Smlxl Reboot

http://www.<lickr.com/photos/naum/1639496461/  Rebooting Britain Alan Moore SMLXL  Straight  line The true possibilities of the networked society     thinking stops here!  

http://picapixels.tumblr.com/post/110371277/85945961‐jpg  The real voyage of  discovery is not to seek  new landscapes 

It is indeed to look upon  the world with fresh eyes  Image:: http://picapixels.tumblr.com/post/112642547/460954095‐jpg 

So come with me on a short journey, and  it all starts, with a friend of mine. Steve  Watts is a wealthy Californian  businessman. Recently he decided he  would take his family on holiday to  Europe. He decided that it would be a  good idea to travel en‐familie throughout  Europe, by train. Indeed, an elegant way  to travel he thought, along straight tracks  and clockwork like schedules avoiding  the trials and tribulations of air and car  travel. His children implored him to take  this opportunity to read the Harry Potter  books, as they thought he would really  enjoy them, as indeed they had done.  Steve decided that he would leap into the  digital age – buy the latest iPod, and  upload Harry Potter books as audio <iles. 

Donning the iconic white headphones as the 8am from Rome to Turin moved out of the  station, Steve looked out of the train window and began to take in the scenery and the stories  of Harry Potter. At the end of the week, sitting down to breakfast, Steve announced, much to  the horror of his children that he thought Harry Potter was severely over rated – well in fact  more than just over rated, Harry Potter was just plain rubbish. His kids looked perplexed.  Obviously his children disagreed, so, Steve explained that there was no structure, no plot line,  and the characters came and went in random order, constantly. 

Steve’s kids picked up his iPod and looked at it and then they laughed – in fact  they laughed until they were in tears, much to the consternation of their father.  Why? Because Steve had been listening to Harry Potter all week on Shuf<le. Steve  did not get Shuf<le and so this simple everyday story sits at the very heart of No  Straight Lines. Because for many of us, we have only ever experienced a linear  life and a linear culture, Steve’s inability to comprehend even the possibility of  Shuf<le is a simple but telling example of that fact.  http://www.<lickr.com/photos/34478983@N00/237139242 

Carlota Perez in her  book Technological  Revolutions and  Financial Capital –  says that there  comes a point in  time where the old  institutions are  found wanting, the  old frameworks  insuf<icient.  

http://picapixels.tumblr.com/post/113185311/1241888829265462‐jpeg  Let me explain A linear   approach to what we   make, how we make it, who we   make it with, how we share and   communicate is a framework if you will, or a lens   that sets us to look upon our world and act in a very particular  fashion. Shuf<le is an example of a non‐linear approach, a means  by which we can access, curate and interpret the world in a  different way. But for some is very hard to grasp. 

http://picapixels.tumblr.com/post/115662173/good‐morning‐situ‐gunung‐ii‐by‐juhe‐jpg  Think about it like this –    the only straight lines made in nature are made by man,    and similarly our industrial world has been built with    the same straight‐line logic    and, philosophy. Yet nature is not like that,    it has no straight lines.    Nature <lows, nature is more connected, grass roots and interdependent.    It suggests a different type of process and logic at play that is not;    centralized, bureaucratic or in<lexible.   This is the world of no straight lines.  

http://www.<lickr.com/photos/greentrench/179501134/  For straight‐line thinkers the world of no  straight lines is akin to living in a foreign  land; the customs, language, symbols etc.,  are dis‐lo‐cating‐ly alien – they are  outsiders, unable to fully participate, as  they do not have the comprehension, nor  the insight, or the necessary capability to  fully engage. They have become concussed  observers to the vital world around them.  The visceral shock however, is, that this is  happening to us, not in some foreign land,  but, in their own backyards. 

Our world of business, media, and communications is evolving from the straight‐lines of an  industrial era to the more complex and networked world that mimics nature.   This interactive networked world isn’t about vertical silos, traditional notions of product and  service creation, mass‐production and mass media and marketing. It is about the massive  <lows of people, who are connecting, collaborating, organising and creating in a manner that  has nothing to do with a linear approach too much at all. This is truly an engaged and  participatory culture.  Yochai Benkler in the Wealth of Networks argues that for over 150 years our economies,  culture and society have been shaped by a straight‐line logic producing considerable economic  success. However, in the dawn of the Networked‐Society, a straight‐line logic of getting stuff  done becomes a barrier to progress. Why? Because, the change wrought by the networked‐  society is structural – challenging how markets and organizations have co‐evolved over the last  150 years.  The highest and best form of ef1iciency is the  spontaneous cooperation of free people.   Woodrow Wilson 

http://www.<lickr.com/photos/14431773@N08/3512241035  Communication - Community - Communion This creates a dilemma. And the dilemma is this – How can <irms and the people  that work in those <irms, develop coherent strategies/products and services that  are premised upon No‐Straight‐Line principles – when they have been versed only  in Straight‐Line thinking – at least for the over 35’s – from birth? 

