Like anyone with sense, I'm a bit averse to the "web 2.0" hype; Wikinomics marks the peak of this hyperbole in paper format. So I entered be2camp as a bit of a sceptic. How could a few trendy web tools help transform an industry so conservative that it has barely begun to understand how they can design built environments that facilitate healthy, happy and sustainable communities? We know a great deal about these questions; the problems are rarely technical, more often about finance and logistics. What can social networking and wikis contribute to these problems? I'm convinced about a few possible avenues.

First, it seems obvious that the web can help in community development, whether through social networking for neighbours or by inviting communities to participate in creating green maps based on OpenStreetMap that the community can find both online and (once printed) in libraries, community centres, maybe their homes. So long as they are treated as a mere tool, as part of a deeper community development process, they're going to be pretty handy.

Second, I heard about some clever work being done to "open source" the data side of sustainability; post-occupancy monitoring, carbon footprinting and the like. Apparently, for approximately £50 per house, you could hook smart meters in the homes of two residents associations up to a free service called Pachube and then, using the free and open AMEE database, provide an online competition to encourage the two communities to lower their electricity usage more. Too much data and analysis is kept proprietary, sold at a price to cover costs or fund a dubious business model. We should be putting this stuff onto AMEE freely, and encouraging clever web 2.0 style hacks to help us make sense of our environmental impacts.

Finally, there is potential for more productive collaboration. If the 1500 attendees at Building magazine's online-only conference are anything to go by, we're at a tipping point in the industry; the challenge is now to engage these more tech-savvy professionals in discussions that improve real-world projects. How can we set-up an ESCO if we're starting from scratch? What finance models exist for private home retrofits where the payback time is 20 years or more?

At BioRegional our collaboration is, in a way, very traditional - we engage with each partner in a one-to-one discussion. This is changing with our One Planet, One Day conference in December, and our "coming soon" experiment with Tomoye Ecco. But we're still only soliciting input, rather than opening ourselves to conversations from any quarter. To my mind that makes sense, because we're all pressed for time (and money!) and so tend to avoid getting into lengthy conversations about prospective partnerships unless we think it has a good chance of turning into the real deal. Reading blogs, contributing to wikis, these all strike me as luxuries or hobbies at the moment.

Is there a role for an open wiki with a focus, such as exploring the synergies between One Planet Living principles? Maybe we need an edited blog aggregator like LabourHome? Are there tools I've not yet heard about to help facilitate completely open discussions, to focus them on practical outcomes, without too much time on the part of facilitators? I think these questions are worth exploring.