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The closing keynote at the Economist Conferences Event, "Creating tomorrow's liveable cities", presented byProfessor Jan Gehl, founding partner of Gehl Architects,Copenhagen. This video provides a good deal of information on the benefits bicycling and walking have on a livable community when integrated into the community landscape.

It's our mission to supply a live stream of continuous, accurate data and insight into what people are thinking and doing all over the world, all of the time, so that companies, governments and institutions can better serve the people that sustain them.

This is a living story of the process arts. Processes can relate to the individual (such as meditation), interpersonal dynamics (for example Nonviolent Communication), group processes (e.g. Open Space, World Cafe, unconference and wiki), on up to very large scale systems, such as economic, legal and political structures (e.g. Threebles, Restorative Circles, or Citizen Deliberative Councils). Even more than a list of particular processes though, the process arts are about an awareness that however we are doing something, that is simply one particular way, and we can and often do experiment with doing it any number of other ways.

Introducing Future Search NetworkFuture Search Network is a collaboration of hundreds of dedicated volunteers worldwide providing Future Search conferences as a public service. We serve communities, NGO's, and other non-profits for whatever people can afford. Our misson is to help communities everywhere become more open, supportive, equitable and sustainable. We also work with for-profit organizations who share these values, charging standard fees. We are a cross-cultural network, speaking many languages. Our members live in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America.

GreaterPlaces is a crowdsourced "How-To" manual for creating great communities - cities, suburbs and rural areas.   Think of a Pinterest or Houzz for community design. WHAT IS COMMUNITY DESIGN? Community design is about people, the places we live, and the spaces we share.  Community design is also about how we come together and make decisions that affect our communities and neighbors: from crossroads in the country to homeowners' associations in the suburbs to new apartments in the city.

THE GOVLAB'S MISSION IS  TO IMPROVE PEOPLE'S LIVES BY CHANGING THE WAY WE GOVERN. Our goal is to strengthen the ability of institutions - including but not limited to governments - and people to work more openly, collaboratively, effectively and legitimately to make better decisions and solve public problems. We believe that increased availability and use of data, new ways to leverage the capacity, intelligence, and expertise of people in the problem-solving process, combined with new advances in technology and science can transform governance. We approach each challenge and opportunity in an interdisciplinary, collaborative way, irrespective of the problem, sector, geography and level of government.

Family Independence Initiative (FII) is a national nonprofit which leverages the power of information to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives. Using hard data and compelling stories, we are sparking a movement to transform the stereotypes, beliefs, practices, and policies that undermine families' efforts to get ahead. FII believes that our country is greatly underestimating the ability of low-income families to lead their own change. FII has tracked the progress of hundreds of families over the last decade and found that the lack of upward mobility is not the result of a lack of initiative but can be traced to two other factors: 1. Lack of information, and therefore lack of investment, in the initiatives low-income families take on their own or collectively. In order to access services and programs, families have to show neediness instead of initiative(bolstering already prevalent negative stereotyping). 2. Negative stereotypes and the focus on individualism have led to government and charitable practices that discourage families from turning to one another and developing the mutuality that historically built America's middle class.

The Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative has launched a new website to share information about our collective efforts to combat homelessness. The website includes information on Homeless Initiative at work including real life stories of clients whose lives have been transformed, quarterly progress reports, educational information about Measure H, and latest news. 

We live in a world relentlessly pushed forward by the velocity, volatility, uncertainty, disruption, and disequilibrium of constant change.  As the pace of change accelerates, so does the shelf-life of our strategies, processes, frameworks, and systems.  The rapidity of change now requires an expanding and continuously evolving breadth and depth to our repertoire of problem-solving strategies and leadership skill-sets.  Yet, even in the face of this rapidity of change and the disequilibrium it creates, too often, we find ourselves as individuals and organizations siloed in and dedicated to only one way of doing and working.  

Participedia harnesses the power of collaboration to respond to a recent global phenomenon: the rapid development of experiments in new forms of participatory politics and governance around the world. We live in a world in which citizens of most countries are asking for greater involvement in collective decisions. Many governments, non-governmental organizations, and even some corporations are responding by experimenting with ways to increase public participation. Hundreds of thousands of participatory processes occur each year in almost every country in the world. They are adressing a wide variety of political and policy problems. And they often supplement and sometimes compete with more traditional forms of politics, such as representative democracy. Participedia responds to these developments by providing a low-cost, easy way for hundreds of researchers and practitioners from across the globe to catalogue and compare the performance of participatory political processes.

Drawing on our deep expertise and network across the public, private and social sectors, MCG provides government leaders with insights, new approaches, and connections to help them improve the lives of the citizens they serve.

The American middle class is losing ground in metropolitan areas across the country, affecting communities from Boston to Seattle and from Dallas to Milwaukee. From 2000 to 2014 the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 U.S. metropolitan areas examined in a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. The decrease in the middle-class share was often substantial, measuring 6 percentage points or more in 53 metropolitan areas, compared with a 4-point drop nationally.

"This article is meant to serve as a living document where I will curate reading materials on bioregional design and add new links as I discover new content. It is done in preparation for a workshop on bioregional design that I plan to give later this spring. "

We are living in the midst of humankind's manifold crises, in a time of unprecedented change. Some call this era The Big Shift, Jump Time or The Great Transition. Out of the turbulence of this transformation, the world that will emerge will most likely be very different from what we know. Whether what unfolds will be for better or worse is up to us. Not up to us individually, but up to all of us who care for it.

We are a collegial, peer-driven community of foundation and nonprofit communications professionals who share ideas, evidence, and lessons about how smart communications improve lives. Through meetings and events, publications, social outreach, and an online community, we elevate the role of communications across the social sector. We help our members build relationships, skills, and confidence to navigate a shifting information landscape and to be a voice for change that benefits both individuals and society.

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people. We seek to strengthen the rule of law; respect for human rights, minorities, and a diversity of opinions; democratically elected governments; and a civil society that helps keep government power in check. We help to shape public policies that assure greater fairness in political, legal, and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights. We implement initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media. We build alliances across borders and continents on issues such as corruption and freedom of information. Working in every part of the world, the Open Society Foundations place a high priority on protecting and improving the lives of people in marginalized communities.

Plan4Health is launching in neighborhoods, cities, and counties across the United States, funding work at the intersection of planning and public health. Anchored by American Planning Association (APA) chapters and American Public Health Association (APHA) affiliate members, Plan4Health supports creative partnerships to build sustainable, cross-sector coalitions. Each coalition is committed to increasing health equity through nutrition or physical activity. And, each coalition is dedicated to meeting the needs of residents where they live, work, or play.

sumApp is the front-end data-gathering tool we designed to enable us to make live, evergreen Social System Maps with a minimum of fuss. Works with the data-viz platform Kumu with no extra wrangling needed. Available by subscription to network leaders and sponsors.

The Partnership for Sustainable Communities works to coordinate federal housing, transportation, water, and other infrastructure investments to make neighborhoods more prosperous, allow people to live closer to jobs, save households time and money, and reduce pollution. The partnership agencies incorporate six principles of livability into federal funding programs, policies, and future legislative proposals.

The RegenLab for Travel offers tools to help the tourism community to transit successfully towards Regeneration. By using a systemic approach, living organizations design and the co-creation of transcending experiences, we support and encourage tourism organizations to create more resilient communities and destinations, where man and nature coexist in parity.þff