About Us

//This needs an overhaul also. This is a nice picture, but I want more people in the picture we have. Lets hold a first food party with like five or six people and take a picture then and replace this. -C

We are a group of 20-somethings living in Central and Southern Illinois who are interested in becoming more self-reliant and sustainable in the things we consume, the things we create, and how we relate with those around us.

Why a Wiki?
This wiki is designed to inform others on the radical ideas that inspire us, facilitate conversations about what those ideas mean, and promote consensus on what we should do about it. We know we aren't the only people with these ideas. In order to cultivate a community around these shared interests it helps to record and publish them. The wiki in particular is useful because it is a good tool for collaboration. It can let us each contribute our experience and resources, it is a powerful conversation tool, and it can serve as means of transparent record for a community's shared capital and labor.

Our Vision
To collaborate in the building of a space for a truly sustainable lifestyle that can be a destination for innovation and creativity while building connections and relationships between like-minded people. We seek to eventually be a retreat for makers to prototype, DIY-ers to learn new things, artists and innovators to immerse themselves in creative experience, and for the general public to discover a life without daily commutes, TPS reports, and salespeople. For now, we are trying cultivate an online community to share resources and knowledge to achieve synergy in our daily lives and make new like-minded friends.

If you want to see a cool project idea, check out the makation destination.

See Resources: Literature for the literary influences that motivate us.

People and their clever ideas (websites and talks linked):
Ward's Wiki, the first "wiki", a good example of how a Wiki as a community can develop.

Joe Justice and Team WikiSpeed built a car for the Progressive Auto X Prize. They used emerging technology, accomplished things no automaker has, and did it with no prior experience in the auto industry.

Dunbar's Number, a tested hypothesis suggesting the cognitive limit on individual valuable social connections is 150. This is part of the reasoning behind smaller more cohesive communities.

Marcin Jakubowski of Open Source Ecology. (See his ted talk here. He is one of the few people approaching sustainability and intentional living from a 21st century perspective.)

William McDonough on Cradle to Cradle Design

Walden Two Communities (e.g. East Wind)

People Aren't Rational Thinkers by Dan Ariely

The Maker Movement