Literacy of Cooperation

Oblique Strategies for Ambient Journalism Alex Burns (alex@alexburns.net) Published in M/C Journal, 13(2), May 2010.  Alfred Hermida recently posited 'ambient journalism' as a new framework for para- and professional  journalists, who use social networks like Twitter for story sources, and as a news delivery platform.  Beginning with this framework, this article explores the following questions: How does Hermida  define 'ambient journalism' and what is its significance? Are there alternative definitions? What  lessons do current platforms provide for the design of future, real-time platforms that 'ambient  journalists' might use? What lessons does the work of Brian Eno provide-the musician and  producer who coined the term 'ambient music' over three decades ago? My aim here is to formulate an alternative definition of ambient journalism that emphasises craft,  skills acquisition, and the mental models of professional journalists, which are the foundations more  generally for journalism practices. Rather than Hermida's participatory media context I emphasise  'institutional adaptiveness': how journalists and newsrooms in media institutions rely on craft and  skills, and how emerging platforms can augment these foundations, rather than replace them.

The HUB has it's own special recipe for collaboration. Here's a quick guide on how to create a meaningful community from a beautiful space.

Innate human propensities for cooperation with strangers, shaped during the Pleistocene in response to rapidly changing environments, could have provided highly adaptive social instincts that more recently coevolved with cultural institutions; although the biological capacity for primate sociality evolved genetically, the authors propose that channeling of tribal instincts via symbol systems has involved a cultural transmission and selection that continues the evolution of cooperative human capacities at a cultural rather than genetic level - and pace.

Reed's law or Group-Forming value-add affordance of networks grows much faster  than either Sarnoff or Metcalfe calculations of value.  Nice graphs showing how the three curves compare (scalar of n, square of n, and 2 to the nth power.)

"Microeconomics Community Questions TOPICS Supply, demand and market equilibrium Elasticity Consumer and producer surplus Scarcity, possibilities, preferences and opportunity cost Production decisions and economic profit Forms of competition Game theory and Nash equilibrium"

Mentioned by Howard Rheingold who said: Wilson is controversial, but the rarity of what he calls "eusocial" species and the coincidence of the advent of hunting-gathering in cooperative groups with the acceleration of human cognitive, cultural, and social capabilities supports his hypothesis: "The riddle of the human species."

recommended by Howard Rheingold,  He says: "Mark Elliott claims that Wikipedia is an example of how people use online media stigmergically." Mark Elliott says (from the site): "As stigmergy is a method of communication in which individuals communicate with one another by modifying their local environment, it is a logical extension to apply the term to many types (if not all) of Web-based communication, especially media such as the wiki."

recommended by Amy Scatliff ; she said: Also, on this thread Gilly Salmon's model came up - http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml. I'd like to link that to Gregor, what you've posted on socializing through cooperative board games. I'd love to keep the conversation going on how to scale social interaction between learners by using real world simulations and games (in my case I'm usually thinking of learners 18+) as a way to train in the skills necessary to navigate micro-interactions--is that the word that's been used?--within social dilemmas. I like to see how games can relate as closely as possible to the real-life situations being navigated.

Talking about ants, Andrés Acevedo mentioned this book saying: Dan  Suarez's novel Kill Decision, is about what might happen if  drones were run by software based on model of ant behavior.  There is a clear explanation of stigmergy and how ants use pheromones to coordinate action.  I don't think it's giving the plot away to say that bad thing happen.

Recommendation from Gregor McNish: There's a TED talk (as usual) looking at cities as systems, subject to mathematical analysis. Perhaps this external view on a situation can help us work towards improving our subjective experience.

David Watkins recommendation - video by Peter Russell on the Global Brain.

Bloom's theory of why "evil" will always be with us due it's evolving as an intrinsic part of our nature.  (Maybe a corollary to the Parable of the Tribes).

Recommendation from David Watkins: I find Bloom to be a fascinating individual with incredible scope. I find myself both drawn and repelled by his ideas. I find his website fascinating. The only book of his that I've read is "Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century." I've linked it here to Amazon; he also has a section on his website. It fits very well with the material that we've covered in this course. It is about the evolution of cooperation and identifies an emerging Global Brain that is in many ways similar to Gaia. It might even lead to a global culture, beyond Us and Them, at least in some sense.