Where have we heard these words before? I’ve been acquainted with this phrase most of my life. It’s been a “constant” reminder that changes will take place sooner or later. Check it out on Google and you will receive links to over 124,000 references in less that 0.30 seconds. According to Wikiquote, “Everything flows, nothing stands still” is a I’ve been quote from Plato in Cratylus. Down through the years, there have been many, many variants of this expression.
In fact, my friend – Eagle-Eyes – spotted this statement recently, “The only constant is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.” -Isaac Asimov-
“Change” is the key word in Michael Estigoy’s blog, last Saturday, titled, Crux of change, as it relates to today’s world of newspapers. And, of course, the Internet and computer technology always gets mentioned in 21st Century “change” articles. Now that I think about it, I quoted Beth Comstock last July, in Hammerhead #5 – A Modern Element for Community Networking: “In the digital age, community is all about gathering people with shared interests and giving them a platform to interact with each other, to engage in relevant content and to create something new.” (I’ll say it again, this quote certainly hits the nail on the head.)
My regular readers might recall that I also wrote in that blog, “Over the next few months, PetalumaNet will attempt to take some of the lessons it has learned over the past dozen years and apply the basic concepts to help groups of all kinds to break out of their normal modes of operation and reach out to other groups and individuals, using ICT, as well as face-to-face get-togethers as the means for managing and evaluating creative projects that created collaboratively.”
I’m embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten that I made that statement only a few months ago. My only excuse is that I was blogging every day during the month of July and my mind was turning to mush. But, I’m using these blogs to share “food for thought” with my fellow citizens in order to maintain a high quality of life for Our Community. BTW, in honor of our 16th president’s birthday, today is bargain day. I’m posting two blogs; also take a look at Our Petaluma #25 – The Know Your Neighbor Initiative. It helps set the stage for the rest of this blog. Just last Tuesday (2/6), I got carried away talking about sparkplugs, neighborhood action groups, and citizen empowerment. Well, it’s time to start walking the walk, again.
As you know, this past weekend was a very busy time with face-to-face meetings and the LaTercera Park neighborhood event that was a perfect example of what has been percolating in my mind for months. (I hope the local newspapers covered it.) Another recent blog – Our Petaluma #23 – Walking the Walk & Talking the Talk (2/10/07), made reference to a new KYN – Know Your Neighborhood – project that was in the works and asked that you “Stay Tuned.”
Project OPEN – Our Petaluma Electronic Network is the latest incubator ICT project to surface as the result of pooling the collective wisdom, knowledge and creativity of citizens. The website describing this initiative has been created by Tiffaney Renee and is available at http://www.petalumaopen.net
As Beth said months ago, “In the digital age, community is all about gathering people with shared interests and giving them a platform to interact with each other, to engage in relevant content and to create something new.” Our hope is that Project OPEN will “hit the nail on the head” along with all the quotes about change, and will enhance our ability to “Live Locally” in “Our Petaluma.” Stay tuned, the best is yet to come!