Archives: Epic (designing for transformation)
i disrupts the future of work
What does the future of work look like? Recent reports state that many jobs (42% in the USA) will disappear through machine to machine automation, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence. A terrible thing, or, a good thing? Continue reading
July 21, 2015
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Artificial intelligence, Artificial neural network, Calexico, California, Cambridge, Deep learning, digital disruption, Facebook, future of economic growth, iot, KPMG, machine to machine disrupts work, Massachusetts, near term trends of disruption, the future of knowledge work, the future of work, the future of work in the european union
What's next for banking?
I have enjoyed Mosaic Ventures blog on the unbundling of the banks. Their observation that it is not a new bank that we need but a new way of banking. There is in my view an inevitability to the arrival of a new ecosystem, as our world evolves that will serve us even better. But to do so we have to have fundamental redesign of what a businesses looks like. Mostly its design is distributed, networked and peer to peer. Continue reading
July 17, 2015
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Angels Den, banking, banking ethical alternatives, Crowd funding, crowdcube, Design, fintech, funding circle, Investment, London, Mosaic ventures, p2p lending, Seedrs, zopa
The Reformation of Capitalism
In June 2014, Clayton Christensen and Derek van Bever wrote in the June 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review (HBR). “The orthodoxies governing finance are so entrenched that we almost need a modern-day Martin Luther to articulate the need for change.” And they are not the only ones signalling we need a change of direction in how we think our economies work. In Vienna this year the Global Peter Drucker Forum gathered together the great and the good to explore what next for Capitalism looks like. We have arrived at a turning point,” says the Forum’s abstract. “Either the world will embark on a route towards long-term growth and prosperity, or we will manage our way to economic decline.” Continue reading
December 15, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged crowdfunding and financial capital, designing for transformation, failure of business schools, need for transformational change, people powered organisations, Peter Drucker conference vienna, Redesigning the banking system, reformation of business, systems design for business, the crisis of trust in business, the high performance business, the high performance organisation, the limits of growth, transforming organisations empowering employees, what next for business?, world economic crisis, zero employment contracts
Yeo Valley Farms, a masterclass in business transformation
The challenge: How do we remove the acute volatility and therefore risk of running a farm? How can we become more resilient and get to a better future? Yeo Valley Farms is the largest organic dairy farm in the UK, and is a great example of how to deal with economic disruption and create lasting transformational change – that delivers better business, without damaging the natural environment. Continue reading
December 11, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged 7 ways organic farms outperfom conventional farms, business strategy, business transformation, conscious capitalism, farming for our future, high performance business, innovation in urban farming, Joel Salatin, Myra Goodman, nonlinear design, nonlinear innovation, organic farming and biodiversity, organic farming systems build rather than deplete soil organic matter, the economics of organic farming, the future of business, yeo valley farms
NASA shows us our beautifully interconnected planet
Our nonlinear world understands everything is interconnected to everything else. This video is a wonderful demonstration of the interconnectedness of our oceans. We have much to learn from natures design models and understand our own limitations if we believe that organisations or economies work best when they are deconstructed to the point when we can no longer see nor comprehend the whole system. Watch and wonder. Continue reading
November 14, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged designing networked organisations, Lee Smolin, natural capitalism, nonlinear design, nonlinear economies, nonlinear innovation, on beauty, on beauty and organizational design, organisations designed as open systems, perpetual ocean, radical economics, radical redesign business, the interconnected planet, the life and death of nonlinear organisations, the overview effect, the radical redesign of business
Dickson Despommier innovating the vertical farm
This is how Dickson sees our future panning out. By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster? Continue reading
November 12, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged 2007–2008 world food price crisis, Agriculture, arbor house, Black Sea Region, Dickson Despommier, European Union, farming to save the planet, farming tools of innovation, Food and Agriculture Organization, future growing, gotham green, innovation in urban farming, lufa farms, natural capitalism, nonlinear innovation, Palm oil, Price index, restoration of farmland, Rome, rregenerative design model, sustainable urban farming, the failure the traditional farming, the greening of economics, United States, vertical farming
How do you rule the void once the party's over?
Earlier this year I read the late Peter Mair’s Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. It got me thinking, because as I observed in Chapter 5 of No Straight Lines, we are in a process of political transformation. A transformation of how we organise and run our societies. I ask the question, what should government look like in a non-linear world? Are we creating and running systems in the right way? Why is it that so many people are disengaged with the process of democracy and civil organisations? Continue reading
November 1, 2014
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown
Tagged absolute power politics and communications, environmental politics, euro scepticism, extreme far right politics, local politics+national government+credit associations+electoral turnout+politcal divide, media politics, media politics and the crisis of democracy, media+politics+identity construction, p2p political society, politics of participation, rejection of traditional politics, ruling the void, scottish rural parliament, study of local parliaments
LEGO cultures of creativity
The LEGO Foundation are creating and sharing ground-breaking research on the power of play and creativity in learning, to act as a critical resource for thought leaders, influencers, educators and parents all around the world. Continue reading
October 18, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged cultures of creativity, cultures of innovation, cultures of transformation, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Lego, LEGO Group, Lego Ninjago, Minecraft, nonlinear innovation as play, Ole Kirk Christiansen, play as innovation, play pathways to creativity, transformation through play, United Kingdom, United States
The healthy society and preventative medicine
In recent years, scientific and technological developments have contributed to major progress in the health of individuals and for societies at large. What are the future roads to increased health in the world? How will science, technology and innovation contribute to this development? Where are the major challenges and possibilities? Continue reading
October 16, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged biodiversity+human wellbeing, centre for healthy aging, economic performance+happiness+wellbeing, EuroScience Open Forum 2014 Copenhagen, innovation in health care, lene juel rasmussen, preventative health care, preventative medicine, science and health, technology and the future of health, the future of healthcare, transforming health care, wellbeing and action for happiness
Tim Campbell on what makes a smart city
Our urban environments are under strain, whether that be, the birthplace of the Garden City Letchworth, or cities such as Odense in Denmark, larger one like Bristol, or megacities like Seoul (Taking the Seoul Train to the Sharing Economy Part … Continue reading
July 14, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged beyond the smart city, cities of the future, collaborative cultures, collaborative design, Garden City Letchworth, harnessing collective intelligence, IBM, Jane Jacobs, learning cities, Letchworth, Lina Bo Bardi, Marilyn Hamilton, Odense, participatory cutlures, Smart city, the city that learns, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Tim Campbell
Cradling the transformative economy
As we evolve for a linear model of economy. What we make and how we make it, what we do with our waste and how we waste that too. We start to see a new horizon where our obituary won’t be what we have sent to the landfill but something more elegaic and life affirming – as we become part of the circular economy. It has been described as cradle to cradle. Continue reading
July 9, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged adoption of sustainable technologies, Business, business benefits of c2c, c2c certification, c2c design, chemicals kind to the environment, Circular economy, cradle to cradle 101, Cradle-to-cradle design, ecology of economy, flute office, ford motor company green+sustainable, green business, Industrial design, innovative business models, Michael Braungart, natural business, nonlinear economy, nonlinear innovation, the access economy, Wikipedia, William McDonough
Waste to Waves a story from the circular economy
This a story about how we can think differently about material waste, upcycling, ans the circular economy. Sustainable Surf (sustainablesurf.org), and Waste to Waves. Sustainable Surf is a California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit charity organization founded by social entrepreneurs, located in the heart of the Southern CA surfing industry. Their Mission: Be the catalyst that transforms surf culture and industry into a powerful community that protects what they call, the ocean playground. Continue reading
July 5, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Business, carbon neutral production, Circular economy, designing for transformation, Environment, European Commission, flute office, green business, green economics, moving towards a circular economy, nonlinear innovation, sustainable surf, systems design in the circular economy, the carbon neutral economy, Upcycling, Vimeo, Waste, Waste Management, whole systems practice
Juliana Rotich on Ushahidi mapping humanitarian needs
Juliana Rotich’s talk on Ushahidi where it came from and where it is going. In talking about innovation Julia says, if it works in Africa it can work anywhere. Out of adversity comes innovation. I am proud to be part of the advisory board for Ushahidi. Continue reading
July 4, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Africa, Big data, creating open innovation, designing for transformation, designing with data, future of ngo's, innovation africa, Kenya, mapping humanitarian crisis, nonlinear innovation, Open innovation, rapid innovation, Technology, transformational design, ushahidi, ushahidi hacking the future, working for the collective good
Tim Jackson on investing for humanity to flourish
Powerful thoughts from Tim Jackson (professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey) on how the role of investment must be reconceptualised not to create more money or cater to a consumption based culture and economy but to instead create conditions for people to flourish. We currently exist in a system that systemically creates privilege says Jackson. Continue reading
