Consolidate ecosystem mapping efforts data/wiki/catalog outputs in one place

[rufuspollock]

Consolidate our ecosystem directories (ORA, Cohere+, PIP) into a new https://FlowerShow.app powered site at ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net. To support this, we’ll:

• Create a dedicated GitHub repo for the directories in markdown
• Migrate content from the current Second Renaissance repo
• Publish each directory as a modular section with a shared landing page
• Document the markdown-based workflow for contributors
• Cross-link relevant publications from other sites

This will simplify maintenance, improve discoverability, and future-proof the infrastructure.

For full background read the proposal below.

🚩 UPDATE: 2025-06-10: https://ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net/ is operational and runs off catalog-only branch in https://github.com/life-itself/second-renaissance/tree/catalog-only

Tasks

• [x] Create a repo for the content (or reuse second-renaissance repo for this) ✅2025-06-10 https://github.com/life-itself/second-renaissance
• [x] Provision FlowerShow Site: Set up a new FlowerShow Cloud instance. ✅2025-06-10 https://ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net/
• [ ] Inventory Existing Materials: Review and organize all current directory files (ORA, Cohere+, PIP, Second Resource). 🚧2025-07-08 see table below
• [ ] Design Site Layout: Create a homepage with links to each directory; include project intros.
• [ ] ...

Migrate "PIP" ecosystem

• [x] /pip/ to have an index page like https://secondrenaissance.net/ecosystem/pip ✅2025-07-08 https://ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net/pip
• [ ] Work out how to do plain hero without using layout: plain (of if we do use it reconvert markdown to html)
• [ ] Get catalog of profiles working (some reason <List /> component not happy)
• [ ] Get visualizations back

Notes from content refactoring on 2025-06-10

-contact.md removed. Maybe need a redirect or a new page on framer site

Meta stuff we could move to e.g. wiki

• sensemaking.md
• why.md
• related-efforts.md
• design.md

Proposal

Situation

Over the past five to six years, we have conducted a series of ecosystem mappings for several major projects resulting in the development of directories of key actors and initiatives, e.g.:

• PIP (Paradigmatic, integrated, pragmatic changemakers) (2020-2021)
• ORA Polycrisis stakeholders (Omega Resilience Awards) with a focus on global south
• Cohere+ focused on 2R / PIP (paradigmatic, actors in EU (EU Funded)
• Second Renaissance map (did not have such a formal catalog behind it)

Each mapping effort consisted of roughly three things:

• A raw-ish catalog of profiles
• Some presentation of profiles in an online directory (i.e. some kind of browsing/searching functionality)
• A report or other analytical material e.g. visualizations

These mappings exist in various states of publication and visibility. Some, such as PIP, are available on https://secondrenaissance.net/ecosystem/pip (in profiles) others, like ORA, are unpublished.

There is no single, coherent landing page where someone can explore all directories in a unified and easily navigable way.

	Directory	Report	Directory Source	Notes
PIP	https://secondrenaissance.net/ecosystem/pip#profiles	https://secondrenaissance.net/ecosystem/pip	https://github.com/life-itself/second-renaissance/tree/main/content/ecosystem/pip	Also a source spreadsheet with more items
Cohere+	https://secondrenaissance.net/ecosystem/cohere	?	https://github.com/life-itself/second-renaissance/tree/main/content/ecosystem/cohere	Also a much bigger source spreadsheet
ORA	? (not existent)	Wrote an analysis. Not yet published.	? maybe spreadsheet
2R Map	https://secondrenaissance.net/map
State of Sensemaking 2020	https://secondrenaissance.net/ecosystem/state-of-sensemaking-2020

Technical architecture

We have tried two approaches, often in combination starting out with spreadsheets and then moving to markdown:

• Spreadsheets
• Markdown with metadata (in a git repository)

Overall we have come to prefer the latter, at least where richer profiles are needed. Editing can be done using https://obsidian.md with powerful features like dataviews. And for online publishing we can use https://flowershow.app to quickly create a published wiki/knowledgebase combing the directory of profiles with additional content.

Complication

• These raw directories/catalogs are not in one consolidated system (even separated within that system)
• The ORA directory is unpublished meaning its content is not available
• The two largest directories are stored in markdown in git(hub) but are nested within the larger second renaissance repo https://github.com/life-itself/second-renaissance making them harder to find and update
  • This repo used to power the secondrenaissance.net website but is now only very partially used, mainly to publish these ecosystem directories
• We are not using Flowershow Cloud to publish the directories but an older self-hosted version of Flowershow.

