APPLICATIONS
Contents
Federation through Applications
Prospecting a creative frontier
Prototyping the lightbulb
From our portfolio of applications we select and show a representative sample. Our intention is not to survey or to inform, but to illustrate an emerging paradigm – first of all the practical difference it can make (as suggested on the front page by the bus with candle headlights metaphor, and our four main keywords). And then also by demonstrating the breadth and depth of possible creative achievements – which will justify us in calling this an academic paradigm.
While illustrating the depth and breadth of the creative field, we also emphasize its coherence and unity. Each of the prototypes will illustrate the lavishly large benefits that can result – in its specific field – from the systemic approach to creative work we called systemic innovation and knowledge federation. No less important is the way how different design ideas synergize with one another and form a coherently functioning whole.
This presentation will begin with the most practical and applied applications, and add with the ones that are more academic or methodological.
These applications are prototypes
Prototypes as a knowledge federation technique<h3>
Think about our core challenge – to bring relevant and transformative ideas from a multiplicity of fields together, and have them bear upon institutional and other systemic solutions, in real-life practice. How can this be achieved?
The prototypes are innovative systemic solutions implemented in practice, and strategically embedded in practice, aiming to change it.
By putting the prototype in charge of a transdisciplinary community (which we call a transdiscipline) to create it and update it continuously, we secure that the state of the art knowledge from relevant fields has a way to impact the design of the prototype, and vice-versa – that the challenges encountered in this design have a way of becoming challenges to pertinent academic and other creative communities.
In the paradigm we are presenting, the prototypes play the role of (1) models (because they embody design ideas and solutions in a way that makes them easy to adapt to other creative tasks and situations), (2) interventions (into real-life systems and situations) and (3) experiments (because they allow us to see what works and what needs to be improved).
The prototypes together form a single overarching prototype, the knowledge federation – for which the Knowledge Federation is the prototype transdiscipline.
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Evangelizing prototypes for systemic innovation
<h3>We may not lack the resources</h3>
In the 1960s Buckminster Fuller predicted that by the end of the century the science and technology would have advanced so much that we would be able to put an end to "the age of scarcity" and all the competition it entails. Did history prove him wrong?
We show why Fuller could have been right by composing a thread of three vignettes, of which the story just mentioned is the last.
The thread begins with a vignette about Charles Ferguson, mathematician - turned political scientist - turned IT entrepreneur – turned Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Ferguson chose to point out (by creating two documentary films) that two recent events – the war in Iraq and the 2008 financial crisis – were caused by internal or systemic defects. By connecting his insight with David McCandles' Billion-Dollar-o-Gram (which visually displays the cost of large global issues), it is shown that those two issues Ferguson pointed to cost the humanity so much that "saving the Amazon" and "Lifting one billion people out of extreme poverty" would cost practically nothing in comparison.
See
- Lecture recording Systemic Innovation Positively, where this thread begins at minute 9.
- The Billion-Dollar-o-Gram 2009
<h3>A scientific approach to problems</h3>
If you wake up with red spots all over our skin, you will not attempt to rub them off or paint them over. Scientific medicine relies on an understanding of anatomy and physiology to treat the underlying (i.e. systemic) causes. Why not treat our societal ills similarly?
See
- Toward a Scientific Understanding and Treatment of Problems report of a workshop talk where an analogy between scientific medicine and contemporary issues is developed.
Evangelizing prototypes for knowledge federation
<h3>The largest contribution to knowledge</h3>
What is the largest contribution to human knowledge you may imagine?
We asked this question in an evangelizing talk that was given in several occasions at the point where knowledge federation was just beginning to take shape. Our point was to show that the contributions that are changes of social organization of knowledge work can be incomparably larger than the contributions of knowledge.
The vignette that carries this message is about the evolution of post-war sociology, during which this field grew about five times in the number of researchers and publications. And how sociology at the same time divided itself into a number of factions that were losing contact with each other – and of course also with the very society whose malfunctions they were expected to reveal. The "largest contribution" observation is here a generalization of a claim made by Pierre Bourdieu about sociology – and the point where he and his overseas colleague James Coleman, were attempting a re-organization.