July 3, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged beyond capitalism, Environment, ethical economy, ethical investing, green business, investing in humanity, Investment, Jackson, markets without morality, nonlinear innovation, Our Common Future, prosperity without growth, reimagining investment for the whole human, Rio+20, Sustainable Development, sustainable investment, the truth about markets, Tim Jackson, University of Surrey, Vimeo
Humanity's greatest gift, an awesome book of love
Yael Staav’s poignant and emotional interpretation of Dallas Clayton’s celebrated storybook, An Awesome Book of Love, shows us that love is truly humanity’s greatest gift. Continue reading
July 1, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Awesome Book of Love, compassion and the workplace, Dallas Clayton, goddess of selfless love, Lewis Hyde, love, love as wisdom, No Straight Lines, on beauty, Relationships, selfless love, shri radha, simon haas, smlxl, tashi mannox, the book of dharma, the loving organisation, wisdom as love, Yael Staav
Cory Richard innovation in the uncomfortable zone
National Geographic Creative photographer and North Face athlete Cory Richard talks about learning to become comfortable in the uncomfortable zone. How he found his voice through adversity – and developed his craftsmanship through the lens of a camera to share his vision of the world that has taken him to some extraordinary places. Adventure is anything that takes you outside of your comfort zone, Richards says. I like that. Continue reading
June 30, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged Ambiguity, Cory Richard, Creativity, design thinking, Gasherbrum II, Innovation, mountaineering, National Geographic, National Geographic Creative, organizations stuck in ambiguity, Systems thinking
Ex CIA spy says Open Collaborative Cultures Win
A fascinating article (The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% – ex CIA spy) written by Nafeez Ahmed about Robert David Steele and his thesis that Open and Collaborative systems are the only means by which we will meaningfully move forward. Open Collaborative organisations remove the traditional constraints placed upon any organisation. It permits the asking of powerful framing questions. These framing questions enable us to see what others don’t. Open source regenerative business models and the decentralised organisation become mainstream. This allows the scale of the problems we face to be met by participatory and collaborative systems and cultures. These organisations work towards a higher order purpose. This higher order purpose delivers consistently higher performance with outcomes that are truly authentic, more resilient and relevant. Continue reading
June 28, 2014
Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged collaborative economics, conscious capitalism, future of democracy, Green capitalism, Lee Smolin, monumental change, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, nonlinear innovation, open cities, open democracy, open economy, Open Source, open source principles, open source revolution, Open-source intelligence, Robert David Steele, smlxl, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Steele, the 1%, the 99%, the commons based economy, the open organization, the restorative economy, the tragedy of the commons, United States, Wealth of Networks
Joel Salatin on the potential of large scale organic farming
Joel Salatin is America’s most celebrated pioneer of chemical-free farming. Here Joel gives a powerful talk on why our current industrial way of farming is so wrong in so many ways. Demonstrating the potential of how we can do it differently – better and more in step with the way of the natural world. Salatin says we can feed the world but not by industrial methods. Continue reading
June 22, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown
Tagged 12 permaculture design principles, 7 ways organic farms outperfom conventional farms, animal welfare, carbon futures, diary farming, economics of food miles, farm hack, future british farming, investing is sustainable agriculture, Joel Salatin, lady eve balfour+organic farming, Myra Goodman, nonlinear innovation, organic farming and biodiversity, organic farming methods, sustainable agriculture, the resilient community, zero budget farming+the lightweight farm
John Mackey CEO of Whole Foods on Conscious Capitalism
What is the purpose of business, or an organisation? In No Straight Lines, I ask this question – How can we create better for our economies, organisations and societies – all at the same time. As currently it seems we always have to make a choice of one over the other, at the expense always to us. John Mackey CEO of Whole Foods demonstrates it does not have to be that way – and that better much better does not have to cost the earth. Continue reading
June 18, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged a better capitalism, better for people and planet, concious capitalism, earthbound farms, future agriculture, future food economies, green business, Green capitalism, John Mackey, Myra Goodman, natural capitalism, nonlinear innovation, organic ilford, polyface farms, purpose in business, regenerative economics, riverford organic farms, Systems thinking, the purpose directed organisation, the theory of moral sentiments+adam smith, Whole Foods Market, whole foods uk
Myra Goodman on organic food systems as common sense
Myra Goodman runs the largest organic food production company in the USA. In this video she explains why organic farming makes sense. Makes sense, economically, for communities, and of course to help build a regenerative society. She makes the point that nature works at scale – so why cant farming? It is more of how we frame the question and what type of world we choose to live in. Continue reading
June 11, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged alice holden, Bangladesh, connecting food to people, diy farming, Earthbound Farm, farmers' markets, farming for the community, innovating food economies, Iowa, Myra Goodman, nonlinear innovation, Organic farming, organid ilford, rebecca hosking, Todmorden, United States, Vietnam, yeo valley farms
De Hogeweyk dementia village
De Hogeweyk or Hogewey is a gated model village setting in Weesp, in The Netherlands. It is notable because it has been designed specifically as a pioneering care facility for elderly people with dementia. The major advances achieved by the approach of all-day reminiscence therapy at Hogewey, compared to traditional nursing homes, is that the residents with dementia are more active and require less medication. Carers, doctors and nurses work around the clock to provide the 152 residents the necessary 24-hour care. Continue reading
June 10, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alzheimer's disease, De Hogeweyk, Dementia, future health care, hacking healthcare, healthcare innovation, Hogewey, Holland, Netherlands, nonlinear innovation, reinventing the NHS, Weesp
Healthcare innovation Integrated Neurological Services
Integrated Neurological Services (INS) was founded in 1999 by Liz Grove and Ellie Kinnear. Its purpose to help patients with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke and other neurological complaints that affect movement, memory, balance and communication, everything essential to a normal life. The charity works to make a real difference between a life devastated by severe illness and a life that makes the most of the opportunities still available. Continue reading
June 9, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged disease, human centric healthcare, innovation healthcare, INS, Integrated Neurological Services, Multiple sclerosis, National Health Service, nonlinear innovation, Nordic walking, Parkinson, Parkinson's disease, Patient, physical therapy
Shan Williams what do you do when your town is dying?
Up and down the country, our towns are dying. When convenience became the precedent over local, we opened the doors for the conglomerates and they made themselves at home. Our highstreets now consist of the big names, charity shops and abandoned units that reek of recession. You can practically see tumble weeds. In one of the most humbling and emotionally driven DO Lectures, Shan Williams spoke of her organisation 4CG, a group of people that are solely dedicated to the regeneration of their town, and how it all started in a council meeting when a prime site came up for sale in her beloved town of Cardigan. Have some tissues near to hand. Continue reading
May 23, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Cardigan Bay, cocreating culture, collaborative economies, communities and locality, creating vibrant towns and cities, david Hieatt, forced economic migration, forced migration, future local economies, future of towns and cities, local food economies, low carbon economy, nonlinear innovation, Odense, people power, people powered innovation, resilient energy, revitalizing rural economies, shared purcharse agreements, the do lectures, wales
Ani Chudrun, a beautiful walk with integrity
This a beautiful film about life transformation. One of the things I have always believed in is that if you want to create transformation in the world – then you too have to go on a journey of transformation before all the other things happen. In this way one is able to see and perceive the world differently. This is also a story about purpose and meaning. A story about that which fulfills us and sustains us. Continue reading
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged communal identity+meaning+belonging, culture+meaning+identity, Ethics, god+identity, happiness+work+meaning+identity, identity, identity and the workplace, identity as a journey, purpose as transformation, tibetan buddhism, transformation, transformation of self
Tim Smit on beauty and purpose
Tim Smit – is a rare individual in the English landscape. A man born of passion, commitment who can make the impossible – possible. He recreated the gardens of Heligan in Cornwall and then went on to create The Eden Project. If anyone is ever interested in what it takes to make it happen – this talk will inspire you to do so. Continue reading
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged Cornwall, creating inward investment, Eden Project, England, Gardens, Heligan estate, Home, Lost Gardens of Heligan, nonlinear innovation, purpose driven organisation, Revitalizing a region, the importance of purpose, Tim Smit
Odense working on an innovative template for civic centric systems
Place and community as social and economic networks: Last week I was in Odense, a municipality of Denmark, working with a team of people who are knee, elbow, neck deep in system change. My task was to help this team of wonderful people explore how they could address that change as it presents significant challenges in how people embrace transformation, and work meaningfully with it. This team had healthcare as a key concern. So we went on a journey exploring how one can create powerful systems change inside an existing organisation and, at the same time explored innovative practices that can reduce the significant financial burden of healthcare and more importantly change its purpose to one that was more preventative inspired by reinvigorating the sources of health. Continue reading
May 21, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged A restorative economy, civilizing the economy, cocreation civic innovation, denmark, Ecuador, healthcare innovation, Helene Bækmark, Innovation Lab Denmark, nonlinear innovation, Odense, peer to peer society, Scotland, six steps to transformation, Stanford Social Innovation Review, the open society
Blitz motorcycles - love the work you do
You have to love the work you do. In our nonlinear world we have to wake up every day and want, really want to do the work we love. It has defined my life, and I always admire people who do the same. The care, the craft, the willingness to share knowledge, and, to give is the way of the craftsman. This is a wonderful film about two French men who are passionate about building bespoke motorcycles. Based in Paris they speak about collaboration, commitment, sacrifice, community and joy. Continue reading
