In his later years, film-maker Walt Disney became obsessed with futurism, and in particular how cities should be designed.

He tried to bring his ideas to fruition in the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). His community was intended to be a carefully designed city, with a population of 20,000. The city would incorporate all the newest technologies, and would change constantly in a bid to test and discover the best way for a city to be.

Disney’s dream was never realised. He struggled to find financial backing, and his company’s board saw little profit in it. The Epcot theme park at Disney World that was eventually built is devoted to technology and world cultures, but bears little resemblance to Disney’s imagined utopia.

While traveling around the country by Jeep, I spent a little time
listening to Trucker Radio. The current diesel costs and the impact on
the economy were hot topics of discussion. I had a bit of revelation
that there are probably 1000s of business models that are only viable
due to cheap fuel. The interesting thing about fuel is that the costs
compound for every material/ingredient in a consumer good or
manufactured food.

Some questions that are stuck in my head is… How expensive does fuel
have to become before locally produced goods become competitive? Will
there be a return of the “family farm”? Could local micro-factories
inspired by web economics and sustainable practices be profitable?

The tools that I’m missing are ones that help me as a entrepreneur
identify niche goods and markets that are ready to be brought home.
How do we identify the commonality of goods and services in our
everyday lives? Can we use modern concepts of software engineering
like DRY and YAGNI to identify potential business ideas?

If we could analyze incoming goods and their contents like data
packets, we should be able to perform some interesting compression.

Just some thoughts…

• UTOPIANT.COM
  YOURECO.COM
  RENEWABLEPLAN.COM
  BUILDOPEN.COM
  DREAMGLOBAL.ORG
  GLOBALHAB.COM
  HABPLANNER.COM
  ONEHAB.COM
  OURHAB.COM
  IDEASOFHUMANITY.COM
  IDEASOFHUMANITY.ORG
  METROTRUST.COM
  MIAPLAN.COM
  MIASPHERE.COM
  REVOLTIZER.COM
  TERRASAY.COM
  TERRAVOLVE.COM

Some of the words and fragments that I used to compile this list are: total, Wiki, Eco, Your, Our, My, Open, build, invent, plan, go, trust, hab, itate, itize, ator, topia, lab, geo, root, well, planner, Future, City, Habitat, Vision, Tomorrow, Earth, World, Project, Dream, project, plan, next, Creation, Evolution, Sacrosanct, Clean, Bio, sphere, my, mia, Renewable, Village, Global, Vision, Metro, New, i, beam, day

It would appear that most logical .COM domain names are taken. Is there any name on this list that strikes out as appropriate, or do you have any other suggestions on names? Feedback is not only welcome, but needed. Thanks!

While traveling around the country by Jeep, I spent a little time listening to Trucker Radio. The current diesel costs and the impact on the economy were hot topics of discussion. I had a bit of revelation that there are probably 1000s of business models that are only viable due to cheap fuel. The interesting thing about fuel is that the costs compound for every material/ingredient in a consumer good or manufactured food.

Some questions that are stuck in my head is… How expensive does fuel have to become before locally produced goods become competitive? Will there be a return of the “family farm”? Could local micro-factories inspired by web economics and sustainable practices be profitable?

The tools that I’m missing are ones that help me as a entrepreneur identify niche goods and markets that are ready to be brought home. How do we identify the commonality of goods and services in our everyday lives? Can we use modern concepts of software engineering like DRY and YAGNI to identify potential business ideas?

If we could analyze incoming goods and their contents like data packets, we should be able to perform some interesting compression.

Just some thoughts…

Looking at energy today, there is a complex web of interwoven issues: production, storgae, transmission, consumption, efficiency, conservation, etc. At the core, there are six primary uses uses of energy:

1. Lighting: From the candles of antiquity to the LED of the modern world, energy has carried the human species out of darkness.

2. Climate: From campfires to air conditioners, energy climatizes the world for comfortable human habitation.

3. Food: From cooking pots to an electric refrigerator, energy is widely consumed for safe food storage and preparation.

4. Production: From the ox driven hoe to the robotic assembly line, energy helps humanity produce more with less effort.

5. Transportation: From the sled to the sports car, energy fuels movement around the planet and beyond.

6. Information: Most recently, from printed books to enlightened digits, energy is the backbone to an emerging information age.

When you look at the component “core problems” of energy and try to solve them directly, the daunting challenges of energy seem to go away. Let’s start with a highly inefficient category: lighting.

I am going to burn coal that has taken millions of years to form, heat some water, spin a turbine, vent excess heat into a river, create a magnetic field, electrify some metal, convert the electricity to a low voltage, send it over long wires for 60 miles, convert it back to a higher voltage, channel it through increasingly smaller wires, and then use the remaining energy to power a very small fire in a vacuum tube on my wall. Huh?

The modern day “solution” for lighting is completely counter-intuitive, unsustainable, and illogical. A more intelligent design would be lighting based on a chemical or biological process involving phosphorescence. For example, imagine a bright burning microbe that biodegraded waste products to produce light. Just a thought…

The purpose of this post is to say that solving the root problems intelligently, one-by-one will solve the many complexities of energy.

The goal of the project is to have everyone on the planet who is able to contribute at least one meaningful idea on how we may build a better future.

A name that transcends language with a call to action would be perfect, though this is almost an oxymoron. Currently, there are two domains that are not perfect: utopiant.com and youreco.com.

Ideas, anyone?

• Urban Planning, Housing, Transportation
• Food, Nutrition, Health
• Education, Learning, Growth
• Economics, Business, Operations
• Recreation, Entertainment
• Law, Order, Enforcement

The proposed taxonomy follows the basics of life: your city, home, food, education, job, fun, and social order. Within these initial top categories, the many facets of life, from plumbing to power, will be bundled into sub-categories developed and organized by the users. If anyone has suggestions for changes to the top level, please add them to the comments…

I am hoping to install and start testing Wikia on www.youreco.com as soon as today. The goal is to port all of the blog content from YourEco to this site for a repository. More to come.