# Why are we making this presentation:
We believe in the usefulness of **models**. Models are at their best--tools. We are at our best toolmakers--for others' hands.
We see too little **support for civic activists** at the neighborhood scale--the scale where we see most of life being lived.
We think that **civic associations and local businesses** are being decimated by the growth and dominance of supraregional institutions--especially publicly traded corporations and remote governments.
We think that **Stafford Beer** advanced a profound understanding of the functioning and viability of human institutions.
We hope that experts who understand Beer's insights and who up to now have mainly supported large institutions will devote an equal effort toward **small institutions, particularly local associations and business**.
We hope that some of you or some of your acquaintances will **join us in a tool translation** enterprise.
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# Further
We believe that there is not enough time for a haphazard **approach to societal change**. We believe that current knowledge and wisdom must be formulated and archived in ways that can be used and improved upon **by regular people across the world**. We have begun to build an adaptable open source approach to such knowledge accumulation, sharing that is designed for **adaptation to local circumstances**. (Patterns and Pattern Languages)
Many specialist tools and methods need **translating into vernacular** forms.
To the extent that we fail, oversized and out-of-balance businesses and governments will continue destroying the **quality of life** most people seek.
Vester’s nine methods and tools are an inspirational example of a pattern language or a system of patterns for approaching complex social problems. That approach (interconnected thinking) is what we are attempting to extend and vernacuralize.
We believe that there are **reliable patterns** of models and patterns of usage. These patterns assist in **re-organizing local economies** including home economies.
We have **an expanding set of models** that we are vernacularizing for local civil society usage. **We are looking for help.** This is volunteer work--gifts to our neighbors and children.
See ReLocalize Creativity 
for an overview of our work.
Below, text submitted to Metaphorum
**THE PURPOSE** **We believe** in the usefulness of models. Models are at their best--tools. We are at our best toolmakers--for others' hands. We see too little support for local civic activists at the very local scale--the scale where we see most of life being lived. We think that civic associations and local businesses are being decimated by the growth and dominance of supra-regional institutions--especially publicly traded corporations and remote governments. We think that Stafford Beer advanced a profound understanding of the functioning and viability of human institutions. We hope that experts who understand Beer's insights and who up to now have mainly supported large institutions will devote an equal effort toward small institutions, particularly local associations and business. We hope that some of you or some of your acquaintances will join us in a tool translation enterprise. **Further**, we believe that there is not enough time for a haphazard approach to societal change. We believe that current knowledge and wisdom must be formulated and archived in ways that can be used and improved upon by interested folk across the world. We have begun to build an adaptable open source approach to such knowledge accumulation and sharing that is designed for adaptation to local circumstances. (Patterns and Pattern Languages) Many specialist tools and methods need translating into vernacular forms. To the extent that we fail, oversized and out-of- balance businesses and governments will continue destroying the quality of life most people seek. Vester’s nine methods and tools are an inspirational example of a pattern language or a system of patterns for approaching complex social problems. That approach (interconnected thinking) is what we are attempting to extend and vernacuralize. We believe that there are reliable patterns of models and patterns of usage. These patterns assist in re-organizing local economies including home economies. We have an expanding set of models that we are vernacularizing for local civil society usage. We are looking for help. This is volunteer work-- gifts to our neighbors and children.
**THE WORKSHOP** There will be several brief hands-on exercises at your table--reminiscent of childhood coloring books. We will provide only enough explanation and encouragement to get you started and each will then end too soon. (Frustratingly or mercifully soon!) We will provide online copies and explanations for anyone's use before the live session. Our goal for the live session is for each participant to get their hands dirty, to play with each model or exercise a little. Enough to remember it and it's feel. We are not presenting ourselves as experts and we are not expecting anyone to become expert during this session. We do hope that you get a feeling for the possibilities of using sets of interlinked vernacular modeling tools. We do hope that you see the possibility for further shaping these tools for common usage. The on-line platform that we are using and developing is the Federated Wiki. We hope you become intrigued with the potential of the FedWiki as we have.
See ReLocalize Creativity: visitors/view/relocalize-creativity-explained for an overview of our work .
On-line version of the workshop: here
The way to help is to improve current patterns and to offer additional patterns. Ask for your own FedWiki site if you plan to get more involved.