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

Ambassadors, demo-projects & financiers wanted!

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

The Dandelion Project

2The Dandelion Project

Dandelion: the ideaWe 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 com-munities. 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 sur-rounds 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 ans-wering that question.

Dandelion: the toolDandelion is an online connection tool. A virtual landscape connecting solutions, knowledge and experience. It combines elements of a search engine, an online en-cyclopedia, a user-driven content genera-tor, 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 net-works. It provides opportunities for inter-

Searching in Dandelion: entering a search term begins a Quest

3The Dandelion Project

action between communities, increasing the ‘societal volume’ of promising develop-ments around the globe.

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

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

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

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

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-

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

4The Dandelion Project

Dandelion: the goalThe ultimate goal of this tool is to rapidly unco-ver connections between promising develop-ments, concepts and people, by visualizing and organizing the necessary information in-telligently. 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 usersGovernments, researchers, companies, in-vestors, policy makers, and civilians often du-plicate each other’s efforts. Dandelion helps each group to build on other’s experience and data, and empowers everyone looking for an-wers.

Dandelion: the development plan 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 eco-nomic growth paradigm is foreseen: friendly to the earth’s ecosystems and helping to al-leviate 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 de-velopment goes beyond 2012. Rio+20 could become a vital stepping stone in developing it.

Entering the bubble on Water Treatment

5The Dandelion Project

Dandelion: the sitePlease check www.dandelionproject.eu for a downloadable English brochure.

Dandelion: a short videoA 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 partner-ship by Storrm CS Consultants for societal transitions, Except Integrated Sustainabi-lity Consultants, and Sustainability Works.

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