User:Vtaylor/CE 2020

Where Community Empowerment will be, and where it should be, ten years from now.

It is composed of three elements:

(1) the Community Empowerment web site,

(2) the Community Empowerment Collective.

(3) the Community Empowerment portals on WikiEducator.

Do you think that you will be around in 2020?
 * I sure hope so.

Do you think that CE will be around in 2020? Should it be?
 * Yes, if anything the need for CE will likely increase over time. We are in a very fragile, transitional period and there could be some major shifts in "community" and "empowerment" as we know them today. The CE ideas and how-to's will be helpful for anyone who is having to deal with organization and problem solving at the community level. This will be new and important to a lot of people in the coming years.

What will contribute to the difference? (To be or not to be?)
 * Changing global social, political and economic factors

What changes would you like to see in (a) the content? (b) the organization? (c) the membership? What strengths does it have that should be preserved, if any? What weaknesses does it have and how can they be fixed?
 * The content is great, but I don't see an active community of people using, sharing and benefiting from all the development and translation effort. If it is there, it would be great to see some evidence. If not, then there needs to be some outreach, promotion and soul-searching to bridge the gap between potential beneficiaries and the content.

I believe there are two main topics that need to be developed. Environmentally Sustainable Communities and Districts, Mechanisms for Community to Community Dialogue and Fora. What do you think about those? Others?
 * In this context do you mean - community = physical geographical (village, neighborhood) community or virtual community of practice like WikiEducator? In either case, sustainability and communication are important.

I believe there are two main elements that should be retained: Zero Annual Budget, and
 * No problem - keeps the accounting simple.

No Examples or Success Stories. What do you think about those? Others?
 * I personally think stories are very important means of communications. Stories help people visualize possibilities and allow them to innovate, adapt and extrapolate with their own needs and experiences. No stories is the one major deficiency of the whole CE site IMHO. The pictures are stories, and they are enormously valuable as far as they go.

The emphasis is on How To, not on Why To (too many of those around already),
 * Not being a practitioner, I don't know how big a problem this is. The "How To" focus is important. However, in general, I think having a "why" along with the "what" is really important. In many cases, I can't guess why the suggestions and recommendations are important. I know others feel the same way. The Navy feels compelled to put "why" in with "what" in their regulations.

written to be easily understood by a middle school leaver (even though many post graduates and professors read and use the material). What do you think about that?
 * Right on. More inclusive, more useful, easier to translate.

Phil's 2020