May 11, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged blitz motorcycles, crafting innovation, motorcycle hack, nonlinear design, nonlinear innovation, paris, the craftsman, the craftsmans workshop, the joy of craftsmanship, the purpose of good work
Lessons from Patagonia's Founder Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia strikes me as a true Craftsman. The civilizing craftsman uses his tools and his labours for the collective good. Chouinard wants us to stop being consumers and start being thoughtful global citizens. His work to make us think more deeply abut the world we inhabit. Continue reading
May 8, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged Business, Consumerism, Craftsman, green economy, nonlinear innovation, Patagonia, regenerative economy, responsible economy, Richard Sennett, South America, Travel, Yvon Chouinard
The human need to transcend
Kenan Malik writing in his excellent article about the sacred in art, explores the capacity of the sacred to go beyond religion to become a necessary part of what makes us human. Continue reading
April 20, 2014
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Divine Comedy, God, Holocaust, Human, human centered design, Kenan Malik, nonlinear innovation, Nova Scotia, participatory cultures, participatory leadership, Stanford Social Innovation Review, the sacred in every day life, Transcendence, trust based leadership
The journey to a commons based economy
When astronauts go into space and looking down at the earth, an image we all know, but in another way do not know at all. They find themselves having a deep spiritual connection with the earth, within themselves that is shocking and beautiful. Theirs is a profound moment of epiphany – a realisation, of the inseparable relationship between the cosmos, the Earth and humanity. This is not a ‘oooh woow’ moment, it is in fact a moment of transformation, of catharsis, an irreversible cognitive shift. Continue reading
April 9, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, commons based economy, designing for the collective good, designing for the humanOS, edgar mitchell, humanizing our economy, living systems economy, nonlinear innovation, open government, overview effect, p2p society, participatory leadership, salva corpus amanti, single consciousness, the restorative economy, transformation, transformation economy, transformation society, unity of everything
Lina Bo Bardi shaping the world through a love of humanity
When we design around the the needs of humanity, when we put humanity at the core of our process – we have the potential to create extraordinary things. Not to design humanity an culture out of the process of creation but to weave it in. Sounds obvious does it not? But the truth is we have created too many systems, organisations, buildings that do not acknowledge our humanity. Lina Bo Bardi an Italian who moved to Brazil is an example of someone that believed profoundly in designing and creating buildings around the needs of human beings. Continue reading
March 8, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Bo Bardi, Brazil, commons based economy, Design, designing for the human, future architecture, human directed architecture, Italy, Lina Bo Bardi, Milan, new perspectives on architecture, nonlinear innovation, São Paulo, the human operating system, values based architecture, working with architecture and nature
Farm Hack, hacking the future of agriculture
A short film that explores an alternative approach to agriculture and food economies. The organisation is called Farm Hack. Founded in 2010, by what the narrator calls startup farmers, who were motivated to create a model for resilient agriculture. Continue reading
March 7, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged a farm for the future, code for america, common cause organization, designing for transformation, farm hack, food+supermarkets+agriculture+yeo valley+organic+defra+soil association+do lectures+dan saladino+supermarkets+volatility+complexity, international federation of organic agriculture movements, joel salatin farming innovation, modern organic movement, no straight lines in nature, nonlinear innovation, Open innovation, open source farming, Organic farming, organic farming and biodiversity, organic farming+sustainability, Polyface Farm, power of participatory cultures, resilient agriculture, soil association, the economics of organic farming
Leadership in a commons based economy
the problem of our current economic debate is that we are trying to solve 21st century problems with 19th and 20th century economic thought. That is: our discourse is stuck between “more markets and free enterprise” (2.0) and “more regulation and government” (3.0). In reality, neither of these approaches will suffice. This new philosophy is something that I explore in No Straight Lines -the means by which we can transform. Continue reading
March 4, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged A restorative economy, Activism, Alan Moore, American Enterprise Institute, capitalism 4.0, commons based economy, Environment, leadership in a participatory economy, Michael Sandel, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, nonlinear economy, nonlinear innovation, Otto Scharmer, p2p economy, participatory organizations, participatory society, six principles no straight lines, the new civic engagement, the new leadership
Broke
I have been reading David Boyle’s new book Broke. How to survive the middle-class crisis. Gonzalez de Cellerigo was a lawyer and an economist living in 1600 Spain. He writes, the riches which should have brought wealth have brought poverty. Cellerigo understood that the flood of money coming into Spain, over the last 4 decades had caused the value of money to fall. Boyle makes observation that in modern Britain today we have suffered the same, ‘the cascade of wealth into the City of London, instead of financing production, it was frittered away on interest payments for debt, buying luxury goods from abroad, raising prices and, in the case of sixteenth century Spain, on the purchase of Eastern luxuries from the Portuguese Empire’. Continue reading
March 2, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged aston reinvestment trust, boots the chemists and unions, british business bank, david boyle, demise of the middle class, designing for humanity, dorset, economic systems thinking, economics as if it mattered, failure uk public services, fall of spanish economy, future house prices in britain, future local economies, Gonzalez de Cellerigo, Innovation, International Labour organisation, KKR the barbarians at the gate, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, london rebuilding society, new values in new economy, nonlinear innovation, private equity capitalists in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, rethinking uk economy, rise of the p2p society, school dinners and education, school for social entrepreneurs, shareable cities, systems thinking in economics, the reinvention of the middle class, tim crabtree, west dorset food and land trust, west dorset food links, what to do about british economy, why the middle class matters
The art of living together and the art of dying
James Mitchell used this phrase ‘the art of living together’, recently in Edinburgh. A phrase he articulated to mean what politics at its best and most basic should be about. Think of the component parts and what they mean: ‘art’ and ‘living together’: they denote craft, non-scientific discipline, emotional insight, and an awareness and understanding of differences and transcending them. Continue reading
February 12, 2014
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / System breakdown
Tagged future economy Scotland, future leadership, future society, George Harrison, Gerry Hassan, hacking the future, new political institutions, No Straight Lines, political innovation scotland, Politics, Poverty, restorative economy, Scotland, social innovation in scotland
Rethinking how we build homes in the UK
Here are 10 ways of taking a more humane and commons based approach to how we could live. Continue reading
February 2, 2014
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged A common sense approach to building, Affordable housing, Alan Moore, Alejandro Aravena, Borneo-Sporenburg Amsterdam, building and the commons economy, community housing innovation, Community land trust, diversity in design, Horsmonden, Ijburg, innovation in architecture, innovation in housing, Iquique, land economy, margaret thatcher, Newton Community Land Trust, No Straight Lines, open commons region, openness is resilience, renewable buildings, restorative economy, self build innovation, self organising communities, Stroud, the cost of land, the low carbon economy, the new economics of building, Torre David Caracas
The revolt against traditional education
Last year I was working with an extraordinary group of people in Salzburg – where we had come together to explore the potential of systemic transformation. In one exercise we worked collaboratively on an idea that each individually intrigued us. Mine was education. After many rounds of questioning – we were asked to write from the heart, intuitively what we felt. This is what I wrote. The Revolt Against Traditional Education: Continue reading
February 1, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, creativity and orginal thinking, educating the reflective practitioner, educating the world, education and values, education frees the world, education innovation, embracing change in our learning landscape, finalnd pioneers in education, Henry Jenkins, learning and poverty, learning and religious education, learning poverty and fundamentalism, learning reimagined, methods and theories of education, mobile education, nonlinear innovation, participatory learning, sir ken robinson, systemic change in education, talent and education, teaching creatively, technology and learning, what is creativity?, world reader
Zaid Hassan: sensing, and connecting to a whole reality
I am came across this lovely insight by Zaid Hassan, in The U: A Language of Regeneration. As Russ Ackoff said a hole is spelt with a W. In my journey this reality that others cannot see the whole, happens 99% of the time in organizations, as Deming points to the 94/6 rule, where 94% of problems can be traced to the process and only 6% to the person – when systems are fixed. Therefore sensing the entire system is key. Continue reading
January 8, 2014
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting, chaordic process leadership, collective sensing for collective truth, Deming 94/6 rule, emergent leadership, finding collective truth, human systems of leadership, leadership and deep democracy, Lee Smolin, No Straight Lines, opening the heart of an organization, participatory decision making, participatory leadership, philosophy of logic, practices for regeneration, The U: A Language of Regeneration, the struggle between efficiency and creativity, toke moller, transformation scotland, working with complexity, working with openness, working with power of complexity, Zaid Hassan
Kano: helping make creators of the future not consumers of the past
thought of Lewis Hyde who wrote in The Gift, “we’ve witnessed the steady conversion into private property of the art and ideas that earlier generations thought belonged to their cultural commons”. When reading Miranda Swayers piece on the computing company for kids – Kano. Essentially Kano is plug and play coding making computing and the creation of things via coding and computing accessible to all comers. Hydes observation also resonated, when Alex Klein one of the Kano founders tells a story from an experience from Zuccotti Park when as a journalist he was covering the Occupy Movement, he asked the Occupy-ers why, if they hated big business so much, they all used iPhones and Samsungs. Continue reading
January 5, 2014
