villagelab.org

My name is Joel, and this, to quote The Tick, is where I keep all my stuff.

As a musician, I sing, play guitar, write folk songs in English and settings of liturgical Hebrew, compose classical and experimental works, and play oboe.

As a human geographer, I research and practice new paradigms for building urban neighborhoods that emphasize human-scale design, shared enterprise, communal ownership, and sustainability. I am inspired by many cohousing, ecovillage, and intentional communities efforts -- above all, Seattle's Ravenna Kibbutz where I lived for many years and helped to found. Today I am compiling lessons learned and developing my next proposals for cooperative neighborhood experiments.

As a web developer, I specialize in deploying Drupal content management, constituent relationship management, and dynamic front-end technologies for large nonprofits, NGOs, and other organizations with progressive missions.

As a Jew, I try to avoid the little-"O" orthodoxies of all denominations, and embrace serious engagement with our traditions and culture wherever it can be found.

As someone who also likes to sleep, I figure I had better live a long life to stand a chance of fulfilling my many passions. I record them all here, in one big heap, and I call it "Village Lab" as my personal monument to their common thread, which is community.