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Announcing the Peak Oil Healthcare Network (www.peakoilhealthnet.com)
Posted by Paul Roth on July 15th, 2007
While blogging is part of the Web 2.0 revolution, it only gives the illusion of true interactivity. Why? Sure the content is dynamic, and readers can interact with the author and (to a limited extent) other readers by leaving comments at the end of a post. But there is no true reader to reader interaction: While there is a GROUP led by the blog author, there is no COMMUNITY.
And to face and overcome the challenges posed by peak oil, climate change and other looming calamities, we need more than such a group. We do need a true community (or NETWORK) of like-minded individuals willing to share information, ideas, problems and solutions. And through the magic of modern technology, we can achieve this vision.
Enter the social network (think MySpace ©). Why are they so successful? One reason is that they allow people with the same interests to hook up (no matter where they live) and form what is essentially a distributed super-intelligence: A living, synergistic organism that is more than its members, moving towards a common goal (think bee-hive or ant nest). And it is this type of entity that we need to create if we are to successfully face the future.
Introducing the Peak Oil Healthcare Network (POHN), the first (to my knowledge) social network dedicated to peak oil and healthcare. So what exactly is a social network, and why are they so useful?
Firstly, a social network usually contains several Web 2.0 features that promote networking and community building: They usually have a home page for each member that can be customised to their liking with a personal blog, member profile, and space for photos, videos and podcasts or mp3s. They usually contain a forum and often other way that users can organise themselves into groups with common interests or goals. And they often have some sort of invitation system to allow their users to invite family, friends and peers to join the group. The system hosting the POHN has all these features, with many more in development by the platform owners (who have nothing to do with me, by the way).
My vision for the Peak Oil Healthcare Network is that it will be a rapidly growing and passionate community of people who want to take action on peak oil and climate change, people who know that one person can make a difference, especially when they are a member of a group. So that we can become an effective agent of change, influencing more and more people in increasingly large ripples, our numbers need to grow: If you really want to do something about peak oil, rather than sitting on the sidelines, visit www.peakoilhealthnet.com .