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Alex Klein, changing the way we think about computing, coding for beginners, coding in education+why every child schould code, coding innovation, coding literacy, coding the future, creative coding, creativity and coding, diy computing made easy, ethics of craftsmanship, future education+raspberry pi+tinkering+play, future of education, future of learning, Hacker ethic, hacking the future, how to build your own computer, Kano, learning to code made easy, lessons in coding, Lewis Hyde, Life as craftsmanship, maker movement uk, miranda sawyer, No Straight Lines, Occupy Movement, principles of craftsmaship, Rewired State, smlxl, teaching coding, Zuccotti Park
Schaft: humanoid robotics and its implications
Robotics is on the cusp of reshaping our world – in every aspect of our lives, from the waiting rooms of our hospitals to our battlefields, disaster prone world and our everyday lives. For good and for bad. Continue reading
January 2, 2014
Ambiguity / Epic (designing for transformation) / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Boston Dynamics and google, cambridge university robotics, disaster relief robotics, ethical dimensions of technology, future japanese robotics, google robots replace humans, humanoid robotics, japanese robotics, law+technology, nonlinear innovation, robotic warfare, robotics and warfare, robotics implications for healthcare, technology and culture, technology and human behaviour, technology society and historical change
The restorative economy
Need to rewrite the foundations of economics: The need for a root and branch rewriting of economics produced a book last year called What’s the Use of Economics? Teaching the Dismal Science after the Crisis. Of course it is much much harder than anyone realises to bring into the world a truly viable alternative economy to an existing dominant model. There are many vested interests, and shifts of power that create vacuums’ generate the necessary conditions where waves of multiple dissonance; social, religious, economic combine to make people fearful of change and reactive to perceived threats real or otherwise. Opportunism trying to outflank those that seek a more ambitious goal. Continue reading
December 30, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, closed loop economics, crafting a new economy, david simon two americas, economic philosophy, economics of nature, economy of the commons, embracing a complex world, john fullerton the capital institute, lessons open commons region, natural capitalism, networked economic theory, new thinking in economic philosophy, new tools for a new economy, nonlinear innovation, open science commons, rise of foodbanks uk economy, systems thinking in economics, teaching the new economics, the carbon neutral economy, the dismal science, the open economy, the p2p economy, the Post-Crash Economics Society, the resilient economy, the shareable economy, what's the use of economics
Time to reimagine and recreate our state says Marianna Mazzucato
“The important thing for government is not to do things which individuals are doing already, and to do them a little better or a little worse; but to do those things which at present are not done at all.” was the advice of John Maynard Keynes. Continue reading
December 15, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, civic innovation, designign for the humanos, east coast train-operating franchise, economy as a system, economy of the commons, eddy izzard for mayor, entrepreneurship the future of the eu, failure privatisation public sector uk, financing the innovative state, how to make britain great, Marianna Mazzucato, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, nuclear economics uk, private equity investment tax breaks, privatising public goods uk, problem with big government, reinventing medicine, reinventing regional government, reinventing the state, religion+identity+spirituality+john stuart mill+charles handy+the hungry spirit, resilient economies, startup britain, startup uk, the furture of britain, UK government subsidises privatised utilities, uk tax expenditures, US National Institutes of Health
Lego's new business model: Pleygo
LEGO has always fascinated me, because of its journey from small to great to almost has been to a company designed for meeting the demands and challenges of a non-linear world. LEGO is launching LEGO The Movie next year and they have also been exploring the idea of building a service / rental style model called Pleygo is like a Netlix-like rental service that allows families to swap Lego sets instead of purchasing new ones and creating more plastic waste in the process. The Lego swap service enables kids to try out and play with lots of different sets. Continue reading
December 12, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged adaptive business models, Alan Moore, business as a service, business as a service+business as a platform, designing the smart organization, history business model innovation, Lego business model innovation, Lego Pleygo business model, Lego the movie, lesson in business model innovation, new tools for a new economy, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, resilient business models, Transformation Labs, transformation workshops, what's next for business
Crowdfunding, everyone funding startups
Crowdfunding changes the rules for investing: In many ways Crowdfunding has come about because the Venture Capital market for startups has failed. So it is not surprising that a wide variety of startups are now finding their initial capital from crowdfunding platforms. It is predicted that by 2014 $5.1bn will have been raised through crowdfunding platforms. Continue reading
December 5, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, angel investing, best crowdfunding in UK, crowdcube, crowdfunding, crowdfunding manchester, crowdfunding nordics, crowdfunding scotland, crowdfunding UK, Equity crowdfunding for SMEs, evolution of venture funding, failure uk vc market, funding circle, future local economies, george osborne working until 70, innovation through smes, JOBS ACT, Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Lawbite at google campus, Matthew Hancock MP, mosaic solar crowdfunding, National Crowdfunding Association, No Straight Lines, people powered innovation, Small and medium enterprises, startup britain, Startup company, syndicate room, uk crowdfunding association, United States, Venture capital
Exploring the future potential of Scotland
This was first posted at the Art of Hosting Scotland What kind of future do we want for Scotland? Today has been a special day. This morning 50 strangers, more or less, came together to begin a journey of, the … Continue reading
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting, civil society systems transformation, collective intelligence, community of purpose, Crofting, designing people powered organisations, harnessing collective intelligence, innovation eco-systems, innovation in healthcare, jo confino, lasting legacy for civic society, management systems, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, participatory leadership, participatory policing, rural parliament scotland, Scotland, Scottish Government, scottish government white paper independence, tim merry, toke moller, what next for scotland
High performance organizations through respect for people
Openness is resilience, leadership with purpose: Whereas one can see what happens when people exist in an open culture, which is led by purpose rather than a kpi. Two very different stories spring to mind, [1] the organisational systems change that was delivered through a process of participatory leadership in Nova Scotia for public health, [2] in Japan with Toyota. If you start to think about designing for whole systems with real human beings operating in those systems – I believe we see a very different organisational design emerge. Continue reading
November 17, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting scotland, designing for humanity, designing healthcare systems, designing high performance organizations, future healthcare, future manufactuing, higher performing organizations, innovation nova scotia healthcare, innovation people power, innovation systems thinking, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, north staffordshire hospital system failure, Open innovation, Otto Scharmer, radical redesign business, the greatest asset of an organization, theory u, transforming peoples lives
From a mechanistic to a natural philosophy of science
Rupert Sheldrake takes us on a journey to stand in a different place and look at science from a natural perspective rather than a mechanistic one. Whether we think about science, management, organisational design. Our machine age: Newtonian determinstic thinking has permeated all aspects of our daily living lives. Sheldrake represents a broader philosophical evolution of reappraising how we see our world, universe and cosmology. Continue reading
November 3, 2013
Adaptiveness / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged A new science of life, Alan Moore, business transformation, connected dynamic organism, new design for life, new models of business, No Straight Lines, nonlinear design, nonlinear innovation, Philosophy of Science, science and dogma, science universal possession of humanity, the transformation management, theology of science
Russ Ackoff, a system is a hole with a W
a talk by Russ Ackoff – which is both funny and profound. His quote that a system is a (w)hole, spelt with a W was fantastic – his insight that a system is not a sum of its parts but a sum if the interactions that take place – genius for its clarity. He made the point that to understand this concept write a note with your writing hand, then cut it off and see what happens. He is known as the father of systems thinking. Continue reading
October 31, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Business, Clare Crawford-Mason, constraints of design, Continual improvement process, Deming, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, effectiveness vs efficiency, John Seddon, Lloyd Dobyns, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, quality as effectiveness, quality of life, stafford beer, systems design, Systems thinking, the vanguard method, toyota way, true knowledge exists in a network, w edwards deming
The engaged organisation outperforms the disengaged organisation
a recent Gallup poll pulled up some interesting insights. Companies with engaged workforces achieve higher earnings than organisations that fail to engage their employees. Engaged organisations have 3.9 times the earnings per share growth rate compared to an organisation with lower engagement in the same industry. Continue reading
October 30, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, art of hosting, Barbara Ehrenreich, designing the smart organization, employee engagement, Gallup, Generation Y, green business, humanos, Job Growth, John Seddon, lean business, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, participatory leadership, radical redesign business, Richard Sennett, the engaged organization, toyota way, United States
Flute Office business, design and manufacturing innovation
Flute Office is a pioneering company that is producing an entire suite of products along with a ground breaking business model to change the way we think about what we sit on, what we work on, what perhaps we do other things on (Do its all verb). Continue reading
October 14, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Andy wood+adnams, Business model innovation, cradle to cradle, customer centric design, design thinking, future of furniture, future of the office, future of work, green business, human centered design, Hunter Lovins, innovative business models, iterate+design principle, Lean manufacturing, Local Motors, manufacturing innovation, mary dorrington ward, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, renewable fibres, resilient design, rod fountain, service design, systems design, Systems thinking, Work
