Society 2'0 designing an action research into the next civilization presented at 2gether08: a festiv

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Society 2.0designing an action research into the
next civilizationpresented at 2gether08 a
festival of ideas, popular technologies and
progressLondon, July 2-3, 2008

• George Pór
• george (at) community-intelligence (dot) com
• CommunityIntelligence Ltd
• Quotes and diagrams on slide 5, 6, and 8 are from
   Lifecycle of Emergence Using Emergence to Take
  Social Innovations to Scale by Margaret Wheatley
  Deborah Frieze, 2006 http//www.berkana.org/arti
  cles/lifecycle.htm.

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What Time Is It in the World? Jump Time!

• The future is already here,
• only not evenly distributed...
• disruptive innovation, cyborgs, citizen media
• gift economy, peer production (wikinomics),
• open source, distributed cognition,
• We-Think, collective wisdom

In evolutionary theory, Jump Time is known as
the time of punctuated equilibrium -- when a
species is living at the edge of its tolerance in
a state of gestation and ferment and suddenly
jumps into a new order of being -- Jump Time,
by Jean Houston As the poet says, the old world
is dying, and the new is yet to come...
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Emergence
The arising of new unexpected structures,
patterns or processes jazz groups playing
live formation of snowflakes cathedral built by
termites, the Internet, caterpillar --gt butterfly
In philosophy, systems theory and the sciences,
emergence refers to the way complex systems and
patterns arise out of a multiplicity of
relatively simple interactions... Systems can
have qualities not directly traceable to the
system's components, but rather to how those
components interact. At each level of
complexity entirely new properties appear.
Psychology is not applied biology, nor is biology
applied chemistry. We can now see that the whole
becomes not merely more, but very different from
the sum of its parts. Wikipedia
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Emergence - a Metasystem Transition Perspective
How many snowflakes does it take to break a
branch? Only one, when all the others are
already there.
Consider a system S of any kind. Suppose that
there is a way to make some number of copies from
it, possibly with variations. Suppose that these
systems are united into a new system S' which has
the systems of the S type as its subsystems, and
includes also an additional mechanism which
controls the behavior and production of the
S-subsystems. Then we call S' a metasystem with
respect to S, and the creation of S' a metasystem
transition... The major steps in evolution, both
biological, and cultural, are nothing else but
metasystem transitions of a large scale. The
Metasystem Transition, by V. Turchin and C.
Joslyn
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Networks

• Developing shared meaning and purpose
• Facebook, LinkedIn, Wiser Earth
• Entrepreneurs for Sustainability
• Gaia Community,
• World Forum of Civil Society Networks

Coalitions, alliances and networks are forming
as the means to create societal change. There are
ever more networks and now, networks of networks.
These networks are essential for people finding
likeminded others, the first stage in the
lifecycle of emergence. Networks tend to have
fluid membership people move in and out of
them 
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Communities of Practice
Developing new practices together CoP in local
government (UK), CoP on partnership (EU), CoP
at IBM, CPsquare, WorldBank
 Networks make it possible for people to find
others engaged in similar work. The second stage
of emergence is the development of communities of
practice (CoPs) People share a common work and
realize there is great benefit to being in
relationship. They use this community to share
what they know, to support one another, and to
intentionally create new knowledge for their
field of practice There is an intentional
commitment to share those discoveries with a
wider audience. Good ideas move rapidly amongst
members. New knowledge and practices are
implemented quickly. The speed at which knowledge
development and exchange happens is crucial,
because local regions and the world need this
knowledge and wisdom now. 
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Temporary Autonomous Zones

• Spreading new practices,
• seeding new networks and communities
• Burning Man, barcamps, unconferences, such as
• 2gether08, Reboot, SHINE

The Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) describes
the socio-political tactic of creating temporary
spaces that elude formal structures of control
The best way to create a non-hierarchical
system of social relationships is to concentrate
on the present and on releasing one's own mind
from the controlling mechanisms that have been
imposed on it. (Wikipedia)
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Systems of Influence
New practices become mainstream Council on Social
Action (UK) Corporate Social Responsibility C-40
cities
 This stage in emergence can never be predicted.
Systems of Influence It is the sudden appearance
of a system that has real power and influence.
.... The practices developed by courageous
communities become the accepted standard. People
no longer hesitate about adopting these
approaches and methods and they learn them
easily. Policy and funding debates now include
the perspectives and experiences of these
pioneers. Emergence is the fundamental
scientific explanation for how local changes can
materialize as global systems of influence. As a
change theory, it offers methods and practices to
accomplish the systems-wide changes that are so
needed at this time. 
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Designing a Large-Scale Action Research
The evolution of an idea Large-scale group
communications at TranspacNet (1986) Designing
for the Emergence of a Global-scale Collective
Intelligence (2001) Jump Time Players (2008-
) Next actions
Source Theory U by Otto Scharmer
1. Form a hosting team to discover and practice
the art of hosting conscious evolution 2. Use
Theory U as the methodological foundation for
large-scale action research 3. Make the whole
visible to itself and its parts through social
media, Social Presencing Theatre and Evolutionary
Nexus
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Call to Cartographers of the Emergent Planetary
Humanity
What could become possible? What could become
possible if we had good maps of today's
world-changing movements and disciplines, and
their inter-relatedness? Maps that show the parts
how they are related to the emergent new whole...
How would such multidimensional maps look like
and be used?
Connecting the circles on the Systems of
Influence diagram leads to the one above, where
the apparently separate vortices touch,
interpenetrate, and discover that they are
enfolded parts of the new whole of social
practices and organization. How could the new
maps help increasing the connectivity in the
ecosystem of evolutionary initiatives, which is a
condition of the Emergence of a Global-scale
Collective Intelligence. (Paper is downloadable
from here.) Where are the cartographers of the
vast ecosystem of emerging change initiatives in
all areas of social life? This is a call to form
our community of practice. If you feel called,
contact George Pór.
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