We are pleased to launch the new and improved version of HopeDance.org this month. It has a ton of cool features:

Community: profiles, messaging, groups, social networking, etc.

Videos: from various video sites that reflect the mission of HopeDance. Short films, funny films, trailers of important documentaries, lectures, presentations...

Blogs: from various writers whose thoughts and writings are key to understand what the hell is going on.

Articles: that focus on Money, Energy, Food, Housing, Soul, Transportation and Other News..

Here are some brief explanations of each category:

ENERGY: This focuses on gas, oil, solar, wind, coal, geothermal... from problems to the solutions. Also this is the area that Peak Oil and Transition Initiative articles will reside.

FOOD: This section will focus on the local food movement, the debates between organic vs local, the GMO debacle, the global perspective as well as the never too small of solutions in our local towns and cities when it comes to creating a secure food system for all.

HOUSING: This category focuses on our shelters, the material that we use. We will focus on the solutions whether it be cob, straw bale, bamboo, recycled wood, light steel or the plethora of new inventions and creations that fit with our budget as well as fit into our local bioregion.

MONEY: This category will focus on the paradigm shift from an old and dying system to the plethora of creative ingenius ideas for trade: bartering, complementary currencies, gifting, local electronic transfers (LETS), local gift cards, and various out-of-the-box strategies for investing in green businesses, etc. And will update the entire "local living economy movement" as well as the "genuine progress indicators" as including "happiness" as the people in Bhutan use.

SOUL: This is an interesting category. One where there will be a blend of other categories but at the root of the discussion is our heart and soul; an allowing of our personal deep feelings and insights (soul) that weave into all the other solutionary technologies. This area will also include ecopsychology and the various strategies of changing personal behavior from a "Taker" culture to that of a "Giver" culture.

TRANSPORTATION: will focus on all the various solutions to our car dominated culture: transit, bus, car borrowing/renting/coop businesses, bicycles, sail boats... as well as the new city walkable community designs. OTHER NEWS: will feature the articles that dont fall into the above. Certain "strange" material will find their home in this area: as in 9-11 research, cosmologies, UFO/aliens, shamanism, entheogens, critiques of various solutionary movements, etc.