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Integrated Knowledge Wheel

The Pillars

1. Ecology: relates to an expanded sense of the world in relation to ecological consciousness.

Conservation of natural resources Prevention of soil degradation Solar Ecological Design Construction Sustainable agriculture Water Purification/Conservation

2. Economy/Financial Ecosystem: the knowledge to create prosperity by modifying nature (ecology) to maximize human productivity and prosperity

Eco-partnerships to extend benefits of technology Investment in growth

3. Governance: assure fairness and the rule of law, as well security and due representation in society. This is vital to ensure a sustainable economy/society. To go a step further a sustainable society must ensure equality of opportunity.

Accessibility Internet Exchange Point

4. Culture: the cultivation of a locally based sense of identity that can be exchanged and expressed to other regions of the world.

Community Centre Arts and Craft Production

5. Wellness: Create a society that sincerely values the health of its people.

Information Data Base Traditional/Alternative Healing Water Purification/Sanitary Waste Disposal System

6. Education: informed citizens are vital to any wisdom-based culture

Community Education/Teacher Training ISP / IT Training HIV/AIDS prevention dissemination Entrepreneurial development

The Pillars
The pillars are the foundation for the OVI and the oneVillage.biz social enterprise Network. The Wheel consists of six pillars Economy, Ecology, Education, Health Care, Governance and Culture and Tradition. The idea is to maximize existing infrastructure and capacity, as part of the initial assets based community inventory analysis. The pillars, and the concentric rings around them, describe the ecology of community revitalization (see above diagram).

The pillars are actually basic areas of knowledge that people involved in the process start from in developing their local network and linking it to their global networks through the Connection Portal. And this is where the Open Digital Village comes in to play providing low cost connectivity solutions in parts of the world where these services are not commonly accessible.

The Knowledge Wheel is designed to evolve from the core Pillar concepts to The white labels in the lower left areas of the integrated knowledge wheel diagram reflect the succession of developments in each 'pie slice':

	Pillars (concept/think-tank);
	Initiatives (concept being incubated as a part of self-sustainable local economic ecosystem);
	Businesses (fully developed social enterprises that generate value added ROI and can be used to replicate best practices to other regions).

When the village decides to make a difference in one of the pillars, it starts an initiative, for example, organic farming, usually on a shoestring basis. As initiatives become successful, they may become businesses – the outer ring – such as efficient farms and cooperatives.

As these businesses develop, they are incubated by the oneVillage.biz Network and they evolve towards the outer ring of the Knowledge Wheel developing a business oriented knowledge base that can replicated to other regions that have similar conditions and challenges locally as well as globally. This encourages synergies between each part of the community so that potential of each is maximized towards increasing the overall quality of life in the community.