Boosting Social Environmental Networking in Idaho

Al Gore and David C. Korten:

This month these two important speakers will be in Boise, Idaho and large crowds are expected to listen to their arguments for citizens to become more involved in public environmental affairs. Social networking tools I have been writing about here can dramatically increase these opportunities if we learn how to use them more effectively. I suggest that public discussion and action groups could form after these two influential speakers leave Boise. This effort could tie in with the topics presented at the Idaho Environmental Summit in December would be a good starting point. On this Blog I wrote about these possibilities on November 29 and December 12, 2006.

Former Vice President, Al Gore will be the keynote speaker at the Frank Church Institute Conference on Public Affairs in Boise, Idaho January 22, 2007. The conference is titled "Global Warming: Beyond the Inconvenient Truth" and will be held at Boise State University. Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" has become an outreach effort to mobilize local citizens to fight global warming.

Also well known as a person who popularized the term "information superhighway" in the early 1990's, Al Gore was the keynote speaker at the 1992 Frank Church Conference, where "Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit" his newly released book at the time was the theme.

On January 19, David C. Korten will be speaking about his new book "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community." Sponsored by the Boise Unitarian Fellowship and many co-sponsor groups, the book and lecture are part of a plan "to advance Earth Community Dialogues aimed at changing the conversation about our local, national and global possibilities."

Both of these men have already been promoting the development of local civic action groups during their lectures and on their web sites. I am interested in identifying groups that do actually form and how they communicate using the Internet. Anyone else reading this Blog is welcome to participate in this effort.