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/lewishamdreamer/1523495713/ There are no such things as conscripts ‐ there are only volunteers, says Euan  Semple, he says young people are coming into traditional organizations having  spent the entirety of their young lives: collaborating, networking and getting stuff  done in very different ways. They are confronted with an alien world of: linearity,  silos, hierarchies and the ego of title. The friction is palpable because the old  organizational models cannot cope with or take full advantage of the new  potential, unleashed is a profound transformation in the way of doing things,   of getting stuff done. 

Make no mistake – we are currently in the midst of a communications revolution –  and once you have stormed the Bastille you don’t go back to your day job.  We are at the barricades <ighting for a participatory culture as the modern world  has stripped us humans down to units of education, production and consumption.    In fact we want to, recover something of the spirit of the Enlightenment on terms  appropriate to our time. And this is what Reboot is all about: whether its Lee  Bryant talking about People Power, Andy Hobsbawm looking at how we create  Social Good from Social Media, Tom Steinberg giving us a real alternative vision of  a participatory and transparent Democracy – through mySociety, Paul Miller  offering us a vision as to how we can collaborate and innovate together better. We  want, No we demand the shared ability to connect to other citizens on common  ground. Because we have become victims of the rules we all live by. Replace every  member of Parliament but ask them to work within the current system – and you  will get exactly the same outcome – It’s a system breakdown.  Communications technology can be wielded as a powerful agent of social and  political change, today it is being wielded with great might and great ferocity. 

We have turned away from a Read Only  In the age of mass media, the press was  to a Read Write culture – Nokia says  able to de<ine the sphere of legitimate  25% of all media will be created by us  debate with relative ease because the  by 2012 – YouTube uploads 13 hours of  people on the receiving end were  audio‐visual material every minute of  atomised  but connected “up” to Big  every single day of the year. This is folk  Media but not across to each other. And  culture for the 21st Century – albeit on  now that authority is eroding   says  steroids.  Journalism Professor Jay Rosen  communicationstransformation 

http://www.<lickr.com/photos/42526951@N00/255187152  But what is driving this communications revolution?  Is it that technology has just appeared? Is it a <luke? An accident?  The simple answer to that is no. Technology is a human creation  in the <irst place and it succeeds or not the the extent that it  meets fundamental human needs, human beings have an innate  need to connect and collaborate, through communal and  cooperative activity we <ind context and meaning in our lives.   Right now, we are directing communications technology to  achieve very speci<ic things for society. As Carl Jung said…. 

“I”    Needs    “We”    to truly be   “I”  

Noisy ghosts in the machine called life  But our industrial, mass media, mass consumer society, strips us of what  makes us who we are – we have become units of production and consumption,  battery farmed, and raised in a world where we feel little personal  accountability to each other. We have deconstructed humanity almost to the  http://www.woostercollective.com/2008/09/fresh_stuff_from_dan_in_bristol_uk.html  point of destruction – sceptical !? Ask any practicing psychologist who will tell  you of the very complex psychological problems many people have as they  struggle to construct their identities.   Sadly many of us have become very noisy ghosts in the machine called life. In  the UK Every 3 in 5 people suffer or have suffered from a mental health  problem  The crisis of our modern age is the crisis of meaning, these are the deep  drivers to what all the speakers at Reboot are concerned with – what Reboot  directs you to is how we can rediscover our sense of ourselves and in doing so  – Reboot Britain. 

Image: http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/camil_t/82015664/ “Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do  exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and  develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces  which make it a living thing.”   John Stuart Mill – On Liberty 1859 

A new commonsense for the networked society  http://www.<lickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/2723981272/  Participatory culture – folk culture for the 21st Century  In a late medieval carnival, for example, everyone had a role to play and a chance to distinguish  themselves individually by the brilliance of their costumes, the wittiness of their jokes, or their  talents as dancers or athletes. Barbara Ehrenreich in her book Dancing in the Streets, a history  of collective joy, says that the capacity for collective joy is encoded into us almost as deeply as  the capacity for erotic human love of one human for another. We can live without it, as most of  us do, but only at the risk of succumbing to the solitary nightmare of depression, argues  Barbara Ehrenreich. Today, the most prescribed drugs in the world are those for depression.  We want to co‐create, share, collaborate together in this way we <ind common meaning. 

