Design 21: Social Design Network

Calling all members: DESIGN 21 wants to put you in the driver's seat — by giving you the opportunity to help us create an interview with someone who is making change happen through design. Perhaps it's someone you've always wanted to meet.

This is your chance to nominate someone who is making great strides in the field of social design that you find inspiring, and then ask them the questions you've always wanted ask.

Post your nomination below as a comment to this post, include a couple sentences on who they are and why you want to meet them, and a question that you would ask them. DESIGN 21 will pool the nominations together and select the first interviewee based on relevance and availability.

Then check back here when we've blogged the announcement who that first candidate is. We'll invite you to submit questions you may want to ask them.

Deadline for interviewee nominations: July 14.

Later milestones:

Interviewee announced & question nominations start: July 22*

Question nominations must be submitted by: July 28*

Interview posted: July 30*

*pending availability of the interviewee

One blessing in disguise with the fuel price crisis is that it’s spurring more people to actually consider, for once in their lives, the quainter modes of travel: public transport, biking and last but not least, walking. In New Zealand there’s a Walking Conference on today that aims to bring the kind of change in attitudes, policy, funding, design and infrastructure that will facilitate walking (and biking). Yes, even a small country like NZ has become too reliant on the car. Though sheep outnumber people 20 to 1 (most don't drive however), the urban sprawl of Auckland, NZ's largest city for example, rivals that of Los Angeles – making it nigh on impossible to navigate without a car. Run by Living Streets Aoteoroa, the theme of this year’s conference is Double the Feet on the Street and by bringing together delegates from around the country, it hopes to help create walking-friendly communities. Leaders and advocates from local and central government, academia, engineering, planning, community groups and more will be in attendance. Guest speaker is American Dan Burden who founded the organization Walkable Communities. Walking advocates tout advantages beyond immediate gas crisis consumer savings, citing benefits for economic and community development and of course health perks for kids and grown-ups alike. Naturally, the conference website's How to Get There section includes such options as the Short Walk, the Scenic Walk, the Challenging Walk (the challenge being to n...

Our friends Down Under set the example last year, and now tomorrow it's up to the rest of us the world over. Earth Hour urges people all over the world to turn off their power for an hour.

Created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour has grown from a single event into a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour.

"This is the perfect opportunity for individuals, governments, businesses and communities around the world to unite for a common purpose, in response to a global issue that affect us all."

• Carter S. Roberts, President and CEO WWF

Dinner by candlelight, perhaps?