Hand in- complete!

First draft is now in the hands of our poor thesis advisers.

What did we find? We think this little guy pretty much sums it up. The more innovative and creative we can be as a society, the better chance we have of making a happier world and planet. And what's the best way to innovate and foster creativity? You got it, collaboration. We're still working with the ninjas to put together tips to heighten or collaborative capacity, allow us to really harness the power of the vast collaborative network they call 'the web' to innovate on a grand scale. So keep your eyes peeled for more to come at http://www.collaborationninja.com. And for some quick ninja tips every now and then, check out our tweeting ninja: collabninja.

At this point we should probably thank our friends and family for being so patient with us as we disappeared down that mysterious rabbit hole they call 'thesis world.' We haven't quite made it back to the surface yet, but we're coming closer. We'd especially like to thank Val- for being the only one to read this blog till the end:)

Where did all those weeks go?

breath in, breath out. Repeat.

We're starting to suspect there may be a little bit of time to breath, which is a relief, cause the past three days have been a whirl wind. But we don't suspect this relief will last long.

Did you know that we're studying collaboration? Well we are, and more and more we're realizing the most important methodology we have is field action research- what we call studying ourselves.

The best thing we have going for us is MOTIVATION. We are so passionate about what we're studying we're willing to pull all nighters, go for the gold, do whatever it takes to communicate our findings.

Perhaps our biggest mistake? We forgot the golden rule: keep it simple stupid. We have bitten off a gigantic, interdisciplinary topic and are barely able to scratch the service. In hindsight, we probably should have SIMPLIFIED OUR PROPOSITION. But what can you do- we're learning and despite the pain- we're loving every second of it.

I guess what it always comes down to is time. There's never enough time... it's a pretty familiar feeling. I think everyone who's concerned about global poverty, climate change is concerned with every second wasted.

So we're doing our best to push through, do the most we can with the little time we're lucky enough to have, and hope that we can all learn something meaningful along the way.

Top Internet Security Threats

Some of you may have been wondering where your daughters, girlfriends, friends, peers that make up FAR thesis group have been hiding. I'll tell you: we've been behind our computer screens furiously transcribing interviews and digesting all the amazing tidbits we've gleaned from our interviews. We've been busy- but have learned a lot. We're more excited than ever about the potential of the collaborative Internet to help us tackle some of our global sustainability challenges. We're also more aware than ever that the future of the Internet is really uncertain. So here's just a few threats we should all be aware of...

Top Open Internet Threats: Censorship to Warrantless Surveillance
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/wireds-top-inte.html

--
Sent via a FeedFlare link from a FeedBurner feed.
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/feedflare

Nils says:

I tried to post these in a comment on your blog about a week ago, and I couldn't get it to work (the Captcha wouldn't load), and now I can't decide where to post them as a comment... so I'm just emailing you all.

Thing #1: Kevin Kelly's 2007 EG talk (via TED): http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

You'll like this, I think. The Future!! The next 5,000 days of the web will not be "the web, only better", just like the past 5,000 days were not just "TV, only better". .... We, and everything, will all be connected in a giant web, where the price you pay for instant info and connectedness is... no privacy, much transparency. Very interesting. (Plus, the guy co-founded WIRED magazine and was its exec editor for a long time, and has done lots of other cool stuff... and doesn't have a college or university degree!)

Thing #2: http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/02/anatomy-of-connect.html

David Recordon seems like someone to look into more. [Note: for a real kick, click the 'listen' link to the right of the post title in the link above... it's by far the best computer text reader I've ever heard; really amazing.]

[Other note: O'Reilly Radar is a great blog and worth watching, too, not that you aren't already overloaded with content, I'm sure.]

Hahaha(mirthful) says Alice, I am more powerful than the captcha...

Life in FAR land is in full swing.

Having cornered Johnie Moore, Keith Sawyer, Mark Klein, Peter Gloor, Roland Harwood and Andrew Keen this week, we've learn't heaps and are eager to get stuck into next weeks medley of interviews.

With regards to a few complications using googledocs, it turns out that Fei was not the problem in question, it was infact Alice, who is looking rather shame faced, as she had spearheaded the movement to rename Fei simply VIRUS.

Transcribing all these interviews is proving a lengthy yet necessary task, however revisiting them is a really great way to consolidate and pass on all that juicy learning. Look out for Podcasts of a few of those comming soon.

The Collaboration Ninjas circle is widening with the arrival of many geeks to help us make a super cool website. You can find them at: http://collaborationninja.ning.com/ where they are currently discussing what the site will be able to do, and how to best design it.

As a last note, the importance of planning and how it can give us hope was highlighted in this happy news story of how Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III - the pilot of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River, made plans and was ultimately successful in saving the lives of his passengers:

"We never gave up. Having a plan enabled us to keep our hope alive. Perhaps in a similar fashion, people who are in their own personal crises —a pink slip, a foreclosure— can be reminded that no matter how dire the circumstance, or how little time you have to deal with it, further action is always possible. There's always a way out of even the tightest spot. You can survive."

