Communal living was a idealistic experiment for some back when the counter-culture was in full flower, and The Farm, a pioneering outpost in rural Tennessee, mostly managed to live up to those ideals.

The earliest origins of The Farm can be traced back to San Francisco at the end of the 1960s, recalls Robert Tepper, in a group that coalesced around a San Francisco State professor named Stephen Gaskin.

That memorable caravan, as seen in this photograph (© Gerald Wheeler and David Frohman), was also the basis for the  poster promoting the gathering of former Farm residents in Santa Rosa on Saturday.  It’s natural that such an event would happen here, Tepper adds, since the North Bay was once home to so many of the founding Farmers.

Today, The Farm (seen below from the air) hosts a much smaller population, says Linda Rake, but it remains a hub of sustainable activity.

From the founding group of around 300, the population of The Farm quickly grew, in part, Linda Speel recalls, due to their open door policy toward visitors, particularly expectant couples.

It took a few years for the community to attain economic equilibrium, but Linda Rake notes that they soon began to marshal what resources they had to reach out and assist when natural disasters struck elsewhere in the hemisphere, through an organization they named Plenty.

The basic building block for influencing local elected officials is the neighborhood, says organizer Jim Diers, because people tend to be most involved and active closest to their homes.

 What defines a neighborhood? Jim Diers, author of Neighbor Power, Building Community the Seattle Way, says there are some basic characteristics that tend to be self-selecting, and common almost everywhere.

Neighborhood Watch programs are among the best known and most widespread applications of the idea that neighbors can benefit from looking out for one another.  Diers sees that as a small step in the right direction, but advocates taking thing much further.

Jim Diers will be the keynote speaker at the Santa Rosa Neighbors Summit Friday evening in the Santa Rosa City Council chambers. Events begin with a free meeting and presentation by neighborhood organizer Jim Diers on Friday evening, Aug. 20, 7-8:30 pm, followed by the working Neighborhood Summit on Saturday  Aug. 21, 9:30 am to 2:30 in the Finley Community Center on West College at Stony Point.

Defenders of uniform access to the internet, a concept termed "net neutrality" are calling on the FCC to reject a new proposal from Google and Verizon to create multiple tiers of access.

Historically, Google has been among the defenders of of Net Neutrality. But Craig Aaron, Managing Director of the Communications watchdog non-profit Free Press, says the company’s latest move appears to contradict that stance.

The joint announcement of their proposed new regulatory framework from Google and Verizon announcement drew a mixed and bitterly divided reaction from tech writers across the country, but was defended in a Washington Post op-ed essay by the top executives of the two companies.

The Free Press petition drive to tell Google, "Don't Be Evil," is online here.

Growing corporate influence in American politics and especially electoral campaigns is driving a push-back effort from Move On dot org, a nation-wide series of protests that includes one in Santa Rosa today.

The origins of this new MoveOn campaign predate the current mid-term elections, explains David Walls, Coordinator for the group’s Sonoma County Council. They can be traced back to the protracted legislative battle over health care reform.

Cyntia Boaz, professor of political science at Sonoma State University, says the coming Congressional elections will be fueled in large part by populist issues, on both ends of the political spectrum. But each “wing” will respond to them differently.