Those Incredible Edibles from Todmorden and further afield
A couple of weeks ago I headed north to a place called Todmorden, or Tod for those in the know. This is the homeland, of a particular beast called Incredible Edible. Incredible Edible has a mission to inspire and educate the world about food, local food, local food systems, locally gown food, local food economies, and how to lead a more resilient life that is also more fun. Continue reading
October 12, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, allotments, business in the community, coherent systems of meaning, communal identity+meaning+belonging, cooperatives and civic community, design thinking, designing resilient food systems, England, Food, food tourism, France, future food economies, gift community+value of gift exchange, green business, Incredible Edible, Jarvis Cocker, Local food, local food economies, localism, narrative+place, New World, No Straight Lines, ordinary+organic+orginiality, organic, Pam Warhurst+incredible edible+defra, participatory cultures+participatory tools+designing for transformation+design+transformation+ambiguity+scenario planning+creativity+openness+adaptiveness+narrative+storytelling, reconnecting capital to place, social innovation, soil association, systems thinikng, Systems thinking, The Life and Death of Democracy, Todmorden, transformational design, urban and town planning, urban farming, West Yorkshire, yeo valley farms
Welcome to the Shoreditch Village Hall
Last night I was invited to the official opening of the Shoreditch Village Hall, accessed via Hoxton Square. Because of my age and my interests, I am very familiar with Hoxton Square, over 25 years I have watched it rise … Continue reading
October 11, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, anthropology+cultural studies+networked identity, community and place, community innovation, crowdfunding, culture+meaning+identity, ferdinand tönnies, gift community+value of gift exchange, heimat, Hoxton Square, human identity+society, lewis hyde and the erotic life of property, London, modern identity+collective identity, narrative+place, No Straight Lines, participatory cultures, politics of place, power of place, Shoreditch, Shoreditch Village Hall, social innovation, tech city, Village Hall
Ecuador planning a commons based economy
They also say that disruption never comes from the centre, it always comes from the edge, from places where thinking and doing differently has greater flexibility. Perhaps it will not be the power houses of the industrial order where real and meaningful change comes from but elsewhere. So it was no surprise that the Government of Ecuador has launched a major strategic research project to “fundamentally re-imagine Ecuador” based on the principles of open networks, peer production and commoning, Continue reading
September 26, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged commons based economy, Creative Commons, David Bollier, design thinking, designing for transformation, Ecuador, FLOK Society, green economy, IAEN, Latin America, Michel Bauwens, Ministry of Human Resource and Knowledge in Ecuador, national plan for good living, National Plans, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, open commons region, open finance, open hardware, open networks, open science, p2p foundation, participatory cultures, peer production, Quito, Systems thinking, the regenerative society, World Bank, world bank+criticism
What happens when organisations no longer fit reality
In my previous post on Scotland exploring a different reality, I wanted to share Tim Merry’s views on the need to create better systems more in tune wit the nature of humanity. Tim talks about meeting change with dignity. In No Straight Lines the core philosophy is we can do better and we need to deschool ourselves from a linear and mechanistic way of thinking and doing. Here is Tim expanding on his philosophy on systems change at a human scale. Continue reading
September 24, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown
Tagged Alan Moore, design thinking, designing for humanity, economic systems thinking, how to create transformational change, innovation at a human scale, No Straight Lines, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, participatory leadership, Scotland, six steps to transformation, Systems thinking, transforming economies, transforming education, transforming health care
Participatory Leadership and transformational change in Scotland
How can we create better, much better? Where we can create better functioning societies, that are regenerative, more resilient. How can we shape the future of a country to be better prepared for a more uncertain and perhaps more challenging world?
An invitation to learn how to lead change at a systemic and human level Continue reading
September 21, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged A green deal for Scotland?, Alan Moore, an architecture of participation, art of hosting, Better together?, citizenship+participation, civic humanism+civic virtue, co-creation+open+openness+participatory leadership+language, Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill, community innovation, complexity theory, designing for humanity, designing the smart organization, Edinburgh, Elinor Ostrom, enterprise innovation, future civic society, future local government, future of scotland, future scottish business, future scottish healthcare, Glasgow, healthcare innovation, human capital, human centered design, humanistic psychology, Jim Mather, jim mather minister for enterprise, Ken Cloke, KPMG, Mariana Mazzucato, markets are conversations, No Straight Lines, Nova Scotia, nova scotia+participatory leadership+Tim Merry+art of hosting, p2p society, participatory innovation, participatory leadership, Regeneration Strategy, Scotland, Scottish Government, Scottish green party, Scottish national identity, social capital, Straight Lines, Systems thinking, the ash centre fordemocratic governanc, the support economy, the tragedy of the commons, Up Helly Aa, what makes a healthy civic society?
Contract law for SME's in Plain English
For the last few months I have been working with, and, advising a company called Lawbite. My reason for engaging with the company is that they are offering a viable alternative to legal advice for SME’s and start ups which is sorely needed. It is disruptive to the existing legal profession, but that is no bad thing. Lawbite is well overdue. Britain is sustained by SME’s yet their need of the law and the service they get from the law is not always evenly matched. Continue reading
September 18, 2013
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, angel investing, business ethics, Clive Rich, Confidentiality agreements, Contract, contract law for sme's, creativity impeded by copyright law, e-signing, employee law, english copyright law, eu copyright law, federation of small business, google campus, google+patents+copyright+mobile+data, Law, Law firm, law for start ups, law music, law+technology, Lawbite, lawbriefs, Lawyer, Legal advice, legal advice for sme's, lessons in law, metro bank, mums net, No Straight Lines, Plain English, property law, Pros and cons of using solicitors, shareholder agreements, shareholder law, start up britain, tech city, ten things i hate about lawyers, top 10 tips for negotiation, top tips for start ups, trade mark applications, trade marks, understanding the Law for SME's, virtual law firm, women in business, women in law
The lean green business system
The authors argue that things that are good for the planet are also good for business. Studies from the the Economist Intelligence Unit, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and others indicate that organizations that commit to goals of zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of nonrenewable resources clearly outperform their competition. Continue reading
September 15, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Adnams Brewery, Alan Moore, bio engineering, Business model innovation, design thinking, designing for the collective good, designing resilient food systems, Economist Intelligence Unit, environmental management, green business, green economy, green engineering, holistic design, Hunter Lovins, John Seddon, Kanban, Lean manufacturing, Manufacturing, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, organizational design, quality of life, radical redesign business, systems design, theory of constraints, Toyota, toyota global vision, toyota way, United States, value based systems
People embrace what they create in Istanbul
It was Jamie Lerner the Mayor of Curitiba who when he took office and facing many challenges decided to galvanise his citizens into life to make Curitiba work. Lerner said the work they undertook should be fun, fast and above all non-expensive. The idea that we own, or have ownership over our civic spaces is very important. Home, hearth, kith and kin are all about belonging and identity. So this is a small story about those things. Continue reading
September 12, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, alliance for community media activism, architecture of authority, city planning, civic engagement, civic engagement in a networked society, collaborative media, Community media, consequences of power and participatory media, Curitiba, government as servant to the people, Huseyin Cetinel, informed citizenry+democracy, Istanbul, Jamie Lerner, Jane Jacobs, Lerner, Letchworth Garden City, Mayor, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, p2p society, participatory cultures, people power, power of social innovation, public man+dead public space+public roles in cities+limits on public expression+man as actor+life in the 19th Century+industrial capitalism and public life+localizing the city+personality in public, Richard Ross, social innovation, the country and the city, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Turkey, Welwyn Garden City
Openness the new model for society
It has been said that privacy is dead. Not so. It’s secrecy that is dying. Openness will kill it. Writes Jeff Jarvis, he goes on, Openness is the more powerful weapon. Openness is the principle that guides, for example, Guardian journalism. Openness is all that can restore trust in government and technology companies. And openness – in standards, governance, and ethics – must be the basis of technologists’ efforts to take back the the net. That said its not just about the net, its about the future direction of our societies, what does an open society looks like? Continue reading
September 7, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, bruce schneier, Charles Handy, christopher soghoian, Creative Commons, dan auerbach, designing for transformation, electronic frontier foundation, Elinor Ostrom, eva galperin, exploitation of common internet encryption technologies, future business, future democracy, future of society, jeff jarvis, journal social issues, karl popper, leadership, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, nonlinear thinking, open academic journals, open book, open business models, open civic society, open commons, Open Data, open democracy, open economics, open education, open enterprise, open genome, open government, open health+open data+open data records, Open innovation, open journalism, open manufacturing, open media, open organisation, open science, Open Society Foundations, open society institute, open society+architecture, open source movement, open source+open access, open systems, open to new ideas, open will, openness, organizational design, p2p society, Systems thinking, the commons, the open society, theory u, Tony Judt
Lone Frank asks big questions around data and genetics
