What kind of organization is this?
What kinds of impacts are you looking to have on the world and how do you measure it?
Recently, I was asked to explain what I mean by Builders Collective.
- What kind of organization is Builders Collective (i.e. not-for-profit)?
- What kinds of members participate? Are they volunteers, employees, etc.?
- What kinds of projects do you work on as a group?
- What kind of impacts are you looking to have on the world and how do you measure it?
- What kind of education work do you do and how do you do it?
What kind of organization is Builders Collective (i.e. not-for-profit)?
My vision for the Builders Collective is to find ways to connect people to each other, to the natural world, and to meaningful work to help create a better world through art, design, education and social change.
I am still working out a desirable, feasible and viable business model to support this vision.
I created a corporation to support the effort, BLDRS Collective Inc. My thought was to start a B Corp, but discussion with a legal advisor suggested that the administrative and legal costs would be prohibitive at this early stage. It would be possible to formalize such a structure when a viable business model has been proven.
One idea had been to give recent graduates from the design program at a local university a foot in the door by providing opportunities to put their skills into practice while continuing to learn through collaboration in a virtual agency that also serves as a hub for learning.
Another thought has been to create a coworking space that serves a similar purpose.
I have been exploring business models driven by demand for talent in the growing tech industry in Vancouver. RED Academy has been created as a collaborative environment for learning digital marketing, UX design and web/app development. Students learn from creative and technology professionals while working on non-profit and community projects.
What kinds of members participate? Are they volunteers, employees, etc.?
So, the short answer is that the Builders Collective is just me. I am a designer and web developer looking for opportunities to learn and collaborate, freelancing under the name BLDRS Collective (building leaders to design a resilient society).
The long answer is that the Builders Collective includes all of humanity. We are building our future with whatever we create. The question is, what are we building?
There is no formal structure, although there have been attempts to organize into various groups:
- families
- clans
- tribes
- cities
- nations
- races
- religions
- empires
- monarchies
- republics
- corporations
- military alliances
- non-governmental organizations
We have yet to come to any sort of consensus on what we should be working on, although a hierarchical system has developed to support a capitalist ideology which derives profits for the few through the work of the many.
According to the gaia hypothesis, we are not an organization, but an organism.
What kinds of projects do you work on as a group?
I was a designer for Volume 02 of WeMakeStuff, a project to connect people within the local creative community and a book publishing initiative where each volume profiles 100 artists, creatives and innovators. Through crowdfunding, two volumes have been published.
I am a designer and web developer for Run for Water, a non-profit organization that organizes events to raise funds to support clean water projects in Ethiopia.
I am a member of the GDC, Canada’s national design association. Some of its leading members are involved in Creative Mornings Vancouver, Likemind Vancouver and Interesting Vancouver, Design Thinkers Vancouver, and ico-D.
I support the work of Kenneth Ormandy, Cody Jones, Alana Munro, Nancy Wu, Andrea Husky and Riley Cran to organize Type Brigade.
A Rocha Canada is an organization that connects people to the natural world by protecting the local watershed and conducting scientific research on the small river that runs through their property in south Surrey.
Jeremy Rifkin’s The Third Industrial Revolution and Paul Hawken’s Project Drawdown inform a positive vision of things that can be done now to create a more sustainable way of life on the earth.
Johann Hari’s Lost Connections researches depression and anxiety and prescribes reconnecting to each other and to nature.
IDEO has popularized design thinking and provided a model for human-centered design to solve the world’s most challenging problems.
Tristan Harris is creating a Center for Humane Technology.
Chamath Palihapitiya formed Social Capital to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. By harnessing technology to address core human needs, the organization aims to drive a bottom-up redistribution of power, capital and opportunity.
Matthew Manos is the Founder and Managing Director of verynice, a design strategy consultancy that gives half of its work away for free to nonprofit organizations.
Dovetail X is a platform for assembling creative and tech teams to collaborate on projects.
A group of neighbours meets about once a week to share a meal and better understand ourselves and each other and our current social context.
Another group of creatives is meeting biweekly to provide opportunities for learning, mentoring and collaborating in music, dance and film.
A meetup through the freeCodeCamp Vancouver Facebook group has recently begun to meet in Vancouver to support people who are learning to get involved in the tech industry.
What kind of impacts are you looking to have on the world and how do you measure it?
At this point, I have no idea how to measure the impact of what we are doing. We are technologically addicted, economically desperate, politically divided, emotionally disconnected, mentally overloaded, spiritually confused, and physically exhausted.
All I know is that something has to change.
Humanity needs to build connections, community and resilience. We need to reimagine our social architecture, to find better ways to live with each and the natural world.
What kind of education work do you do and how do you do it?
I am a designer, developer, writer, mentor, and educator.
I am working as a design instructor at the University of the Fraser Valley.
I am a mentor on Designlab.
I am working toward certification as a full stack developer through freeCodeCamp.
Builders Collective
We are building leaders to design a resilient society
The Builders Collective is all of us. It is who we are. It is a collaborative project to better understand ourselves and our place in this world, to find generative ways to live with each other and the natural world. Transcending human-centered design, this is design that seeks to learn from nature, to put into practice the knowledge and principles of biomimicry to reimagine and redesign our environment, to reconnect ourselves to our own humanity and to reconnect us to the earth and all living things.
