Pattern Cards now available!

We have finally finished the job we started over a year ago!

We have created a card for each pattern in Liberating Voices: A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution. We are making these cards freely available for download (in three parts) in the hopes that people will use them in creative and productive ways. One approach is to develop a workshop or game that will help lead to effective projects.

Each of the cards in this deck represents one pattern from the book that MIT Press published in 2008. Each pattern represents one idea for using information and communication for transformative social change. The book contains longer versions of the patterns as well as chapters on the theory and use of the patterns. The long versions of the patterns are also online.

A PATTERN IS INTENDED TO ACT AS A SEED FOR THINKING AND ACTING, THEORY AND PRACTICE.

Patterns are not intended to provide step-by-step instructions. As Christopher Alexander stated in A Pattern Language, the book that brought the idea of patterns and pattern languages to the world, "Each pattern describes a problem which occurs over and over again in our environment, and then describes the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over without ever doing it the same way twice."

PATTERNS ARE INTENDED TO BE USED BY THEMSELVES OR WITH EACH OTHER PATTERNS.

Currently the idea is to print the patterns on stiff paper or card stock and then cut each sheet into four cards. And there is an image included in this document that can be used as the back of the card. We are also looking into having the cards printed with higher resolution images on more durable material and making these available at a reasonable price. Let us know if you might be interested in that.

Of course there are more than 136 patterns in the world! For that reason we are continuing to support the development of new patterns. Let us know what your needs are in this respect.

Please feel free to use these cards any way you like. We'd of course like to hear from you about your experiences and what you've learned. What worked for you? What didn't? Do the cards work better for certain types of tasks or with certain groups of people?