Introduction: Below is a short guide for creating a sustainable proximity. You can use it for an area, home, park, neighborhood, community, region, context, environment, business, group, organization, etc. If we create many sustainable proximities, they will start to overlap. You are free to use this guide. It is based on the ProxThink sustainable proximities approach. It allows people to relate to a proximity they care about in a new and more direct way. I think a lot of our tough shared problems are not so much anyone’s fault in particular, but more just how things are organized. This approach is a different way of organizing things. It leverages technology and networks in a different way by applying a new growth model. I’ve created some new terms, a framework and a growth model. However, part of what I’ve done is to recognize, name and structure things people already do. Please use the comments below to let us know what you think or how the approach is working for you. If you find this useful or interesting, at the end there are ways to get more involved. Also, please share it. Thank you. —David Loughry
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Here’s the basic idea of this guide: The approach leverages technology and networks in a different way by applying a new growth model. The result is we can relate more directly to proximities, which can often be somewhat amorphous and hard to relate to. With this approach, relating to a proximity becomes more like relating to a person. When relating to a person, you can see how they are doing, you have ways of relating to them, you can consider options and goals for your relationship, and you can do or say things which help keep you, them and your shared context alive, interesting and growing. By making relating to a proximity easier and more likely to happen, this approach can not only increase sustainability, but also diversity and variety (for ourselves and others). Why? Because sustainability, variety and diversity mutually reinforce each other. Let’s begin.
Imagine a place you care about. An area, home, park, neighborhood, community, region, context, environment, business, group, organization, etc. This place is the “proximity” for this guide. (Sometimes, the proximity might be less physical.)
Add a network, such as the Internet, to your place.
Add people who can sense, track and record things about the place. Things that would relate to what you want to maintain or sustain about the place. What people might want to sense, track and record is so varied, I won’t even try to make up examples.
Add technological sensors for the place that can record what they sense. The sensors might record views, heat, pollution, chemicals, moisture, sun, traffic, electricity usage, and other things. Things that would relate to what you want to maintain or sustain about the place.
Allow the humans and technological sensors to record their impressions and data about the place on the network. This set of impressions and data on the network is the ProxMonitor for this place.
Allow people and technology to access the impressions and data on the network. These access points are RelatePoints. If the network is the Internet, the RelatePoints can be web pages viewed in browsers.
So far, we’ve covered two processes of the ProxThink growth model: ProxMonitors and RelatePoints. This growth model allows us to leverage technology and networks in a different way.
Now have people, or a subgroup, develop a set of conditions and characteristics of the place, that they want to sustain or maintain. It could also be a range of conditions and characteristics. Sustaining some conditions and characteristics does not mean the place would feel or be static or boring. Some of the conditions or characteristics might be uncertainty or variability people want to sustain. And some surprises are usually unavoidable anyway. Put the conditions and characteristics people develop into an agreement. Of course, the agreement could change over time based on new input from people, and impressions and data from the ProxMonitor. The agreement might also suggest new things to track in the ProxMonitor. This agreement is the third process of the ProxThink growth model, which is a Vadi Agreement. “Vadi” is short for valuable differences. The agreement can also be displayed in the ProxMonitor at the RelatePoints.
Now people and technology can work (and play) together to sustain the conditions and characteristics. Both people and technological systems can access the ProxMonitor via RelatePoints, check the Vadi Agreement, and do things which help sustain the conditions and characteristics of that place they care about. What they do to maintain or sustain those conditions and characteristics are ProxRewards, or “proxri” for short. Proxri are rewards made with the proximity in mind. Proxri are the fourth and final process of the ProxThink growth model.
This is a simple guide for how the ProxThink growth model can be used to create a sustainable proximity. As you can see, part of the focus shifts to the proximity that people care about. With the help of technology, networks, and the ProxThink growth model, people can relate to the place (proximity) they care about in a new and more direct way.
This approach may be most appropriate for shared challenges which people in a place or proximity face together. Given that some of our toughest problems are shared challenges, it is something I think we should try, see what happens, and improve as we go. In addition, it can be used for parts of a place or proximity. It’s not all or nothing. We can use it to make part of a place sustainable, and grow from there.
That said, I believe the sustainable proximities approach, which this guide introduces, has the potential to change how we approach many situations, large, medium and small, and also some of our toughest challenges. Things like globalization, economic turmoil and climate change.
Don’t believe this can work? Read this.
If you want to get more involved, I’m looking for people who want to try this approach, or build systems for it, or fund it, or several of these. If you know of software that can be used or adapted for this approach, please contact me. If you want to test this approach, provide resources, or get involved in any way, please contact me.
Again, you are free to use this approach, and I hope you will. I’m interested in your comments and thoughts. Also, if you found this interesting or useful, please share it. If you have questions, contact me here. If you find it beneficial or rewarding, please proxri the proximity which produced it, via the Proxri links at ProxThink.com. Thanks!