Overall this makes it harder for users or collaborators to access and contribute to our ecosystem mapping directory work.

Question

How can we consolidate our ecosystem mapping directories into a unified, discoverable, technically coherent site and backend that makes them accessible, maintainable, and representative of the research and sensemaking work they support?

Hypothesis / Answer

• Create a dedicated git(hub) repo which just has the directories and ancillary materials (this makes it easier to manage and contribute to)
• Publish using Flowershow Cloud at e.g. ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net
• This site would contain all of the directories (ORA, Cohere+, PIP) in a clean, modular format, with a simple landing page linking to each.
• Document the markdown based approach to allow for contribution and as inspiration to others (often people start out with a spreadsheet ...)

Publications and analytical outputs associated with the mappings could remain on other relevant sites e.g. Second Renaissance or Sensemaking Studio or Research hub but could be clearly linked to/from this new directory hub.

This will simplify our technical stack, improve visibility, and allow for future enhancements or integration (e.g. a unified meta-directory or searchable index).

Principles

• Accessibility: Easy for users to find and navigate directory content.
• Coherence: Unify the user experience across all mappings and reduce backend complexity.
• Maintainability: Use FlowerShow Cloud for streamlined updates and deployment.
• Modularity: Each project retains its identity but is discoverable from a common hub.
• Alignment: Tie in with the broader web presence of Second Renaissance or Life Itself.

Outcome Vision

• A publicly available subdomain (e.g. ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net) acts as a central directory hub.
• Each project (ORA, Cohere+, PIP) has a dedicated page or section.
• All current directory content is migrated, structured, and accessible.
• Unpublished materials (e.g. ORA) are reviewed and brought online.
• Publications and analysis remain hosted elsewhere (e.g. Sensemaking Studio), but are clearly cross-linked.

[rufuspollock]

Have done the first refactoring (see description for notes) and did an inital deploy with Flowershow Cloud. Will need to do quite a bit more refactoring but getting there.

[catherinet1]

N.B. part of ORA project was setting up a system for sharing the data that each of the stakeholder organisations was collecting via their polycrisis mapping projects.

This is the shared Airtable link I believe (or at least link to Cascade Institute's shared mapping data): https://airtable.com/invite/l?inviteId=invQjxNlCGMQybz5l&inviteToken=e389896e183532aa2884590be122738f65314ff3a989a4af42128397560c04a7&utm_medium=email&utm_source=product_team&utm_content=transactional-alerts (looks as though you need to log in to an Airtable account to view).

Agreements re sharing data are here (see consent and publication section): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aWllW5-yZ5DJ8G503L4K7bzSW1Qajrd8VUgbkiqDQHA/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.82jaz890l59w

[catherinet1]

N.B. may want to integrate this issue? 'Integrate DDS research into ecosystem map/wiki' https://github.com/life-itself/studio/issues/177.

[1s-vs-0s]

Hi folks, I've been reading up on this issue and trying to wrap my head around the current state, desired state, and how FlowerShow works. Don't think I have nearly enough context to help with the "Inventory Existing Materials" task yet, but I'd be happy to take a crack at "Design Site Layout" if that makes sense.

[rufuspollock]

@1s-vs-0s great. To check, have you looked at:

https://ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net

and its underlying repo:

https://github.com/life-itself/second-renaissance/tree/catalog-only

To be clear: the mapping from markdow in github repo to Flowershow powered website is very simple: a file in repo maps to a page on website one to one (pretty much - exceptions are that README.md or index.md maps to / pages in a folder).

In perfect world i think we spend 15-30m together on video together walking things through. Also please ask questions especially "dumb" ones as it will help clarify things for everyone 🙂

[rufuspollock]

@1s-vs-0s how are you getting on? What do you think would be next step for you?

