Group items tagged

range of economic models that change both ownership and ecological outcomes. Co-ops, for instance,

system

The broad goal is democratized ownership of the economy for the “99 percent” in an ecologically sustainable and participatory community-building fashion. The name of the game is practical work in the here and now—and a hands-on process that is also informed by big picture theory and in-depth knowledge.

real world projects—from solar-powered businesses to worker-owned cooperatives and state-owned banks

Many are self-consciously understood as attempts to develop working prototypes in state and local “laboratories of democracy” that may be applied at regional and national scale when the right political moment occurs.

The “New Economy Movement” is a far-ranging coming together of organizations, projects, activists, theorists and ordinary citizens committed to rebuilding

participation and green concerns

Other models fit into what author Marjorie Kelly calls the “generative economy”—efforts that inherently nurture the community and respect the natural environment

socially responsible

corporation designed to benefit the public

responsible banking

social enterprises” use profits for social or community serving goals

new banking

credit union

What to do about large-scale enterprise in a “new economy”

A range of new theorists have also increasingly given intellectual muscle to the movement. Some, like Richard Heinberg, stress the radical implications of ending economic growth. Former presidential adviser James Gustav Speth calls for restructuring the entire system as the only way to deal with ecological problems in general and growth in particular. David Korten has offered an agenda for a new economy which stresses small Main Street business and building from the bottom up. (Korten also co-chairs a “New Economy Working Group” with John Cavanagh at the Institute of Policy Studies.) Juliet Schor has proposed a vision of “Plentitude” oriented in significant part around medium-scale, high tech industry. My own work on a Pluralist Commonwealth emphasizes a community-building system characterized by a mix of democratized forms of ownership ranging from small co-ops all the way up to public/worker-owned firms where large scale cannot be avoided. The movement obviously confronts the enormous entrenched power of an American political economic system dominated by very large banking and corporate interests. Writers like Herman Daly and David Bollier have also helped establish theoretical foundations for fundamental challenges to endless economic growth, on the one hand, and the need to transcend privatized economics in favor of a “commons” understanding, on the other. The awarding in 2009 of the Nobel Prize to Elinor Ostrom for work on commons-based development underlined recognition at still another level of some of the critical themes of the movement.

Social Venture Network

Worker Cooperatives

Consumer Cooperative Management

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

Farmer Cooperatives

Community Land Trust Network

Sustainable Business Council

exponential value

game theory

game mechanics

unlock deeper meaning

is easier though collaboration

will reduce risk and increase the return on investment

Game Elements can make Leadership easier today.

gamifying” their work environments in order to improve the quality of leadership — not in the future but right away

e benefits of network effects

beyond supporting internal collaboration, to include external partners and customers

These were 3D or virtual worlds (eg Second Life), photo publishing (eg Flickr), digital storytelling and podcasting

empowers individuals to: Make It – i.e. user-driven content Name It – i.e. social bookmarking referred to as folksonomy Work on It – i.e. mass collaboration or crowdsourcing Find It – i.e. online product search generating the new business model, Long Tail.

landscape is dynamically changing

Innovators: Brave people - pulling the change. Innovators are very important communicators. Early Adopters: Respectable people - opinion leaders, try out new ideas, but in a careful way. Early Majority: Thoughtful people - careful but accepting change more quickly than the average. Late Majority: Sceptical people - will use new ideas or products only when the majority is using it. Laggards: Traditional people - caring for the "old ways", are critical towards new ideas and will only accept it if the new idea has become mainstream or even tradition.

little causes have big effects; and changes happen not gradually but at one dramatic moment.

estimate target groups for communication purposes as well

The characteristics of the exceptional people who start epidemics

They are the messengers who spread social messages.

Connectors: People with a special gift for bringing the world together, people specialists, know lots of people and are able to make social connections. Mavens: Information specialists and problem solvers with social skills who like to share their knowledge. Salespeople: Have the skills to persuade when we are unconvinced of what we are hearing.

creating "contagious" social change

enables people to rendez-vous, connect or collaborate through computer mediated discussion and to form online communities. Broadly conceived, this term could encompass older media such as mailing lists but some would restrict its meaning to more recent software genres such as blogs and wikis."

intrinsic motivation

new challenges and a desire to make things better

empowered, professional and extremely resourceful.

confidence

characteristic of the "blogger"

(the early adopters) are ready to engage with social software: "I believe that it is the autonomy and freewill that has caught the attention of the second wave and it is their ability to "do it for themselves" that will be the sustainable feature of their ongoing elearning practices. It is the simplicity and ease of use of these social networking tools that has brought most success in the shortest amount of time during the [Framework] projects run in 2006."

it is a learned skill...if we want to communicate, through using blogs, we have to comment ...we have to have the confidence to 'talk' and build a profile. Commenting is a good starting point even if it is just to say 'thank you'."

meaning of groups, networks and communities.

blurring

linking and the forming of networks and/or communities that evolve from its use that many find so attractive.

Siemens’ Connectivism theory and is further supported by Stuckey and Arkell (2006) who state that, "The current mantra for knowledge management is connect don’t collect". (p 7)

"the importance of communities of practice and their generative knowledge building capacity"

The Domain – a shared interest The Community – Engaging in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. The Practice - They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems - in short a shared practice.

A key element of linking, networking and forming communities of practice is "trust". You need to have trust in the judgments of the people with whom you are connecting. Trust is the basis of all human interactions. Boone in Stuckey and Arkell (2006 p 7) states, "I don’t want raw data, I don’t want information, I want the judgments of people I can trust".

Ownership – Fundamental to the whole "revolution" is the fact that individuals can now ‘own’ their own space on the Web – moving from being consumers to becoming contributors and collaborators. Sites that allow individuals to create and maintain their own collections of photos, videos, music and bookmarks online are examples of this. Personalization – the ability to customize the interface of many of these sites is an example of the personalized approach. But personalization goes a lot deeper with this, and includes the ability to actually ‘construct’ the way in which information is represented, where it comes from, how it is used etc. Participation – the move from simply publishing or participation is another hallmark of this software. Even blogs, while being a personal publishing tool, allow for participation – at one level through the comments that can be left, and at another through the communities of interest that develop. Aggregation – the availability of software that makes use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) demonstrates how information from one source can so easily be integrated into another. Sites that allow individuals to create their personal aggregations of news feeds, blog links, and other feeds, such as NetVibes and PageFlakes, are good examples of this. Other sites such as Technorati illustrate how easily communities of interest can be formed through the aggregation of people’s blog entries.