Our workshop April 27-28, 2006 in Paris will ask, "How can 6 billion people help each other to help themselves?" This question frames things from the perspective of massive abundance - a potential 6 billion people helping each other - in contrast to traditional approaches which begin with the notion that we have "too many problems and not enough money." We will be looking at what is happening "on the ground" in some of the poorest areas of the world, as well as what is happening in our network technologies and capabilities to connect people and ideas in new ways.

The question asked at this workshop is, "What would a network of uplift look like?" We will be pulling together a mixture of folks who know modern network technology, with others who understand the the worlds of philanthropy, humanitarian assistance, and micro finance. We will also be looking at notions of scale, imagining what we might do with massive communication of scalable small things for making the world a better place. We are using the word "uplift" to describe a broad range of activities, not just check-writing to charities.

Leading journalists, media professionals, bloggers and technologists will meet in Washington DC on November 10-11 2004 to help create innovative ways to bring people news that can change their world-views – and the world. This issue has never been more important. This meeting will focus on the intersection of the mainstream media and interactive communications supported by the Internet such as blogging.

This informal presentation will discuss omidyar.net, a newly-forming network created by the eBay founder Pierre Omidyar: The goal of the network is: "So that more and more people discover their own power to make good things happen." Tom Munnecke will present some visions for possible future capabilities of the network, based on his work on the Uplift Academy started as a fellow with the Stanford Digital Vision Program.

How can we attract attention to what's working to make the world a better place through TV, radio, print, and Internet? Workshop participants will have a broad spectrum of media, public relations, advertising, and Internet backgrounds. How can we draw attention to positive, life-affirming stories and activities without hitting people over the head with virtue? Are there ways of using irony, humor, juxtaposition, layering, or editing to draw attention to the positive in such a way that it attracts viewer attention?

The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss and brainstorm innovative ways of using the associative technology of Google for humanitarian uplift. This might include the concept of Elevator Links, which might topically relate web information to uplift organizations.

This workshop is a continuation of the Pattern Language Workshop which seeks to use the pattern approach to systematically discover and replicate patterns of uplift in humanitarian and developmental activities. Our model of uplift is based on the notion of positive discourse – to intentionally look for patterns which amplify what Alexander calls “alive, humane, ecologically profound, and with a deep living structure.”

The first two days of the workshop will be lead by Richard Gabriel, on the topic of Uplift Pattern Languages. See why we are talking about patterns here. The third day will be lead by Nancy Glock-Grueneich, Heather Wood-Ion, and Jane LaPointe, discussing organizational issues of an Uplift Academy.