Trying to make sense of it all

[GliderGuider]

One of the things that has become abundantly clear from the real and virtual interactions I've had on topics like Peak Oil, climate change, food supply, population and economics is that even the people who are aware of these problems have made sense of them in radically different and often conflicting ways. Simple education about the facts of each problem isn't enough, because to truly "get" the issue requires an integrative sense of how they interact and what part they play in the broader, holistic arena of the world.

While many people have arrived at similar understandings of the mechanics of one wicked problem or another, I often get the sense that for most people such problems exist in isolation. Too often the sense of where they fit in the broader picture is constrained by insufficient exposure to the sense that others have made of the situation, or an unwillingness to move beyond a parochial defense of one's own hard-won understanding.

Enter a new endeavour by a bunch of very bright people: Global Sensemaking. From their social page:

Global Sensemaking (GSm) is a group of people dedicated to helping humanity address complex, interrelated global problems—such as climate change, energy policy, poverty, and food security—by developing and applying new web-based technology to assist collaborative decision making and cooperative problem solving.

We are from all walks of life: professors, scientists, software engineers, politicians, parents, grandparents, public health professionals, business people, students, film-makers, .... If our charter (below) appeals to you, please join us.

Mission Statement

To enhance the ability of people worldwide to collaborate on solving global wicked problems.

Vision

Humanity faces an emerging mess of global challenges (often called wicked problems) — such as, climate change, poverty, peak oil, population pressure, water shortages, declining biodiversity, and failing food supply — that are the product of patterns of thinking and behavior that no longer make sense. We need new tools of thought if we are to adapt to the scale and complexity of these challenges; tools that augment individual intelligence with the structured insights of many minds. We are building those tools.

Mantra

Start making sense.

Strategy

To realize our vision, we are creating a web portal, developing open source software, and fostering international standards to create a scalable, collaborative, deliberative, and global discourse environment (e.g. web-based global sensemaking platforms) for addressing the most pressing problems of our time.

I'd urge everyone to check it out.