This is the first report on an ambitious participatory project, currently in work, whose goal is the construction of a "pattern language," a large structured collection of knowledge that represents the "wisdom" of a widely distributed, very loosely knit community of activists, researchers, policy-makers, and technologists. This report provides an important first step as it outlines our hopes, expectations, planned tasks, and research hypotheses. A second report in late 2002 or early 2003 will bracket this report with a discussion of actual activities, evaluation, and recommendations.