See
- "What is knowledge federation?" recording of our evangelizing talk at Trinity College Dublin, where the above argument is elaborated during the initial seven minutes
- "Knowledge Federation as a Principle of Knowledge Organization and Sharing" article in the proceedings of the first Knowledge Federation workshop, where the case for knowledge federation is made by first telling about the post-war evolution of sociology as a springboard story.
<h3>Knowledge work has a flat tire</h3>
Academic and media publishing is like trying to speed ahead by pressing the gas pedal, in a car that has a flat tire. Our knowledge work has a systemic defect, which demands that we attend to it first.
The concrete story, which demonstrates this issue, is about two high-profile scientists bringing contradicting views about the climate change to academic audiences and the media.
We told this vignette as a springboard story at our workshop at Stanford University in 2011, where knowledge federation and systemic innovation were pointed to as an emerging trend.
See
Collective intelligence in practice
<h3>Debategraph</h3>
Nobody can be as knowledgeable as all of us together!
Debategraph is an online platform that enables people and communities to combine together knowledge and ideas that are relevant to an issue. With 25000 maps covering a broad variety of topics including some of our society's most urgent and most interesting ones, and the user community that includes the CNN, the White House, the UK Prime Minister's Office, The Independent, and the Foreign Office among others, Debategraph is successfully changing the way in which core issues are debated and understood.
&&Peter Baldwin, Debategraph's co-founder, was a cabinet minister in several Australian governments, until he got so tired of seeing the issues voted on without being understood. So he retired early, bought a home in Australian Highlands, and learned how to program the computer... David Price, the other co-founder, has a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in organizational learning and environmental policy, and a similar passion as Baldwin for making knowledge count. Conveniently, the two men are on two opposite sides of the globe. Debategraph never sleeps!</p>
See
<h3>Induct Software</h3>
Imagine a collectively intelligent business; or even better – an ecosystem where the business and its clients and suppliers are all linked together, and can freely co-create improvements and solutions.
Henry Chesbrough of UC Berkeley observed that innovation can be made incomparably more effective and efficient if it can be made "open". Norwegian entrepreneur Alf Martin Johansen heard his talk while visiting Berkeley, and another talk about Web 2.0, and saw that the two ideas can be naturally combined. Induct Software – the global business venture he created – has Chesbrough as the head of its advisory board. And the ambition "to interconnect the global innovation ecosystem".
See
- Induct website (make sure to watch the two-minute video)
- See this brief Youtube video where Henry Chesbrough tells the story of Induct's beginning. (Chesbrough is now the leader of Induct's Advisory Board.)
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Enhancing the evolution
<h3>Meme Media and Webbles</h3>
Combining memes
<h3>Jack stuff</h3>
Thinking together
Empowering the young
<h3>The Game-Changing Game</h3>
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<h3>The Club of Zagreb</h3>
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<h3>Make a career wish</h3>
Choose an achievement or contribution! This image was shared as part of our evangelizing talk at the SF Bay Area Future Salon in Palo Alto, in 2011.
Imagine you met a fairy... In our presentation at the San Francisco Bay Area Future Salon, we introduced The Game-Changing Game (a method for changing real-world systems) by asking the audience to make an as audacious wish for contribution or achievement as they were able to conceive of. After everyone shared their wishes we showed how even most audacious such wishes may be fulfilled through systemic innovation.
See
- The Game-Changing Game announcement on the Bay Area Future Salon website
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Evangelizing prototypes for systemic innovation
In the 1960s Buckminster Fuller predicted that by the end of the century the science and technology would have advanced so much that we would be able to put an end to "the age of scarcity" and all the competition it entails. Did history prove him wrong?
We show why Fuller could have been right by composing a thread of three vignettes, of which the story just mentioned is the last. The thread begins with a vignette about Charles Ferguson, mathematician - turned political scientist - turned IT entrepreneur – turned Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Ferguson chose to point out (by creating two documentary films) that two recent events – the war in Iraq and the 2008 financial crisis – were caused by internal or systemic defects. By connecting his insight with David McCandles' Billion-Dollar-o-Gram (which visually displays the cost of large global issues), it is shown that those two issues Ferguson pointed to cost the humanity so much that "saving the Amazon" and "Lifting one billion people out of extreme poverty" would cost practically nothing in comparison.
See
- Lecture recording Systemic Innovation Positively, where this thread begins at minute 9.
