There is a dialogue taking place over on Transition Culture, about how Transition hubs relate to the UK network which started this whole Transition idea. If an opportunity arose, to rewrite this MoU collaboratively, we would need a tool which can manage the input from a large number of authors. Check out this video introduction to a tool called Mixed Ink. I have been facilitating online groups for a few years and watching the tools evolve very rapidly. To date. this is the best I have found for … [Read more...]
Jeff Vail on the Diagonal Economy and the Rhizome Organisation
Jeff Vail is starting his long-awaited series on the next step for our post-meltdown political economies (see ToC for full project description): An excerpt on how this change may come about in the core country of the present system. Jeff Vail: “The diagonal economy might rise amidst the decline of our current system—the “Legacy System.” Using America as an example (but certainly translatable to other regions and cultures), more and more people will gradually realize that there the “plausible … [Read more...]
Rural revolution in Colombia goes digital and p2p
“Latinamerica is particularly well equipped for these changes (peer production) by their cultural affinity with the values of P2P”, said Michel Bauwens on an interview for Pagina/12 the Argentinian journal. This statement seems to prove itself when one reads Elyssa Pachico;s article “Rural revolution in Colombia goes digital” (first published by CounterPunch, you can find it also at her site). In poor rural Colombia, where phone lines, drinkable water and decent roads can be hard to find and … [Read more...]
Participatory Leadership
We have started to separately collate material on the new forms of leadership that are emerging in networked communities. You can find our tag here. Our latest find is this table by Chris Corrigan, which contrasts the new requirements with those of classic hierarchical industrial firms and bureaucracies. Traditional ways of working Participatory leadership complementing Individuals responsible for decisions Using collective intelligence to inform decision-making No single person has … [Read more...]
How p2p Works: An Introduction
When we started talking to people about the project, we’d often find that some didn’t get how p2p works. Not that you have to understand it to use it, but if you do want to, we produced a couple of simple animations that explain how p2p works. (First, we mean p2p as in peer-to-peer software and not p2p as a philosophy, though there are obvious parallels!.) Streaming What is p2p? It’s a method of distributing data. Where it works well is when you need to distribute large amounts of data, for … [Read more...]
Coconut Revolution
This is the amazing story of how a small island nation resisted against the might of corporate globalization and won. Bougainville, with a populations of only 160,000 has managed to close and keep closed one of the biggest mines in the world. They have held their ground for a decade with antique weapons and homemade guns. These people have taken on the biggest mining company in the world and won. … [Read more...]
The Take: Occupy. Resist. Produce.
As I've said before, The Take is one of the best films I've seen. We're screening it at 7.30pm on Saturday December 15th @ Sessions of Spontaneity Watch the trailer now: And watch the whole thing! (NOTE: although much if not most of the film above is in English there are no subtitles on the spanish bits) … [Read more...]
David Korten – The Great Turning
Last night, when I should've been asleep, I watched these video clips and was left totally inspired. :) I strongly encourage you to watch them too. Its great stuff! You should also buy the book: [amtap book:isbn=1887208070] UPDATE: The book in bullet points from David Korten's new site: "The Great Turning provides a powerful framework for understanding our time within a deep historical context and for defining the collective choice we must now make as a species. These are the key … [Read more...]
Dancing with Systems: What to do when systems resist change
What to do when systems resist change; an excerpt from Donella Meadows's unfinished last book. By Donella Meadows (Whole Earth Winter 2001) Quick Summary of Points. Get the beat. Listen to the wisdom of the system. Expose your mental models to the open air. Stay humble. Stay a learner. Honor and protect information. Locate responsibility in the system. Make feedback policies for feedback systems. Pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable. Go for the … [Read more...]
Dancing with Systems
Versions of this piece have been published in Whole Earth, winter 2001 and The Systems Thinker, Vol. 13, No. 2 (March 2002). The Dance 1. Get the beat. 2. Listen to the wisdom of the system. 3. Expose your mental models to the open air. 4. Stay humble. Stay a learner. 5. Honor and protect information. 6. Locate responsibility in the system. 7. Make feedback policies for feedback systems. 8. Pay attention to what is important, not just what is … [Read more...]