From human-centered social networks to the Plentiverse with Meena Palaniappan
Apr 4, 2023
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Meena Palaniappan, Founder and CEO of Atma Connect, discusses building Atma Go for community change. She introduces the 'plentiverse' and emphasizes technology's potential for collective action. Atma Connect empowers low-income communities. Topics include: serving Indonesia and Puerto Rico during the pandemic, launching in Ukraine, measuring impact, and the 'plentiverse' components.
Atma Connect is empowering individuals in low-income communities to shape their own communities through their hyperlocal tool, Atma Go.
Atma Connect is building the 'Plentiverse', an online infrastructure focusing on real-world impact and connecting change-makers to create a sense of belonging and address existential threats.
Deep dives
Atma Connect: Building Community Resilience Through Technology
Atma Connect is a globally recognized technology nonprofit that focuses on connecting vulnerable communities to share resources, information, and take collective action. Their mobile app, Atma Go, has helped millions of people find food, water, and shelter after disasters, organize activities, and advocate with governments. The app's success led to the realization that mobile technology can be used to empower individuals and communities to lead their own change and create the communities they desire. During the pandemic, Atma Connect quickly adapted their offline activities to an online COVID platform, providing official government information, telecounseling, and opportunities for behavior change. They reached 4.5 million people in Indonesia with COVID-19 information, resulting in 85% of them changing their behavior to slow the spread of the virus. In addition to their work in Indonesia and Puerto Rico, Atma Connect launched in Ukraine to support mutual aid efforts, overcoming challenges and working on security measures. Atma Connect's focus is on measuring change on the ground and improving community resilience through real-world impact.
Towards the Plentyverse: Empowering Change Makers and Building Collective Consciousness
In response to the negative effects and dominance of mass social platforms, Atma Connect envisions an alternative called the Plentyverse. The Plentyverse is a world of connection, where people feel a sense of belonging and work together to address existential threats like climate change. It is an online infrastructure that focuses on real-world impact, connecting change makers and helping them quantify and document their impact. AI and machine learning are used to facilitate connections, mentorship, and resource allocation. Atma Connect is building this infrastructure to create an algorithm for cohesion and connection, in contrast to the algorithms for division found in current social platforms. The Plentyverse aims to unlock the potential of every individual as a change maker, fostering digital civility, compassion, and regenerative practices. By connecting people, amplifying their impact, and magnetizing resources, Atma Connect aims to build a new ecosystem that counterbalances the negative effects of current technology paradigms.
Atma Connect's Projects: Collective Climate Action and Funding Forest Protectors
Atma Connect is actively working on two key projects within the Plentyverse framework. The first project is a collective climate action initiative focused on faith communities and spiritual change makers. By bringing together faith leaders and their communities around the common goal of climate resilience, Atma Connect fosters interfaith cooperation and tackles environmental challenges. The second project, in collaboration with indigenous organizations and Pachamama Alliance, supports funding for forest protectors. Atma Connect aims to address the misalignments in resource distribution, ensuring that the vast majority of deforestation support reaches local forest communities. Through bioeconomy projects and result-based payments tied to impact metrics, forest communities can receive financial support for their conservation efforts. Atma Connect also uses data collection tools and dashboards to document and validate the impact of these projects, making the invisible labor visible and attracting resources to unlock more change.
In this episode, Bill and Lauren engage in a conversation with Meena Palaniappan, the Founder, and CEO of Atma Connect, as she discusses her journey of building Atma Go, a tool for community change that operates on a hyperlocal level in Indonesia, Puerto Rico, and Ukraine. Palaniappan introduces the concept of the ‘plentiverse,’ which contrasts the metaverse, and emphasizes the potential of technology in creating collective action and enabling every individual to become a change-maker in constructing a better world. This conversation showcases how Atma Connect is empowering individuals living in low income and vulnerable communities to take the lead in shaping their communities. Memorable Quote: “What we really need is an algorithm for cohesion and connection - this is what needs to be built. AtmaGo has been an incredible hyperlocal tool for community change. And, now we are focused on building a new infrastructure for global collective action that creates real measurable change in communities, and new ways for money to flow to this real world impact.” In this episode, we discuss: [01:30] About Atma Connect [05:00] How Atma Connect served communities in Indonesia and Puerto Rico during the pandemic [08:29] How Atma Connect launched platform in Ukraine [13:49] How Atma Connect is helping communities measure impact [24:30] Meena introduces the concept of the ‘plentyierse’ [34:03] Meena unpacks the components of the ‘plentiverse’ Mentioned in this episode: [Report] [Article] [Article] [Impact Report / Dashboard] [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter] Atma Connect's goal is to connect over a billion people around the world living in vulnerable communities, so they might take collective action, advocate with governments and lead the way to the future we need. Atma Connect is always looking for volunteers and advisors to work on product design and management challenges, as well as network business models. Atma Connect is an international non-profit. You can make a . About our guest: Meena Palaniappan is the Founder and CEO of Atma Connect, an award-winning organization building the infrastructure for impact at scale. She is an Ashoka Fellow, Fulbright Fellow, named in Ideas that are Changing the World, and an awardee of the Million Lives Club. Call to Action(s): If you liked this episode, check out: and For more reflections about the intersection of community and human-centered design, subscribe to the Cohere Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Have you listened to the Cohere Podcast? We would love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review and let us know what you think about the show. Your feedback helps us improve and make the podcast even better.
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