Since genetic information does not determine you, it does not in itself tell you anything really important. It won’t be very important to not have your genetic information in the public domain. It won’t seem very important to people to keep it private. Our sense of privacy is evolving; our pictures, out personal data our views of what needs to be kept private change. So why would our genetic data be different? Continue reading
September 6, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged BigData, biology, consumer genetics, crafting resilient healthcare, data policy+future data policy+future IT policy, deCODEme, designing a lightweight healthcare system, disease risk, Eukaryotic, future genetics, future health, genetic data, Genetics, Genome, genomics+big data, health innovation, health monitoring, Human Genome Project, medicare, My Beautiful Genome, Navigenics, No Straight Lines, Nucleic acid sequence, open health+open data+open data records, personal data, personal identity+modern selfhood, Personally identifiable information, preventative health care, psychology+community+mental health+communication, Public domain
Seamus Heaney remembering a great craftsman
It was terribly sad to hear the news of the passing to Seamus Heaney, a craftsman if ever there was one. As not only was he a master craftsman of the English language he embodied the other important characteristics of granite like integrity, and a deep empathy of the world around him and the people in it. A quest for truth is always core to the purpose of a poet, to seek that which others do not see and to express it in a way that we can all understand. Continue reading
September 1, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged Art, Bill Clinton, bloody sunday, business ethics, civil rights, Death of a Naturalist, douglas hume, ethics of craftsmanship, good friday agreement, Heaney, Ireland, Irish poetry, life of craftsmanship, new systems of ethics, No Straight Lines, open democracy+civil society+ethics, poerty and culture, Poetry, Poetry Foundation, principles of craftsmaship, Seamus Heaney
The overview effect and a pioneering spirit
Our nonlinear world is about connectedness, our connectedness to each other and in fact to a wider universe. Something I explore in No Straight Lines. I am deeply interested in our humanity and the human spirit. I am interested in humanities capacity for a higher yearning, which inspires us to work towards a greater good. Our pioneering spirit today should be more about the quality of life, and better governance of this planet. When we see the world as a deeper system, we see the world differently as this moving film explains. Continue reading
August 30, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, blue marble, coherent systems of meaning, culture+meaning+identity, design for humanity, Earth, frank white, interconnectedness of life, meta-level systems thinking, modern society frameworks of meaning, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, open systems, overview effect, sharing meaning in a networked world, smlxl, space exploration, Systems thinking, transformational experience
A handcrafted particle accelerator
Patrick Stevenson Keating created a handcrafted glass particle accelerator in what I would describe as an act of true craftsmanship. The piece consists of a series of organically-shaped hand-blown glass bulbs – each attached to a pump via a tube to create a vacuum. When the button is pushed, a voltage of 45,000V is applied across two electrodes. Continue reading
August 22, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Anatoli Bugorski, Doctor of Philosophy, Glass, hacking culture, hacking the future, hacktivism, hand made, Institute for High Energy Physics, Joule, maker movement, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, open hardware, open science, open source+open access, participatory cultures, Particle accelerator, Proton beam, Protvino, science commons, systems hacking, visible light
Monitor me, data, health and technology
This Horizon documentary called ‘Monitor Me’, is an intriguing journey into what the future of medicine may look like, with blends of cutting edge medicine, technology and data that monitors all and everything, we can imagine entirely different ways in which we can manage our daily health like weight to high performance sport to discovering at its very earliest stages serious medical problems. Continue reading
August 17, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Alternative, bbc, better sleep, Brittany Wenger, brittnay wenger, design thinking, digital health apps, england rubgy elite performance, Eric Topol, Fong, future cancer, future healthcare, future medicine, Ginger.io, Health, health apps, health innovation, health monitoring, health+data, healthcare, heart monitoring, Innovation, Kevin Fong, Larry Smarr, london air ambulance, mhealth, mobile health, No Straight Lines, Patients Know Best, preventative health care, self tracking transforming health, top 10 health apps, United States, wearable technology, weight loss
Seeking authenticity and a nonlinear life
I am a big fan of David Boyles work, and this book is one I think is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it in 2004. In this book he writes about the determined rejection of the fake, the virtual, the spun and the mass-produced, in the search for authenticity. Continue reading
August 9, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged Alan Moore, Charles Handy, david boyle, future agriculture, holistic design, Incredible Edible, localism, Michael Schuman+local living economies, micro breweries, natural capitalism, No Straight Lines, p2p economies, p2p society, Paul Hawken, scale, slow food movement, Social science, the ecology of commerce, the new economics, urban farming
Crowdfunding, goteo, localism, and non-linear innovation
Goteo demonstrates a people / community centered design approach to getting stuff done, bottom up networked, where everyone has something to give and something to gain. If we are looking for a pattern one can also point to Mosaic Banking on the sun, a community investing in sustainable energy. Collective crowdfunding is also part of a global movement to go around those institutions that people believe have failed them. Embedded in such design is a philosophy of networked sociability, and trust. As none of this works without it. It points to an alternative model of funding local projects which also mitigates risk. Continue reading
August 7, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, community production, crowdcube, crowdfund, design literacy, economy 2.0, Entrepreneur, future, IndieGoGo, Kickstarter, mondragon, New Economy, No Straight Lines, nonlinear innovation, open hardware, Open innovation, organizational design, p2p economy, p2p society, participatory cultures, participatory tools, RocketHub, seeders, smlxl, spain, systems design, the commons
6 steps to transform the way we do business
Published in The Guardian Sustainable Business. Our institutions, organisations and economies were conceived, designed and built for a simpler more linear world. Overwhelmed by complexity, these have become disrupted and unsustainable. There is an urgent need to transform our societies, organisations and economies by better design to thrive in what I call a “non-linear world”. Continue reading
August 3, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged 1010, Alan Moore, Business, Business model innovation, business models, Design, designing for transformation, dynamic adaptive systems, Earth, Economic model, economic systems thinking, enterprise open innovation, firm of the future, Guardian, Math, No Straight Lines, Nonlinear system, Open innovation, Organization, participatory cultures, participatory tools, Systems thinking
What do we know about participatory cultures?
Henry Jenkins interviews Aaron Delwiche and Jennifer Jacobs Henderson about their new book The Participatory Cultures Handbook. This is of great interest to me because Principle 4 of No Straight Lines is Participatory Cultures and Tools in a recent article for The Guardian (Six steps to transform the way we do business) I briefly explained the principle and why I believe it is a key component to our non-linear world, Continue reading
August 2, 2013
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, co-creation, co-design, collaborative design, Guardian, Henry Jenkins, Human, human centered design, human os, No Straight Lines, Nova Scotia, Open innovation, organisational design, p2p society, Participatory budgeting, participatory cultures, participatory tools, Patients Know Best, Straight Lines
Time, space, place, love, reflection, nature, craftsmanship
Sometimes, we need to feel something rather than analyse it. To feel time, to feel space and pace, the feel love and to reflect, to touch and go into nature and revel in the crafting of of something unique. Sometimes we need to be open to a new experience, to take its crooked path to a deeper meaning about who we are, and perhaps where we belong. Sometimes its good to feel humbled by nature and reflect on how we only exist within her nurture, as much as we might abuse it. Sometimes its good to feel the mystical as it as much a part of our non-linear world as our current obsession with technology. We have not harnessed the cosmos. Continue reading
August 1, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged Alan Moore, craftsmanship, Creativity, culture, film, hand+heart+mind, identity, jo quail, music, nature, No Straight Lines, smlxl
Where do big ideas come from?
Recently I was participating a workshop that was exploring the question, where do big ideas come from? We were a group of 20 people and asked to bring with us 2 ideas each that we found intriguing, ideas that we were undecided about but wanted to explore. Then through an intense collaborative process over 2 days we explored those ideas, digging deeper into them, exploring their emergence, their context, their potential for good and also disruption. We explored patterns, connections and looked systemically at these ideas. Continue reading
July 30, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged co-creation+open+openness+participatory leadership+language, Copernican heliocentrism, design innovation, Galileo, Galileo Galilei, holistic design, Johannes Kepler, Kepler, learnign as collaborative process, learning process, Lee Smolin, No Straight Lines, organisational learning, participatory cultures, participatory leadership, pattern recognition, Salzburg, Scientific Revolution, smlxl, Systems thinking
True craftsmanship is total commitment to the moment of creation
Principle 5 of No Straight Lines is Craftsmanship. Here artist Miyoko Shida demonstrates the idea of what it means to be fully engaged in an act of creation. Continue reading
July 18, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation)
Tagged 21st Century Enlightenment, Artisan, code academy, collective craftsmanship, Craftsman, Creative Commons, Creativity, designing for complexity, Henry Jenkins, Hephaestus, Knowledge Creation, Knowledge management, Lego, life hacker, life navigational guide, Local Motors, maker movement, makielabs, Miyoko Shida, No Straight Lines, Patients Know Best, pattern recognition, Raspberry Pi, Richard Sennett, smlxl, Systems thinking, transformation lab
Doug Englebart and what world he was trying to create
In No Straight Lines, technology plays an important role, it must do. Because to deny our umbilical relationship with technology is to deny ourselves. But it always seems a struggle to get people to reconcile the important philosophical, anthropological and societal relationships to technology that we indeed have – where it comes from, what drives our longing (on a large scale) which consequently affects what we imagine, create and make. Doug Englebart died recently, Continue reading
July 16, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Bill Bailey, Bret Victor, collective intelligence, design literacy, Douglas Engelbart, Engelbart, Hacker ethic, hacking the future, Hypertext, Innovation, No Straight Lines, philosophy of innovation, smlxl, Straight Lines, Technology
Is it solutions or transformation that we seek?