[1s-vs-0s]

I had a couple stabs at fixing the profiles List/catalog display, without success thus far. Observations/findings:

• I suspected pip/profiles/untitled might cause issues due to missing extension, but adding it didn't fix the problem
• I then did a validation pass across all files under profiles to make sure they all have valid frontmatter syntax and include title, that passed
• Then I looked at the console output on the website and tried finding where it fails - based on the error it looks like it expects a string value somewhere in the code and it's missing or is a different type, thus failing with e.startsWith is not a function
• Because the script is minified and the source is not available this is where I got stuck

Validation script

import os
import yaml

def validate_frontmatter_in_repo(root_dir):
    errors = []
    for subdir, _, files in os.walk(root_dir):
        for file in files:
            if file.endswith('.md'):
                path = os.path.join(subdir, file)
                with open(path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
                    lines = f.readlines()
                if len(lines) < 3 or not lines[0].strip() == '---':
                    errors.append(f"{path}: Missing or malformed frontmatter start")
                    continue
                try:
                    end_idx = lines[1:].index('---\n') + 1
                except ValueError:
                    errors.append(f"{path}: Missing frontmatter end delimiter")
                    continue
                yaml_block = ''.join(lines[1:end_idx])
                try:
                    frontmatter = yaml.safe_load(yaml_block)
                    # Validate "title" field
                    if not isinstance(frontmatter, dict) or "title" not in frontmatter or not str(frontmatter["title"]).strip():
                        errors.append(f"{path}: 'title' field missing or empty in frontmatter")
                except Exception as e:
                    errors.append(f"{path}: YAML error: {e}")
    if errors:
        print("Frontmatter validation errors found:")
        for err in errors:
            print(err)
    else:
        print("All markdown files have valid frontmatter.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    validate_frontmatter_in_repo(".")

[jenniferchan8]

Project Restatement for Non-Coders: Second Renaissance Ecosystem Directories

Over the past few years, 2R has created several ecosystem directories — maps of organizations/people working in the 2R space. 
This includes

• PIP (Paradigmatic, Integrated, Pragmatic) - orgs in 2R space
• ORA (Omega Resilience Awards) - focus on the Global South
• Cohere+ - focus on European actors

These directories have been published in different places, in different formats, and not always easy to find. The goal now is to bring them all together into one place that’s easier to update, explore, and maintain.

Goals Creating a new online hub at https://ecosystem.secondrenaissance.net/

This new site will:

• Bring together all directories (ORA, Cohere+, PIP, etc.) in one coherent platform
• Make them easy to browse and search
• Allow simple, collaborative updates
• Link out to related publications and reports on other sites (like 2R or Sensemaking Studio)

The site runs on FlowerShow.

How it Works

1. Content lives on GitHub
   • Directory content — profiles, introductions, summaries — will live in markdown files in one GitHub repository.
   • Contributors can suggest edits directly through GitHub/Obsidian
2. FlowerShow publishes the site
   • FlowerShow reads the markdown files and automatically creates a polished, searchable website.
   • Whenever updates are made to the GitHub files, the site updates automatically.
3. Each directory has its own section
   • For example:
     • /pip → PIP changemakers
     • /cohere → Cohere+
     • /ora → ORA stakeholders
   • Each section will have an overview page, a catalog of profiles, and links to related materials.
4. Shared homepage
   • The site’s front page will introduce the ecosystem work and link to each directory.
   • Visitors will be able to explore across projects from one central place.
5. Documentation for contributors
   • Clear, step-by-step instructions so that anyone can:
     • Add or edit a profile
     • Upload related files
     • Understand how the publishing works without needing to know code

Questions

1. Don’t have a strong idea of what needs to be done on a pure technical/mechanical level. Does this require starting from scratch and rebuilding the repositories from zero, or is there a way to transfer what’s already there with Markdown code?
2. How does Flower Show create a directory/repository? How does Markdown work to create a directory/repository?
3. What needs to happen on the coding/creation side to make sure collaboration/updates are easy?

[catherinet1]

How does https://archipelago.place fit in with this consolidation of mapping data in one place? Also mini-directory on developmentalspaces.org/examples.

This question came up because:

• Someone replied to Seeds of a Second Renaissance issue featuring Developmental Spaces white paper suggesting that we might like to add their ecovillage project which "aims to realize a new human paradigm" to our platform.
• The question is: which platform?
• I wanted to suggest one of our mapping wikis/directories where they could add it directly (ignoring the barrier that GitHub is for most people) and/or log it in an inbox for us to review for inclusion in a map/directory later
• I was stuck wondering where this project should go: mini-directory on developmentalspaces.org/examples? Archipelago project? General ecosystem map (e.g. PIP/Cohere+ combined)?

Suggestion: I wonder whether we could have a master directory which is the general ecosystem map and use tags instead of having separate directories, so that one organisation could belong to multiple relevant categories. Filtering by tags would effectively create a subdirectory.