HOS  http://www.we‐make‐money‐not‐art.com/archives/2008/05/erika‐larsen‐for‐the‐past.php                Human                                 Operating                             System  The Open Society  George Soros worried deeply that unfettered capitalism was creating a closed society which only one  thing counted – material success. He argued for an open society a new type of operating system that  was not built upon market fundamentalism, dogma and avarice. I would argue this is what we might  call a Human Operating System. This social operating system looks beyond materialism to something  greater ‐ to liberate us from closed systems so that we can all re‐engage with the world to feel and be  accountable to each other and experience and enjoy the richness of life 

http://picapixels.tumblr.com/post/110384580/picapixels‐tumblr  @ Reboot we are showing each other what this Open Society really means  systems, platforms and services that enable people to better cooperate together,  more effectively and enjoyably.  We go from faster to closer – from context to  deeper context. And as John Thackara says a culture of community and  connectivity has to be fun as well as challenging, as well as responsible.   The “open society” is created by the unfolding of; ideas, language and creativity  that brings us new ways of describing and comprehending our world.  

The Open Society should NOT JUST SATISFY US. No it should  inspire us.  

http://www.<lickr.com/photos/9266144@N02/1075722366/  I want to share some words with you that I want you to re<lect upon and in doing so to think  about what do these words suggest as possibilities to you? And perhaps as you spend your day  with us all @ Reboot apply this language to your company, your organisation and imagine what  that language means? 

lightweight  

<lexible   

adaptive 

creative  commons  

open source 

deep context  

life‐long  learning  

embedded  sociability 

individual &  collective  accountability  

mobile 

grassroots  

craftmanship 

permeable  <lows of  information  

blended reality 

networked  economics 

collaborative  &   participatory 

social  innovation 

i + we 

networked 

trust  &  transparency 

shared  collective joy 

read & write 

collective  intelligence  

mashable 

hyper‐local   &  superglobal 

technologies    of    cooperation 

understands  the morality of  “enough” 

Cocreation  The co‐creation of culture and the sharing of culture creates social cohesion.   Collaboration, participation, co‐creation 

http://www.<lickr.com/photos/21526856@N00/2345518579  Craftsmanship in the networked society  Social philosopher, Richard Sennett's book The Craftsman, is an exploration  into the idea of craftsmanship, he begins from the basics of technique and  personal expression and applies that to a philosophy of how craftsmanship  might be at the very heart of social good in modern society. It is Sennett's  contention that “nearly anyone can become a good craftsman” and that  “learning to work well enables people to govern themselves and  so become  good citizens.” This line of thought depends, among other things, upon the  Enlightenment assumption that craft abilities are innate and widely distributed,  and that, when rightly stimulated and trained, they allow craftsmen to become  knowledgeable public persons.” The craftsman is more than just a good  technician he is a bringer of peace and a maker of civilisation, he uses his  tools for the collective good.  

Embedded Sociability  Every single case history and proposition at Reboot actually has sociability  implicitly embedded. Reboot recognises embedded sociability as part of the  DNA of the networked society – it is a fundamental requirement.  http://www.<lickr.com/photos/an_untrained_eye/1195966967/ 

Permeability of organisations  organisations need to be  permeable, with the ability  to absorb <lows of  information, and people.   This means using more  transparent methods of  communication from inside  http://www.<lickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum_photography/2862345500/  out and outside in.   It also means being <lexible  and adaptive, more organic  in thought and deed.  http://picapixels.tumblr.com/post/113152317 

People have lived and worked in villages since the dawn of civilization. The corporation, argues Charles  Handy, is a youthful concept, little more than a century old. One could argue, too, that the notion of a lively  village — with its unabashed humanity — is a more appropriate way to look at what the corporation  should be in the 21st century than the constrained and impersonal entity it has been.   Villages are small and personal, and their inhabitants have names, characters, and personalities. What  more appropriate concept on which to base our institutions of the future than the ancient organic social  unit whose <lexibility and strength sustained human society through millennia?  http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/krustysplodge/898377791/ The organisation as a village 

http://www.woostercollective.com/2008/08/bruno_taylors_playful_spaces.html  We don’t take back the public realm by more CCTV ‐ Trying to control the public  domain remotely is never going to work.  Why is it in Japan that you can leave  your bicycle left unlocked in down Tokyo – because society has a powerful sense  of the inter‐relationship between society – the public realm and the individual.  http://www.<lickr.com/photos/38435718@N00/264462892  Creating community is only marginally about technology. What matters is the  emergence of shared meaning as we interact with each‐other in meaningful  activities… For hundreds of years, when the majority of the population was  illiterate, participatory ritual and performance were the main ways that beliefs  were shared within a culture.  Taking back the public realm 

