The Portland Design Exchange

This link was sent to me from brother Spurgin:

"Tracing a Line from Sustainability to Design Community

Sustainability is the attempt to transform the economic/business model that we have inherited into something that more closely resembles a natural system. Natural systems are cyclical, whereas conventional business systems are linear, relying on a overly simple, finite model: raw material to process to product to waste. Natural systems, fundamentally, rely on recommitment. There is no such thing as waste in a natural system. What is waste within one process becomes fuel to another. Death is a fertilizer. In a closed system, there can be no other way. Otherwise the system pollutes itself, bringing about its own end.

Whether it is formed around design or any other principle, a community depends on recommitment. Resources are finite, but creativity is limitless. One of the points of the Design Exchange is to create a natural, cyclical flow of creative thought, so that everyone is both a borrower and a lender, each idea shared is the potential kindling point for another idea. Ideas get bigger. People get smarter. The community grows stronger, perpetually recommitting its resources (or ideas) back into itself, reinvesting. Suddenly there is fecundity. Spontaneous generation.

As a species, we are compelled to discover and invent. So let's invent not just new artifacts, but new systems. Let's keep talking."

http://designexchange.motointeractive.com/archives/2005/08/tracing_a_line.html

Amen!