Self-Serve Website Matches Intentional Communities with Seekers

Heading: Self-Serve Website Matches Intentional Communities with Seekers

Subhead: Free Intentional Communities Search Engine Online

February, 2004; The Intentional Community Database (ICDB) (www.icdb.org) is available to the public today, offering the world's first searchable listing of intentional communities around the planet.

Intentional Community is a general term for ecovillages, cohousing, residential land trusts, communes, housing cooperatives, and other forms of communal living. In such communities, members hold a common vision and share responsibilities and resources.

The ICDB makes it possible for a community seeker to specify exactly what s/he is interested in and quickly generate a list of desirable communities. "This will save thousands of hours of web searching for enthusiasts worldwide," commented Steve Charter from EcoForest - Europe's raw food ecological community.

ICDB supports communities of all kinds and the ability to enter information in multiple languages. It permits members of a community to describe themselves in multiple dimensions, including membership, location, governance, spirituality, sexuality, diet, finances, and visitor status.

After the first six months trial period, the ICDB already houses records for more than 250 communities from 5 continents, and there's unlimited space for more. "As much as I love the few directories on paper, this online database keeps up to date and is a lot lighter on my back." commented Bob Short from Florida, who is searching for a warm tribal community.

In true communitarian spirit, volunteers from the communities movement created ICDB with open-source and free software. While OfeK, an ICDB website designer, spent more than two years visiting communities around the world with his family (www.economads.com), he realized the value of such an online resource. "Almost every community we visited was looking for more people.", OfeK said simply, "With ICDB, communities are more accessible than ever. If only we had such a resource available to us while traveling!"