Social Artist Virtual Knowledge Cafe

These seem like good strategies for social artists . . . 

These 8 Fearless Questions from Meg Wheatley seem like good ones for social artists to ask themselves and the people they work with.

Bill Strickland embodies what I consider a social artist. His ability to see the beauty in people and his drive to create environments for work and play to highlight, frame and enhance that beauty leaves me with the same thought-provoking and inspiring sense of truth that comes from art.

Hans Rosling is the Co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation. The way he presents data is astounding. I'm able to understand (to a point) complicated issues that would take me years of study to comprehend. I think his social artistry skill is his ability to use visualizations of data to quickly bring greater awareness to people.  Gapminder is a non-profit foundation based in Stockholm. Our goal is to replace devastating myths with a fact-based worldview. Our method is to make data easy to understand. We are dedicated to innovate and spread new methods to make global development understandable, free of charge, without advertising. We want to let teachers, journalists and everyone else continue to freely use our tools, videos and presentations.

Wow, Hans Rosling's data presentation is mind blowing! Here's a link to one of his TEDtalks http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html You've found a beautiful example of social artistry making data visible in ways that tell a story - Thank you Brent. I am inspired!

Being present is part of being a social artist. Great post from Marion Chapsal who is participating in the Virtual Knowledge Cafe

I was totally enraptured with the video from Patsy Rodenburg on the second (of three) circles of energy. Being present is a game changer Michele. Great example of social artistry skill.

Sebastien Paquet writes eloquently about and practices powerfully many skills of the social artist though he doesn't call it that. He talks about "networked cocreation."

I think Jay Cross has his finger on the pulse of dying systems and knows the antidote that can prevent decay and irrelevance. I like his blunt words and the ease in which he tells it like it is. Those qualities inspire me as an aspiring social artist. A sustainable social business provides the means and motivation for workers to learn what they need: the know-how, know-who, and know-what to get things done and get better at doing them. This takes more than access to social networks, blogs, and wikis. Organizations must provide the scaffolding that focuses on discovery, practice, sharing, and reinforcement. Organizations that lack a clear understanding of their learning architectures are doomed to descend into an aimless world of social noise and meaningless chit-chat. Facebook-itus.

Note the use of a narrative grid artifact for eliciting input.

This idea of wayfinding and making spaces user-friendly seems like a social artist kind of skill, although applied differently than in finding your way around a city. I wonder how we might be able to borrow some of these concepts though to help people navigate new environments?

Jane Hart clearly makes the distinction between social learning and Social Training. Her work and the work of her colleagues in the Internet Time Alliance are informing me about social artistry in the workplace. I discover better strategies to work with organizations as I learn from Jane and those at the ITA. Anyway, this type of informal learning happens individually - as people go about their daily tasks - as well as socially - when we are with others. Social learning is therefore not a new term or training trend, it is something that has been happening since time immemorial - both inside and outside organisations - as we learn with and from others. So we might learn from others (intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously) by asking questions of our colleagues,  through discussions in meetings , or even in casual conversations by the proverbial watercooler.  And, it is also in social learning that powerful insights to problems often arise that have been generated by the collective wisdom of employees

This seems like a great social artist example to me.

This is part 6 in a 12 part series. The first five skills were Pattern Recognition, Environmental Scanning, Network Weaving, Foresight, and Conscious Awareness.

Candy Chang uses art to explore ways to make cities more comfortable and contemplative. She really feels like a social artist in action to me!