The learning age  Stephen Heppell considers the 21st century to herald the ‘learning age’.   In the 20th century, he argues, we built big things (railways, universities)  but the focus for the 21st century is ‘helping people to help each other’.   In his view, “The old stuff won't do any more”.  The four Cs are Heppell's key…  

Learning should be a  {1}  part of all our lives –  an open, living  Creating breathing system  where intelligence  and knowledge is  shared and  distributed –    {3}   {2}   Collaborating  Critiquing  {4}     Communicating 

Deschooling business schools – a new capitalism  http://www.<lickr.com/photos/delibelli/279319214/  Contrary to popular opinion – business is in fact a social science – so perhaps our business  schools should be more like this – the Eden project The promise of this new world cannot  come about until education/business /politics etc.,adjusts to human need not the other way  around by connecting people with common interests, unlocking creative talent among  groups that have a passionate interest or an desire to exchange information globally, and   as a consequence new content and solutions emerge.   I believe that by offering collaborative tools for innovation at the grass roots we dramatically  increase productivity because as I have pointed out a simple truth people embrace what they  create. 

The effervescent  beauty of systems  thinking  Straight Line Thinkers also fail to think of the whole system or pathway of help, which  leads  instead to focusing on bits of the system, with the result that although each bit may be doing  its bit, the overall result is awful, as one part clashes against another.   John Seddon, argues that this dynamic is currently endemic in Britain’s public sector leading  to valueless activity, meaningless measurement, and ever poorer service, at ever greater cost.  You and I as taxpayers are paying heavily for this stupidity. The solution, Seddon advocates  is a Systems Thinking approach where  [1] individuals come <irst,  [2] waste is reduced   [3] responsibility replaces blame.  It's an approach that is proven, successful and relatively  cheap ‐ and one that governments around the world, and their advisers, need to adopt urgently.  It is the difference between effectiveness vs. ef<iciency 

simplexity  We create complexity by not thinking through solutions de<ined by simple  human principals. This is as relevant to our daily lives as individuals and as  professionals. We forget to look beyond the obvious and step back from  situations to enable us to alter our preconceptions of taking and making  solutions.  And by doing so, we tumble into complexity   

One of the ways to simplexity is through the Bill Bailey  principle. Bill is a comedian and he is asked how he comes  up with his jokes  The Bill Bailey Principle 

Bill says – well I start with a laugh and works backwards.  What do I need to do to create that about of laughter!!  Where we start to think about solving problems will  determine where we end up. 

James Dyson started by asking a question and focused there after on <inding the  very best answer / experience to that question. His focus was on effectiveness  not ef<iciency. Funny that – he also has 50% of the vacuum cleaner market –  globally.   But we also see the same approach for MyPolice and in there is a suggestion of  a completely different approach, a process that provide very different results. 

I suggest, that rather than <iddling around with bits of the system, we raise our eyes and  minds upwards and yearn for the vast endless sea of possibility of what our society could  be beyond the con<ines of Straight Line thinking – Embrace and use daily what Howard  Rheingold rightly describes as “Technologies of Cooperation”.   What you call things is important, as I have also explained, we need a new language and  framework to enable to us to succeed as a society, and, we need to put commerce in its  rightful place within the human fabric of the networked society.  We need a system reboot into a new social paradigm. As Richard Sennett argued in the  Craftsman  We want to, recover something of the spirit of the Enlightenment on terms appropriate to  our time.   We may need a form of dualism for a while, understanding that we are in the process of  making a journey, spiritually, socially, and economically from one way of seeing and  behaving in the world to another.  The source of the solution lies in <inding once again the  ‘being’ in human being. The fundamental need we have is to <ind shared meaning, because  without such communal meaning or belonging, we become bricks in the wall, living  meaningless lives.  We need to Reboot the system and we need to Reboot it now. 

SMLXL:  Contact: alanm@smlxtralarge.com   Twitter: alansmlxl   www.smlxtralarge.com  Thank you  http://icanread.tumblr.com/post/85622811/via‐inothernews 

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Smlxl Reboot

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