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| -# ps |
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| -Pattern Sphere application, part of the Public Sphere Project. |
| 1 | +# Pattern Sphere |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +This is part of the [Public Sphere Project](https://publicsphereproject.org). |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +The purpose of the Pattern Sphere (PS) is to support the use of |
| 6 | +patterns and languages to help address difficult social and |
| 7 | +environmental problems collaboratively. In fact, the user covenant |
| 8 | +that registered users agree to stipulates that they use it that way. |
| 9 | + |
| 10 | +Each "pattern" is a structured description of successful ideas and |
| 11 | +actions. Patterns are general, not recipes with precise |
| 12 | +instructions. They're intended to be adapted to meet the needs of the |
| 13 | +people using them. This approach is not a cure-all and it's not |
| 14 | +intended to replace other approaches. And the online approach that we |
| 15 | +need hasn't been developed. |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +The pattern language approach was first presented in A Pattern |
| 18 | +Language, a book devoted to human structures that promote beauty and |
| 19 | +life that contains 253 patterns. The Liberating Voices book has 136 |
| 20 | +patterns and each pattern, from Civic Intelligence to Retreat and |
| 21 | +Reflection, focuses on positive social change. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | +The PS is intended to support people throughout the entire life-cycle |
| 24 | +of social change activities from creating new patterns and commenting |
| 25 | +on existing patterns to using patterns to develop new projects. As the |
| 26 | +PS provides more services, people, working individually or on teams, |
| 27 | +will be able to find patterns, select patterns to use, annotate |
| 28 | +patterns (for their own use or to help others), create new patterns, |
| 29 | +brainstorm with patterns, join teams, etc. etc. We also plan to offer |
| 30 | +alternative ways for people to perform each of these tasks — knowing |
| 31 | +that people have different styles and take different approaches. |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +Our work thus far on the PS system has been to develop services on an |
| 34 | +as-needed basis. Currently, individuals and teams can select patterns |
| 35 | +and comment on them which is translated into a group assessment. We |
| 36 | +have worked with the two groups listed below, the Limits Workshops |
| 37 | +community and the Poetry and Permaculture class of the Comparative |
| 38 | +History of Ideas (CHID) department at the University of Washington. |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +If patterns and pattern languages are to have any lasting and tangible |
| 41 | +effects, many capabilities need to be further developed, including |
| 42 | +federated pattern language repositories, support for collaboration, |
| 43 | +team workspaces, search capabilities, pattern sharing, etc. Developing |
| 44 | +this system will require the work of many people: UI/UX designers, PHP |
| 45 | +/ MySQL programmers, testers, pattern and pattern language experts, |
| 46 | +community development, outreach, and others. Specific tasks include: |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +- User interface — to replace what you see here |
| 49 | +- Importing patterns or pattern info |
| 50 | +- Designing and implementing process flows for pattern uses |
| 51 | +- Experimenting with and testing new approaches |
| 52 | +- Involving various communities in pattern deployment and development |
| 53 | +- Helping to manage the development effort |
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