DEAL Community Platform 2.0 Update

Last month (August, 2022) the DEAL Community Platform underwent a significant update and re-design. Below we run through the key new updates, features, and related content.

Redesigning from the ground up

The first thing you might notice is that the entire platform’s visual design has received a big overhaul. As well as (we think) looking much swankier, this new design is intended to make it much easier to find what you need.

Tools and stories have been separated to give each more space, and both support new-and-improved searching and filtering options. You can also view stories (as well as content such as events) in a nifty map view.

Behind the scenes, a library of new design elements allows the DEAL Team to craft more readable and engaging pages (e.g. the new About Doughnut Economics page), many of which have been given a spring clean.

Along with these new visual and functional design elements, we’ve also added a lot of new, curated content to help you dive into the topics or areas you’re most interested in.

Diving into themes

We know it can be challenging to know where to start when you’re setting out on a journey to turn Doughnut Economics from a radical idea into transformative practice. One way we’re hoping to help is with ‘themes’.

When we talk about ‘themes’ we’re talking about clusters of practice within the DEAL Community. These are the thematic areas where there is a significant amount of energy and action already taking place.

Maybe you’re a teacher looking to get Doughnut Economics on the curriculum, or a city official wanting to create a Doughnut Portrait for your city, or an academic looking for robust research and data.

Whatever your context, you might just find what you need by exploring our six theme pages for curated guidance, resources and inspiration:

• Communities & Art - Co-creating playfully serious ways of turning Doughnut Economics into transformative action.

• Cities & Regions - Downscaling the Doughnut to reimagine and remake the places where we live.

• Research & Academia - Deepening the concepts and applications of Doughnut Economics through scholarly collaboration.

• Business & Enterprise - Transforming the deep design of business to enable regenerative and distributive action

• Schools & Education - Exploring Doughnut Economics in the classroom and through life-long learning.

• Government & Policy - Engaging with national and international policymakers to bring about systemic transformation.

Putting cities and regions on the map

Let’s explore one of these new theme pages as an illustrative example.

The Cities & Regions page in particular benefits from another new platform feature: an ability to view the places that are putting Doughnut Economics into practice on an interactive, explorable map.

Do you work in local government - or on the transformation of places - and want to help put your place on this map, or learn how to get started bringing Doughnut Economics into your practice?

Or maybe you’re simply interested in learning more about what local and regional governments around the world are doing with Doughnut Economics?

Wherever you’re coming from, the Cities & Regions page is now your go-to place for all things local government - map and stories of action, core concepts and tools, dos and don’ts and much more.

Introducing local groups and networks

Are you interested in getting involved in local Doughnut Economics projects but you’re not sure how to get started? Or maybe you’re just looking for like-minded folks in your area?

Look no further than local groups and networks - self-organising, place-based groups and networks putting Doughnut Economics into practice in their locality. Learn more here, or jump in and..

Browse the full list of local groups and networks, “follow” a few to get notified when they post new tools, stories and events, or reach out to learn how to get involved with initiatives in your local area.

Meeting organisations in action

Earlier this year we introduced a policy setting out how certain types of organisations (such as non-profits and consultancies) can engage with the tools and concepts of Doughnut Economics.

Organisations which successfully submit a public declaration demonstrating their alignment with Doughnut principles are made visible on the platform as Organisations in Action.

You can use these new organisation profiles to ‘follow’ organisations that you’re interested in (you’ll get notifications when they post new content) as well as learn more about the work they’re doing.

Connecting, commenting and tagging

Comments on tools, stories, events and more have been improved. You can now mention other members (by typing ‘@’ followed by their name) to tag them into the conversation (they’ll get a notification).

You can also ‘like’ comments (as well as sort comments by ‘most popular’, along with other criteria) to encourage constructive discussion, and you can now include links and other rich elements, such as hashtags.

Hashtags (or just ‘tags’) can be used to tag any and all types of content on the DEAL Community Platform, including tools, stories and events. Just type ‘#’ to select an existing tag or create your own. 

Interested in a topic? Why not add it to your profile as a hashtag? And if you’re looking for all content tagged with a particular hashtag, you can use the newly-improved, site-wide global search.

Looking to the future

So, what’s next? As always we continue to welcome your feedback on how we can make the DEAL Community Platform a more useful and engaging space and resource for you.

We track and discuss ideas for further improvements on the Platform Development Hub. If you have any other thoughts or suggestions we’d love to hear from you via this questionnaire, too. Thank you!