Dandelion: Powerful Knowledge Concept

The Dandelion Project Powerful concept for the transition to a green economy needs further development.

Ambassadors, demo-projects & financiers wanted!

First impression of the digital landscape in Dandelion. All topics are connected with weak or strong ties

Dandelion: the idea We can see a future where societies and economies flourish, drawing strength from their locally abundant resources. In the deserts, energy flows freely from the sun.

On seashores and mountain ridges, wind towers harvest power for neighboring communities. Precious metals are recovered from waste water streams by bacteria.

Carefully designed ecosystems produce abundant and diverse supplies of food year-round. CO2 is harvested as a resource for chemical production.

This multitude of resources already surrounds us now. The question remains: how can we transition from our current extractive economies to locally refueling economies of abundance? The Dandelion Project presents a step on the path to answering that question.

Dandelion: the tool

Searching in Dandelion: entering a search term begins a Quest

Dandelion is an online connection tool. A virtual landscape connecting solutions, knowledge and experience. It combines elements of a search engine, an online encyclopedia, a user-driven content generator, and a social networking device.

As a visual Wikipedia, Dandelion allows users to navigate through a network that makes intelligent connections based on keywords, usage patterns, and social networks. It provides opportunities for inter-

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action between communities, increasing the ‘societal volume’ of promising developments around the globe.

water mix in my river delta). The tool automatically offers a sequence of modules to answer your question.

Perhaps most interestingly, Dandelion is designed to connect specific problems or needs with potential sustainable solutions in response to direct queries. Anyone can enter a ‘quest’ (for instance by typing in: ‘how to make electricity from sweet/salt

Dandelion provides rich conent, including Youtube-films with examples, Linked-in pages of associated people, addresses of companies providing the hard- & software, research data, conferences, experts, sci-

entific papers, links to adjacent knowledge fields, and more.

Using Quests is the systematic use of Dandelion. Besides this, anyone can travel the virtual landscape of Dandelion intuitively, extract knowledge and experience and contribute freely. Dandelion is open source, accessible and easy to use.

If Dandelion Geo-view is selected, information nodes will be displayed on a map

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Dandelion: the goal The ultimate goal of this tool is to rapidly uncover connections between promising developments, concepts and people, by visualizing and organizing the necessary information intelligently. The user interface is simple, and it’s enjoyable to explore. Underneath lies a complex, state-of-the-art, semantic web 3.0 engine.

Dandelion: the users Governments, researchers, companies, investors, policy makers, and civilians often duplicate each other’s efforts. Dandelion helps each group to build on other’s experience and data, and empowers everyone looking for anwers.

Dandelion: the development plan

Entering the bubble on Water Treatment

Dandelion is a concept in development, a sketch. In June 2012 the UN Conference on sustainable development RIO+20 (UNCSD) will be held. One of the major themes at the conference is Green Economy. A new economic growth paradigm is foreseen: friendly to the earth’s ecosystems and helping to alleviate poverty. The Dandelion Project could become a major tool for that. The Dandelion initiators aim to show a working prototype at RIO+20. This means The Dandelion Project is looking for ambassadors, demo-projects, financiers, & developers. The Dandelion development goes beyond 2012. Rio+20 could become a vital stepping stone in developing it.

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Dandelion: the site

Please check www.dandelionproject.eu for a downloadable English brochure.

Dandelion: a short video A short introduction video in Dutch (English version will follow soon) can be found on the website.

Dandelion: the initiators The Dandelion Project has been initiated by former Dutch Ministries of Housing, Spatial Ordinance and the Environment (VROM) and Economic Affairs (EZ).

Dandelion has been developed in partnership by Storrm CS Consultants for societal transitions, Except Integrated Sustainability Consultants, and Sustainability Works.

Entering the bubble on Forward Osmosis, a sub-element of Water Treatment

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