- The Billion-Dollar-o-Gram 2009
<h3>A scientific approach to problems</h3>
If you wake up with red spots all over our skin, you will not attempt to rub them off or paint them over. Scientific medicine relies on an understanding of anatomy and physiology to treat the underlying (i.e. systemic) causes. Why not treat our societal ills similarly?
See
- Toward a Scientific Understanding and Treatment of Problems report of a workshop talk where an analogy between scientific medicine and contemporary issues is developed.
Evangelizing prototypes for knowledge federation
What is the largest contribution to human knowledge you may imagine?
We asked this question in an evangelizing talk that was given in several occasions at the point where knowledge federation was just beginning to take shape. Our point was to show that the contributions that are changes of social organization of knowledge work can be incomparably larger than the contributions of knowledge.
The vignette that carries this message is about the evolution of post-war sociology, during which this field grew about five times in the number of researchers and publications. And how sociology at the same time divided itself into a number of factions that were losing contact with each other – and of course also with the very society whose malfunctions they were expected to reveal. The "largest contribution" observation is here a generalization of a claim made by Pierre Bourdieu about sociology – and the point where he and his overseas colleague James Coleman, were attempting a re-organization.
See
- "What is knowledge federation?" recording of our evangelizing talk at Trinity College Dublin, where the above argument is elaborated during the initial seven minutes
- "Knowledge Federation as a Principle of Knowledge Organization and Sharing" article in the proceedings of the first Knowledge Federation workshop, where the case for knowledge federation is made by first telling about the post-war evolution of sociology as a springboard story.
<h3>Knowledge work has a flat tire</h3>
Academic and media publishing is like trying to speed ahead by pressing the gas pedal, in a car that has a flat tire. Our knowledge work has a systemic defect, which demands that we attend to it first.
The concrete story, which demonstrates this issue, is about two high-profile scientists bringing contradicting views about the climate change to academic audiences and the media.
We told this vignette as a springboard story at our workshop at Stanford University in 2011, where knowledge federation and systemic innovation were pointed to as an emerging trend.
See
Collective intelligence in practice
<h3>Debategraph</h3>
Nobody can be as knowledgeable as all of us together!
Debategraph is an online platform that enables people and communities to combine together knowledge and ideas that are relevant to an issue. With 25000 maps covering a broad variety of topics including some of our society's most urgent and most interesting ones, and the user community that includes the CNN, the White House, the UK Prime Minister's Office, The Independent, and the Foreign Office among others, Debategraph is successfully changing the way in which core issues are debated and understood.
&&Peter Baldwin, Debategraph's co-founder, was a cabinet minister in several Australian governments, until he got so tired of seeing the issues voted on without being understood. So he retired early, bought a home in Australian Highlands, and learned how to program the computer... David Price, the other co-founder, has a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in organizational learning and environmental policy, and a similar passion as Baldwin for making knowledge count. Conveniently, the two men are on two opposite sides of the globe. Debategraph never sleeps!</p>
See
<h3>Induct Software</h3>
Imagine a collectively intelligent business; or even better – an ecosystem where the business and its clients and suppliers are all linked together, and can freely co-create improvements and solutions.
Henry Chesbrough of UC Berkeley observed that innovation can be made incomparably more effective and efficient if it can be made "open". Norwegian entrepreneur Alf Martin Johansen heard his talk while visiting Berkeley, and another talk about Web 2.0, and saw that the two ideas can be naturally combined. Induct Software – the global business venture he created – has Chesbrough as the head of its advisory board. And the ambition "to interconnect the global innovation ecosystem".
See
- Induct website (make sure to watch the two-minute video)
- See this brief Youtube video where Henry Chesbrough tells the story of Induct's beginning. (Chesbrough is now the leader of Induct's Advisory Board.)
Enhancing the evolution
Combining memes
Thinking together
Empowering the young
Text
Text
<h3>Make a career wish</h3>
Imagine you met a fairy... In our presentation at the San Francisco Bay Area Future Salon, we introduced The Game-Changing Game (a method for changing real-world systems) by asking the audience to make an as audacious wish for contribution or achievement as they were able to conceive of. After everyone shared their wishes we showed how even most audacious such wishes may be fulfilled through systemic innovation.
See
- The Game-Changing Game announcement on the Bay Area Future Salon website
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