Online Ocean Symposium

I have been working on this blog, The Green Progressive, for the past 6 years. I have covered issues ranging from Climate Change to how America has become an Oligarchy to the issues facing our participatory government and even threw out some free advice. I've covered events like the bankrupting of California's recycling program and Secret Service prostitution scandals and this year, I have took a new step.

This year, with the help of friends and colleagues  I have built something, something new, the Online Ocean Symposium (OOS). This project involves bringing together the communities involved in Ocean and climate issues to discuss major issues, new events and explaining complicated issues in a more digestible way. The OOS also seeks to help with the process of joining the Ocean community as a whole and build that community.

This project came about from my experiences working with Google Map Maker, the Google Oceans Program and the BLUE Ocean film festival where I used the Google Plus Hangout tool to create new Ocean programing. This programming was filled with interviews, award announcements, interesting walkthroughs of Ocean topography and shipwrecks and great conversations. I loved hosting these micro shows with Ocean celebrities such as some members of the Cousteau family, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Don Walsh and more. You can check out the archives here.

When the BLUE Ocean film festival ended, I was so moved by the community and the work that others were doing that I wanted to create something that would aggregate that passion and those stories in an interesting and unique way and have been working on, amongst other things, setting up the Symposium.  The hope is that this will turn into reoccurring discussions with Ocean and conservation leaders for reoccurring and interesting programming.

The very first Hangout on Air for the Online Ocean Symposium is this Wednesday and it marks the beginning of a new chapter and new adventure. I still plan on posting here, though I may have a more Ocean centric content. Do come check it out if you have the chance.