It's a Small World!

It's been a really fun experience beginning the greenPRIDE website. When I defined it's purpose as an online community to communicate, educate, share and inspire eachother to be and live more green in our lives, it created a road map on how to connect with others. I have been able to meet many wonderful people doing wonderful green things by way of social networking. Social networking can play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run and succeeding in achieving individuals goals.

So far I have joined social networks that have a green focus such as Wiser Earth, RiverWired and Care2. I also joined MySpace, Digg and Facebook and it just blows me away that potentially I have access to millions of people all around the world! I'm fascinated by how quickly and easily it is meet others with similar goals and share knowledge that can inspire change how we live, think and what we value. Wiser Earth "serves the people who are transforming the world. It is a community directory and networking forum that maps and connects non-governmental organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more."

Three amazing people I have met so far are Molly de Vries, Green Mary and Anna of Green Talk. Molly de Vries is the owner of Ambatalia, a sustainable fabric store in Mill Valley, California. We met after I took the Handmade Pledge to buy handmade gifts this holiday season.  Ambatalia is a very unique store with a very unique story. Not wanting to support companies that did not support the environment and wanting to do something very meaningful, Molly began her craft of finding treasures in "special handpicked fabrics and life accoutrements that sustain our environment and cultures around the world."

Green-Mary is exactly what her name implies, she's green and her name is Mary Munat. I met Mary through a friend on Facebook. I love her objective: Zero Waste Events. Green-Mary is rethinking waste and resource allocation, to include analyzing cost-effectiveness, human psychology and motivation, systems and connections. Green-Mary's message is powerful, "Earthcare relies on all of us."

I met Anna of Green Talk on RiverWired. By finding Green Talk's site through this social network, I found that both our objectives were the same to connect with others to be more green. Green Talk's site is interactive and provides easy ways to communicate by asking questions and creating dialogue. She puts it best, "Join with me on this ride and let’s turn the Planet green, one conversation at a time." Plus Green Talk's site is Solar Energy hosted!! How cool is that!

The potential of social networking is huge and I am so glad to have opportunities to meet such fascinating people. All this week I will be profiling people I have found through social networking avenues. Join up and see who you can connect with and what amazing opportunities may flow your way through some worldwide web window! Namaste-Peace.

Comments

[Anna]

Shannon-thank you for including me as one of your new green friends. Green Talk was born out of my own frustrations of having no one to talk to about being green. Building a house using many green materials a couple of years ago when green was not hot was daunting and lonely. No one really understood why I was doing what I was doing.

Even despite that learning experience, I still have questions about green living and through Green Talk have met some wonderful people (such as you, Shannon) who are inspiring and teaching me more every day. If I had not read your site, I would never have learned about Molly's store. I am going to check it out right after I am done posting here.

I hope we visit again soon. I enjoy your enthusiam and commitment. Keep spreading it around! anna

[MichaelK]

Thanks for mentioning WiserEarth, I work on it. There are already more than 100,000 organizations all over the world on there, and anyone can join and edit the directory (it's wiki-style) or add their own organizations, resources, events or job listings. The site is in constant development so we're working on improving the "social networking" aspect of the site to help you build relationships with people and reveal your connections with organizations too. Check out the "visualize network" feature on people's individual profiles to how they're connected to other entities on the site. Hope you find it useful!