New Rules for the New Economy 1) Embrace the Swarm. As power flows away from the center, the competitive advantage belongs to those who learn how to embrace decentralized points of control. 2) Increasing Returns. As the number of connections between people and things add up, the consequences of those connections multiply out even faster, so that initial successes aren't self-limiting, but self-feeding. 3) Plentitude, Not Scarcity. As manufacturing techniques perfect the art of making copies plentiful, value is carried by abundance, rather than scarcity, inverting traditional business propositions. 4) Follow the Free. 5) Feed the Web First. 6) Let Go at the Top. 7) From Places to Spaces. 8) No Harmony, All Flux. 9) Relationship Tech. 10) Opportunities Before Efficiencies. ...disequilibrium, fragmentation, uncertainty, churn, and relativism, the anchors of meaning and value are in short supply. Because values and meaning are scarce today, technology will make our decisions for us. The future of technology is networks.
Developing Next-Gen Profiles: Collaboratory Mockup I’ve been having a lot of fun the past few weeks fleshing out our next-gen profiles for the Collaboratory. One of the things I think is critical for any sufficiently advanced social network is a way for us to actually express who we are as human beings – emotion, passion, intent, inherent gifts, and the like. The problem with Facebook and LinkedIn is they predefine the scope of what it means to be human. Either you’re this or that. This religious affiliation, this political view, this relationship status, this sex, and so forth. And that’s all fine for those who find comfort in the rigidity of those labels. But for those who wish to be untethered from that way of thinking, so that we can expand ourselves into expressing fuller human capacity, it’s a bit constraining. So we’re working on allowing people to show who they are and what they’re about from a deeper, more meaningful level. Profiles & Self-Discovery Profiles & The Future of Work Profiles & Mutual Improvement We’re real people.
Superhero School: An Epicenter for Disruptive Innovation I put a short post up a few days ago in an online group I’m in, with the above image and this brief description: superhero school. center for disruptive innovation. continuous learning zone. collective intelligence. live/work startup incubator. community center. hackerspace. makerlab. autonomous zone. permaculture and sustainable food production. cooperatively owned communications infrastructure. resilience. r&d lab. a place for creative troublemakers. hudson valley. i want this to exist. It blew up to over 100 comments in less than 48 hours, with many people sharing their own thoughts and plans and existing initiatives to create similar things in their areas. If you take a look around the world right now, you will see that this is already happening. For full-on experiments in intentional living, look to Damanhur in Italy, Findhorn Foundation in Scotland, Twin Oaks in Virginia, Tamera in Portugal, the kibbutzim in Isreal, or live/work artists’ spaces like AS220 in Rhode Island.
What is Scenius? #SocialDNA [Translations: Italian] Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes. Brian Eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that groups, places or “scenes” can occasionally generate. Individuals immersed in a productive scenius will blossom and produce their best work. The geography of scenius is nurtured by several factors: • Mutual appreciation — Risky moves are applauded by the group, subtlety is appreciated, and friendly competition goads the shy. • Rapid exchange of tools and techniques — As soon as something is invented, it is flaunted and then shared. • Network effects of success — When a record is broken, a hit happens, or breakthrough erupts, the success is claimed by the entire scene. • Local tolerance for the novelties — The local “outside” does not push back too hard against the transgressions of the scene. Scenius can erupt almost anywhere, and at different scales: in a corner of a company, in a neighborhood, or in an entire region.
Projects The Future of Money on vimeoin collaboration with KS12about In 2010, I approached via twitter and asked to come speak at SIBOS, “the world’s premiere financial services event.” I teamed up with a creative studio in Berlin (KS12), and we made a video to present at the conference. We conducted skype-based interviews with participants in America, England, Sweden, Mexico, Germany and Thailand. The Future of Facebook at futureoffacebook.comin collaboration with Alvis Brigis, John Smart, and Shane Valcichabout Like this: Like Loading...
Launching: Heartsong Project: Who I Am, My Passion, My Vision & Intentions As we’re building out human-centered next-gen profiles for the Collaboratory, we wanted an intimate and creative way for people to get to know each other. Enter: the Heartsong Project. (thanks lauren higgins for bringing up the term “heartsong” on our brainstorm call.) The idea is pretty simple and straightforward: Record a 1-3 minute video of you describing your heartsong. What’s a Heartsong? This is your personal “tune.” Who are you? What passion drives your actions? What makes your heart sing? Everyone has beautiful visions inside of themselves, and as we bring those to the surface and share them with each other, the likelihood of them becoming real amplifies. Let’s manifest! The above is a sample I made this morning. I also purchased the domain “heartsongproject.cc” I’d like this to be the 2nd project of Open Foresight. (Open Foresight is a series of models and methodologies we’re developing for co-creative visions of the future. Can’t wait to hear your heartsongs!!! Like this: Like Loading...
Junto + BootStrapping The Next Economy Many of us have been inspired by the cooperation meme lately, and it appears that our collective spirit has given birth to Junto! In case you haven’t been following along, Junto is a concept we’ve been discussing for a global communications and collaboration platform. It starts with a simple interface, combining video chat with a text box and a twitter backchannel, all streaming in public, real-time. The longer term goal is to build in a family of tools and functionality that will aid in thinking and development, such as: There are other high-level concepts floating out there, but I think these are the ones that are immediately being looked at. And beyond that, it’s for us to evolve as people. So here’s a quick overview of where we’re at and who’s stepping forward so far: David Carroll (@aquarious) – [Location: NYC] – Manifestor Dave emailed me a few weeks ago, offering to help with prototyping the initial platform. Junto lobby: Onward & Upward!
Gameshifting Overview During our time together in our Seed Project, we created an immmersive game where the processes and patterns of our social interactions are made visible and translated into game boards and game pieces. This lets us more easily adapt group processes and modes toward ones that fit the needs of the moment to do whatever a group needs to do together. During our Open House we demonstrated this process by engaging the community in playing to explore answers to the real-life question for the Labs, "How can we source and organize food for our next session?" Game Shifting makes invisible social architectures visible to all members of a group so we can shift anything impeding the creative energy of the group. The Game Board: Wall Boards show the structures and agreements the group is currently using to shape social interactions and group process.Floor Markers show special arenas of play with meaning or significance which changes based on where you stand. The Game Pieces: The Game Plays: Player Boards:
Flow - Eric Harris-Braun I just signed up for Edgeryders and completed my first mission, which is to “share your ryde.” This provided me with an end-of-year opportunity to think about and document where I’ve been over the past years, so I’m reposting that “mission” here: I’ll start the story of my Ryde by quoting my first blog post ever (back in 2005): A few days ago I stopped at a gas station. I decided to register for Edgeryders after reading this post of Vinay’s. There’s something that feels righteous about “being willing to face the facts,” about not being in denial about how bad the situation is. There’s that saying “A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest.” Opening #1: In 2003 my father gave me two books to read: Interest & Inflation Free Money, by Margrit Kennedy, and The Future of Money by Bernard Leitaer. In 2004, the Schumacher Society held what I consider to be a pivotal conference called Local Currencies in the 21st Century. Opening #2: Michael Linton. Opening #4: Jean-François Noubel.