English
Español
Deutsch
our vision
The sustainability movement encompasses many groups and networks, both online and offline. However, there is often fragmentation in the efforts people are making and inertia (and confusion) from individuals who would like to do something more but feel a lack of support, encouragement or inspiration. This is the issue.
PePol will make it easy to give and find resources, inspiration and support, that really help you make a difference – that is our vision.
Pepol will effectively help focus the energy from the millions of people, community groups, organisations and businesses seeking to change our world with a set of online, cross-network tools.
These tools are designed with the principle aim of making it easier to share knowledge and resources, get inspired and take action.
Here is a peek at what the Pepol tools will do:
The index tool lists community and expert rated content found on the web strictly related to sustainability and taking action. It will make it possible to search by postcode and subject for groups, events, local sustainable shopping outlets, knowledge and more - as well as add new content for others to find.
The PePol Index catalogues items (articles, audio, video, events, groups, ideas, businesses) that are found on the web. Index items are tagged with appropriate keywords, reviewed and moderated by the collective PePol community and may be filtered and sorted by any attribute the user specifies (such as location, date, source, type, as well as key words. e.g. type: video, search phrase: 'how to insulate your loft'. Or, type: event, location: 'within 30 miles of me', search phrase: 'green shopping').
The Daily Action tool is about getting people to share their voice and move their feet on a daily basis.
This tool rolls together personal action suggestions and logging (your 'Daily Actions' and 'Action Log') with a number of key features, like opinion gathering (PePol Policy) and carbon footprint tracking (via services like thecarbonaccount.com).
'Daily Actions' will offer suggestions to save energy, such as placing a brick in your cistern to save water, or using LED lighting, or otherwise further the cause of creating a sustainable society (such as writing to your MP about an issue, or offering a few hours of your time or services to the PePol community).
The Gather tool is for creating an event or project and helping you publicise it.
Gather allows you to broadcast your event, project or other action involving a number of people over your PePol channel and puts it in the Index.
With this tool you can specify details such as what resources and volunteers are required. According to their PePol Receiver settings, other users may get automatically notified of this new Index item where it fits their profile of available resources, geographic location, skills and time to contribute.
The Receiver tool lets you choose exactly what news and updates you get from your networks and from the Index.
You can think of it as an intelligent, highly configurable personal news aggregator. It is the customized path through which you view content on the 'PePol channel'. Each user has their own personal receiving channel (and also a sending one), which they can filter with various parameters for networks, people and content type.
The Receiver can display your friends 'Daily Actions', notification of response to events or discussion topics, relevant new index items as well as scheduled reminders. The idea is the user can completely configure what and how information from their networks and the PePol tools is presented to them.
The Sender tool is for telling either specific groups or your collected networks what you're doing and what you find interesting.
The Sender allows you to broadcast status updates, content, available or requested resources and new events to your PePol channel. Other users in participating networks can receive this content in their Receiver channel according to their personal settings. So, with a single time saving action, you can make relevant and direct contact with a lot of people!
The PePol tools are designed to be integrated into existing networks in as seemless a fashion as possible.
You might never know about the person who lives a few roads away, who is just the right person to meet for a certain project or advice, because they're part of a different network, or you can't search effectively within the network you're both a part of, for instance. Perhaps you have a great idea and need help with sharing it with the right community, or you simply need the encouragement of like-minded people to help you take action. Where do you go?
What would it be like if when you went online, there was one place you could go to find people, resources (skills, knowledge, space, money, transport, equipment), inspiration and guidance that were matched to your needs and interests for creating a more sustainable future?
What if you could easily spread news of what you were doing in this area, or gather community reviewed knowledge on specific topics or projects, with just a few clicks? What if you could bring together as many of your existing networks as you liked (and create new ones) to arrange meetings and collaborate on projects – and all this without joining, 'yet another social network'?
What if that 'one place' could somehow be any of the online networks you already use? PePol is a set of cross-network online tools to aid and inspire a result in offline action.
Our modus operandi is to combine what already works well in a collaborative way, rather than building something which merely competes for attention. If our approach proves successful, in addition to an invaluable resource for individuals and organisations who are proactive in having a more sustainable existence, we will have an unprecedented platform for public advocacy. Part of our mission is to provide a fair and open means for public lead public policy to develop – and to be heard. A sea of isolated voices can be lost in the wind, even if they agree. When those voices unite and are followed by collective action, they form a wave that has the power to change the landscape we live in.