This where I think organisations need a more nuanced approach to Transformation – being able to describe a new destination, with if necessary new organisational capability. They need innovation to be interwoven into the organisation to deliver business model innovation Continue reading
July 10, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, Business model innovation, business transformation, crowdfunding, Donald Schön, firm of the future, Henry Ford Clinic, leadership, Lego, Local Motors, Organization, Patients Know Best, six principles no straight lines, smlxl, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action
On beauty
In No Straight Lines, I talk about the Human-OS, the human operating system and argue that these are the fundamentals of what we need to think about when we design for the needs of humanity. The last point is beauty. Continue reading
June 16, 2013
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness
Tagged aesthetics, alan moore+no straight lines, co-creation, complexity, craftsmanship, Design, firm of the future, Health care, human nature, Local Motors, No Straight Lines, nonlinear, Nova Scotia, openness, optimum complexity+beauty, participatory leadership, Philosophy, the human-os, trust, what next for business?
How big data can help better understand social risks and opportunities
‘Black Swans turn Grey’: The risk landscape is undoubtedly shifting. PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), invoking Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s recent book, posit that ‘Black Swans’ are increasingly ‘turning grey’. By this, they mean that previously catalytic and unforeseen events are becoming more regular; betraying an increased level of uncertainty faced by the global community in the face of growing connectivity and dependency. Continue reading
June 3, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Amnesty International, arab spring, BigData, Black Swan, crisis mananagement, enterprise risk management, No Straight Lines, non-linear thinking, political risk, predictive analytics, risk analysis, risk management, social data, social dynamics, social network theory, social networks, World Bank
No Straight Lines keynote @PINC
Alan Moore keynote at PINC: Today’s and tomorrow’s executives and leaders face a complex design challenge, in transforming existing organisations and economies from a linear to a non-linear economy. Executives and leaders must be able to thrive in a world of constant change and be able to create and lead agile organisations that deliver higher performance with lower input costs. No Straight Lines has six framing principles that teach the philosophy and practice of how to design organisations and economic models for a non-linear world. Continue reading
May 19, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, antifragile, business innovation, civil society and cultural power, communications innovation, design thinking, designing for humanity, designing organizational platforms, Financial Capital, freedom lab, healthcare innovation, keynote, leadership, LEGO CUUSOO, Local Motors, mobile commerce, networked society, No Straight Lines, Nonlinear system, Open Society, p2p economics, p2p society, participatory leadership, Patients Know Best, Social justice, technological revolution and financial capital, think tank, transformation lab, Worldreader.org, yeo valley farms
End of the line for mass produced education?
Sir Ken Robinson famously said: ‘We educate our children from the waist up, then we focus on their heads, and then we only educate one side of their brain. The whole purpose of education is to produce university professors who live in their heads, their bodies are only there to transport their heads to meetings. The current education system educates creativity out of us. We need to educate children holistically. Children have extraordinary capacities for innovation and creativity. And, just as Picasso argued that we are all born artists, social philosopher Richard Sennett says we are all born craftsmen and craftswomen. Martha Nussbaum in a short interview explores these themes. Continue reading
May 16, 2013
Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged 21st Century learning skills, Alan Moore, allegory+symbolism, Creativity, design thinking, Education, education innovation, educational theory, finnish lessons, friedrich fröbel, future educaiton, future university, Henry Jenkins, johann pestalozzi, martha nussbaum, Michael Gove, No Straight Lines, participatory education, Pasi Sahlberg, rabindranath tagore, Raspberry Pi
I don't see these things as risk, I see them as trust
I came across Amanda Palmer and was compelled by her story. In fact her entire life is non-linear, and through that life she has explored a different way of seeing, and through that a different type of wisdom. It resonated with me and with No Straight Lines. In her words, when we really see each other we help each other – and, Continue reading
May 12, 2013
Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, Amanda Palmer, beth noveck+participatory culture+crowdsourcing, collapse of trust in political elites, crisis+hope+faith+trust, crowdfunding, fan community, Grand theft orchestra, leadership in the digital economy, Muhammad Ali, No Straight Lines, nonlinear, organizational culture and leadership, participatory cultures, risk management, rules of participatory culture, transformation+trust, trust, trust+business, trusting connections
What does the imprisonment of Andrew Auernheimer tell us?
No matter what the outcome, I will not be broken. I am antifragile, tweeted Andrew Auernheimer before he was wrestled to the floor in a US courtroom and received 41 months for hacking into the the database of AT&T and redistributing that information into the public domain. Continue reading
May 6, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged aaron swartz, Alan Moore, at&t, Civil society, communication power, communities dominate brands, Democracy, Ethics, No Straight Lines, Social justice, the digital self, the networked society
una breve introducción sin líneas rectas
En una sociedad mediática, las unidades básicas son las grandes “masas” colectivas. La sociedad red, sin embargo, está formada por individuos que establecen conexiones voluntarias con otros individuos, sea cual sea su ubicación. En una sociedad red, la red se convierte en la unidad básica de organización a todos los niveles (individuos, grupos u organizaciones). Las redes sociales virtuales, las redes de medios de comunicación y las redes tecnológicas actúan como catalizadores de la sociedad red. Continue reading
April 22, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged ¿qué sigue para América Latina, Alan Moore, ciudades inteligentes, comunidad, culturas participativas, de igual a igual la sociedad, economía, economía verde, educación futura, empresa como comunidad, futuros negocios, grandes volúmenes de datos, identidad, medios de comunicación, móvil, natural para los negocios, no lineal, No Straight Lines, organización narrativa, pensamiento de diseño, pensamiento sistémico, red economía, sin líneas rectas, tecnologia
innovation is really about people
This is a beautiful short essay on non-linear innovation, people and place Continue reading
April 12, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, civic entrepreneurship, collective craftsmanship, community innovation, design literacy, hand+heart+mind, Innovation, No Straight Lines, non-linear innovation, participatory cultures, participatory leadership, social innovation
Austerity Britain, so what comes next?
Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said local authorities will have lost a third of their budget by 2015. And this is going to have serious implications for us all. so what does next look? Continue reading
Ambiguity / Epic (designing for transformation) / System breakdown
Tagged Andrew Haldane, Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire County Council, council tax bill, design challenge, England, george osborne, Ian duncan smith, Local Government Association, London, Merrick Cockell, No Straight Lines, non linear, Welsh government
Upgrading cities through social capital
Paul Ricoeur argued that our ability to be reliable and accountable to ourselves and to others requires us to feel needed, understood and included. This implicit bonding of I and We is so fundamental to our existence that it simply cannot be ignored. It must be embraced, and embedded into a way of doing things that enables us all to exist as fully formed individuals, coherent as a collective entity. Continue reading
Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools
Tagged Alan Moore, Bernard Baruch, Business, designing for transformation, future of the city, Jeffrey Sachs, No Straight Lines, Participatory culture, participatory learning, participatory tools, Seattle, social capital, Student, United States
Complexity, simplexity, self-assembly
The No Straight Lines challenge: be realistic imagine the impossible, then create it. The Self-Assembly Lab at MIT is a cross-disciplinary research lab Continue reading
April 8, 2013
Adaptiveness / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged 4d printing, Alan Moore, Built environment, cross-disciplinary, dynamic assembly, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, No Straight Lines, Printing, red lab, Self-assembly, Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, Vimeo
Big data and the sentient world
Chapter 5 of No Straight Lines addresses this emerging issue of data. The reason is that the fastest data set revolution is being created by you, every time we text search travel buy we add to the data mountain some 2.5 billion gigabytes a day we, that’s all of humanity are collectively writing a new consciousness into existence. In fact the architecture of our own brain suggests the future of sentience may reside in a different kind of BIG. The question is how do we make meaning out of this data? How can data help us meet the challenges in our daily lives, challenges for our cities, for our changing climate, the ever increasing demand to better manage the resources we have? Continue reading
April 7, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, BigData, cloud computing, cloud providers working with big data, control data institute, crowd aid exchange, data analytics, data architectures+social interaction, data meaning, data mining, data networks, data+democracy, data+health, data+marketing, data+prediction, data+society, Databases, designing with data, Environment, foursquare+girlswalker+sony+softbank+data+geo location+matrix+mixi+social networking+mobile business+mpesa, future data, Google, gps receivers, Hal Varian, Hurricane Katrina, location based data, machine to machine, meaning and data, No Straight Lines, Open Data, open regions+data, p2p+data, peer to peer networks, policing+crime+data, predicting crime, rio smart city, sentient world, smart cities, United States, unstructured data, wellness
The UK's social and economic design challenge
A design challenge of epic proportions: a number of conversations this week that has resulted in this post. One was related to four cities in the north of England and their urgent need to rethink and rebuild their local economies, with wellness as the heartbeat of a resilient economy. Then a conversation in my home town of Cambridge which explored the challenges that counties and regions around the UK now face as the UK divests itself of the structures that we call The State that provides services to society. It is a challenge because there will be a cumulative short fall in revenues over the next 5 years with nothing to replace it. Once we have divested these infrastructures there is no going back. Continue reading
