help finish the development of the intial WWWe platform, WWWe has set up a crowd funding campaign with the award winning Buzzbnk. Why not help the WWWe vision to be realised by going to WWWe at www.buzzbnk.org

Planting WWWe Ideas at the Chelsea Fringe

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:32:55 +0100

On Saturday, WWWe joined lots of inspiring people and orgnisations at Battersea Power Station for the first Pop-up Foundation event. Ideas were planted... and the wind of change enabled lots of cross pollination to take place. We now just need a bit of sunshine to help us bear fruit!