April 6, 2013
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Arnold Heertje, collective intelligence, corazon aquino+people power movement, design for transformation, design thinking, designing for humanity, England, future civic society, Human, human os, human technologies, humanos, M. Scott Peck, No Straight Lines, open regions, p2p society, Participatory culture, people power, smlxl, Systems thinking, transformation lab
Marilyn Hamilton on wellness and urban life
In No Straight Lines I investigate the idea of what makes life worth living at a fundamental level. Why do we work, what is work, and more importantly what makes us as complete human beings as it quite clearly is not the current model. What price are we going to pay when we strip ourselves of the qualities that make us what we are? As Arnold Heertje argues we have lived in a quantitative and dehumanizing economic paradigm which has alienated human beings from their labour and social being. Continue reading
April 4, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown
Tagged Alan Moore, Charles Handy, civic progress, civic society, culture+meaning+identity, ecology of economy, Elisabet Sahtouris, gift economy, Human, John Helliwell, Lewis Hyde, local economies, Marilyn Hamilton, No Straight Lines, non-linear thinking, participatory cultures, pattern recognition, qualitative economics, resilient economies, Richard Sennett, Saskatoon, sharing identity, social innovation, Systems thinking, wellness
Upgrading civic infrastructure for a non-linear world
Michael Sandel argues there’s a role for governments, for companies, for civil society, for religious institutions, for educational institutions, for the media. He says all of these institutions can contribute toward forming values and strengthening civic virtue. But so many of these institutions, are in disarray or discredited, that they are not all in very strong health. And that’s part of our challenge. Continue reading
April 3, 2013
Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / Openness / System breakdown
Tagged Alan Moore, Cairo, Civic virtue, Civil society, design challenge, design literacy, ego to eco, enterprising futures, firms of the future, future commerce, future education, future government, future healthcare, future literacy, future religion, Government, leadership, legal systems, Michael Sandel, No Straight Lines, smart cities, Social justice, social justice achieved through innovation, Sustainability
Arnold Heertje humanizing the economy
Arnold Heertje is an economist, author and a provocative voice in the Dutch public debate. His analyses of the current situation regarding the economic crisis and the symptom it is according to him of a larger social paradigmatic shift. Heertje argues that we have lived in a quantitative and dehumanizing economic paradigm which has alienated human beings from their labour and social being. This crisis is the implosion of that model and should be used to initiate the shift towards the new paradigm, which has in his mind everything to do with sustainability and a return to human proportions. Continue reading
Adaptiveness / Education / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / System breakdown / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Arnold Heertje, Barack Obama, Big data, Crowd funding, designing for the human-os, Economic model, enterprising futures, future healthcare, human os, human proprtions, moral economy, New Economic Model, No Straight Lines, Obama, Paradigm, participatory cultures, participatory tools, Rahm Emanuel, schumacher college, smart cities, the ethical company, the future of education
Elisabet Sahtouris on the future of humanity and ecology
How and why do we as species connect and fit into the world? How and why are we all interconnected, why is it that cooperation is better than conflict? And why does that connect with a more sustainable world? Elisabet Sahtouris explains why… Continue reading
April 2, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / System breakdown
Tagged Alan Moore, biology, Earth, Ecology of Commerce, Elisabet Sahtouris, enterprising futures, Gaia, Human, Industrial Revolution, No Straight Lines, Organism, Symbiosis
Crispin Tickells on climate change
We are without a doubt moving into a non-linear world, a world that presents us with great challenges and of course great opportunities. Sir Crispin Tickells an early pioneer in the UK of foresight and change shares his views and thoughts on the need to think differently about the world we live in. How do we deal with climate change – he says we face a design challenge. Continue reading
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / System breakdown
Tagged Activism, Alan Moore, Asymmetric warfare, china+grain to green program, climate challenge, Creativity, economic challenge, forests+carbon dioxide+carbon trust+fossil fuels+free market economy+fertility+robert frosch+craig fuller+global markets+global warming+pollution permits+green tax+restorative economy, future, green economics, No Straight Lines, non linear, Nonlinear system, North Korea, Social Sciences, South Korea
The short term myopia of equity markets
In the Kay report on equity markets he makes recommendations that there should be a much needed shift in the culture of the stock market. It includes restoring relationships built on long term trust and confidence, and realigning incentives across the investment eco-system. Continue reading
March 30, 2013
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / System breakdown
Tagged Alan Moore, Asset management, british business, Business, global markets, goldman Sachs, investing 101, Investment, Investor, John Kay, long term capital management, Mergers and acquisitions, No Straight Lines, smlxl, trust+business, uk business
Ethan Zuckerman on civic media and network power
Ethan Zuckerman exploring and unpacking how participatory media helped unfold the Arab Spring. His belief is that that media production changes agency for people on the ground to effect political and social change. Continue reading
March 26, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, arab spring, blogs of dissent, civic engagement in a networked society, civic participation+community media, civic society+repression, Civics, communities dominate brands, Daily Mail, Ethan Zuckerman, Henry Jenkins, Iran, media ecology, mit media lab, networked power, networked society, No Straight Lines, Participatory culture, participatory media, Sub-Saharan Africa, YouTube
People powered uprisings and participatory media
Why is it Zeynep Tufekci asks that when power does such terrible things to a people, a country directed from above that the collective find it so hard to challenge this authoritarian power. It is a story that is explored in No Straight Lines Continue reading
Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged al-jazeera, arab spring, Collective action, Communication, Egypt, Facebook, future democracy, Gafsa, Henry Jenkins, networked protest, No Straight Lines, participatory cultures, participatory media, protest, Social network, Tunisia, Zeynep Tufekci
Innovating in crisis management with p2p and technology
Climate scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have reported that extreme weather will become the new normal. Few countries are prepared for multiple disasters. Does the world need a new humanitarian international project that matches the $150 billion international space station in scope and ambition? A key goal would be to ensure that everyone has access to a mobile phone or data signal during a disaster. Continue reading
March 22, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged 2010 Haiti earthquake, Alan Moore, American Red Cross, Big data, disaster innovation, distributed intelligence, Haiti, Haiti earthquake, impact of mobility, Innovation, intergovernmental panel on climate change, Mobile phone, No Straight Lines, Non-governmental organization, Patrick Meier, planetary weather, Qatar foundation, smlxl, ushahidi
Urban forests in the sky of Milan
The Bosco Verticale ‘eco-skyscrapers’ in Milan are described as urban forests in the sky, and will house as many trees as people. 50%+ of the world s population now live in cities so HOW DO WE bring the urban environment and nature closer together? Stefano Boeri Architects have been exploring the HOW. Continue reading
March 14, 2013
Adaptiveness / Ambiguity / Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Bosco Verticale, desiging with nature, eco-architecture, Energy, Innovation, inspired by nature, Milan, No Straight Lines, non-linear design, non-linear thnking, Stefano Boeri, Stefano Boeri Architects, Tower block, transformation, transition, upgrade, Urban area, Urban forest, vertical gardening
Less seed, water, and chemicals equals more food
Kumar, a young farmer in Nalanda district of India’s poorest state Bihar, had – using only farmyard manure and without any herbicides – grown an astonishing 22.4 tonnes of rice on one hectare of land Continue reading
March 9, 2013
Craftsmanship / Epic (designing for transformation) / System breakdown
Tagged Agriculture, Alan Moore, Anil Verma, Bihar, consciouslifenews, crop yields, diary farming, India, Innovation, Nalanda, Nalanda district, new green grassroots revolution, Nitish Kumar, No Straight Lines, non-linear economy, norman uphoff, Organic farming, Ravindra Kumar, Rice, schumacher college, seed patents, sri, sustainable enterprise, yeo valley
Crowd aid exchange, peer to peer crisis innovation
Last week I popped into the Humanitarian Centre in Cambridge part of the Cambridge University to meet Richard Dent who is working on what I think is an exciting and important project. Being part of the advisory board at Ushahidi, I was very interested in what Richard was up to. Ushahidi is a case study in No Straight Lines. Continue reading
February 26, 2013
Adaptiveness / Epic (designing for transformation) / Technology
Tagged Alan Moore, Cambridge University, complexity, crisis alert system, crisis management, data, extreme weather events, Haiti, Humanitarian Centre, Hurricane Katrina, mapping crisis, mashup, new zealand earthquake, No Straight Lines, Non-governmental organization, open api, Open Data, Richard Dent, scale and complexity of society, schumacher college, Technology, ushahidi
Achuar community speaks truth to power in the Amazon
Gregor MacLennan works for an Amazonwatch an organisation that campaigns for the rights and lives of indigenous tribes living in the Amazon rainforest in Peru.
MacLennan explains that huge tracts of the Amazon have been sold to international companies for mineral extraction. Those companies come and extract the minerals but they leave a lot behind: pollution on an unprecedented scale, deforestation, the undoable disruption of the communities that live there. Continue reading
February 21, 2013
Epic (designing for transformation) / participatory culture+tools / Technology
Tagged Achuar people, Alan Moore, amazon, Amazon rainforest, Amazonwatch, chevron, exxonn, Indigenous People, Indigenous tribes, Lima, mineral extraction, mining companies, mobile communications, No Straight Lines, oil spills, Peru, power+information technology, talisman energy