Backcasting from success in action

HOPE for FAR

'Exactly what I'm on about' says petitepeche - 'What? said Roxfei...

' the web doesn't save people, - people do'

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sherwin_nuland_on_hope.html

COINs - tools for PEOPLE

Social Networks for Grand Challenges

So I'm aware I've been posting a lot of slide shows from other people. But there are just so many smart folks out there with such valuable insights, like Chris Thorpe, I can't resist sharing.
Enjoy.

Social Networks for Grand Challenges

View more documents from Chris Thorpe. (tags: networks social)

In the name of transparency

A little bit about us....

About Far

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Resumes & CVs Thesis

Comic Art / Graphic Novel vision of COINs - Help Help!!!

It would be stonkin' to have FAR's farout vision of Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs) in a Sustainable Future as a comic strip - to help people visualise the potential for COINs. We'll post our vision statement soon, but in the meanwhile this is a CRY FOR HELP for any Graphic Novelists / Comic Strip Artists (whatever you're called these days) to help us draw up our COIN Utopia... As always its about doing it on a voluntary basis - think of it as contributing towards a Collaborative, Innovative and Sustainable society ;)

(image from Known Prime on DeviantArt: http://known-prime.deviantart.com/art/future-city-7673091)

To get involved contact alicemarie.archer@gmail.com

Just in case you missed it

Just in case anyone had forgotten about, or actually slept through, the cacophony that was gfail 2009, here's a shot of what I spent my morning watching. (and in case you missed it all together- gfail refers to the 3-4 hour period when gmail, the very popular free google provided e-mail service, was down. down=broken=unavailable=end of the world)

For me the gfail was initially frustrating, then highly entertaining, and in the end actually a statement of the success of google gears. I could still work on everything I needed once I was over the initial shock. So congrats google.

But more importantly for all of us looking to seriously up our web game are the many implications of utilizing tools we understand little about. We are rapidly becoming entrenched in the world wide web, storing our lives with google, amazon, and on mysterious 'clouds.' While the potential is overwhelming- I never advocate following blindly down paths we just don't understand. Come on MSLSers- what's the first rule of the game? Understand the SYSTEM.

It seems to me we need to raise our collective intelligence about that complex system that is the web, and work harder as users of these tools to really understand the risks that go along with the many opportunities.

FAR's RESEARCH

"O brave new world, That has such people in't!"

-The Tempest, William Shakespeare Act 5, Scene 1, lines 181 - 184

In 1932 Aldous Huxley published Brave New World; an iconic work that has come to symbolize the perils of depending on technology for salvation, success or happiness. Huxley's work is still considered classic to this date; largely because the fear of technology's devastating impact on our social fabric is still alive and well. Historically this fear has thrived within the environmental movement: a group famous for their suspicion of the technological quick fix and their condemnation of technologies devastating effects on the environment. However the rise of the internet and its seemingly limitless potential for collaboration has changed the nature of this age old debate. As millions collaborate together in the search for extra terrestrial intelligence (SETI at home), victims of the 2008/09 economic meltdown stage protests and rallies through Twitter and Facebook, and the largest, grass-roots political campaign ever elects America's first black president, some are beginning to wonder if a brave new world is exactly the hope we've all been looking for. This thesis seeks to explore what this brave new collaboration means for the sustainability movement, and how its innovative power can be harnessed to shift our world towards a sustainable future.

Our Research Question:

In what ways can collaborative innovation networks contribute to transformational change towards a sustainable society?

• How could collaborative innovation networks be used in the future as part of a sustainable society?
• How are collaborative innovation networks being used today and what emerging factors affects the functioning of collaborative innovation networks?
• How are sustainability change agents (people whose collaborative innovation networks vision encompasses improving the environmental or social conditions of society) currently using collaborative innovation networks?
• What barriers confront the strategic use of collaborative innovation networks towards a sustainable future?
• How can the gaps be overcome - how can sustainability change agents use COIN's?

Can we Interview you please?

The collaboration ninjas and FAR need your help.

In case you didn't know, FAR is working as part of a team of individuals dedicated to helping the world become ninjas at collaboration; ie the collaboration ninjas. As the members of FAR dive into our research questions, we are working side by side with the ninjas to build a resource with strategic and practical guidelines for social innovators interested in utilizing the web's collaborative potential.

We are working with the ninjas to make the resource as collaborative, dynamic, and long-lived as possible. The beginnings of this initiative are documented at http://www.collaborationninja.com/.

And now, this is where you come in. Of course FAR is following traditional academic research methodology, and contacting the published experts in this field. We are so grateful for the opportunity to chat and learn from these experts. However in the field of brave new collaboration, its hard to say what constitutes an 'expert.' We'd go so far as to say the people we enjoy following on blogs, twitter and bumping into across the halls of the internet are as much experts in this field as many of the academics we are meeting with as well.

So, think you have something to contribute? Do you utilize the collaborative power of the web? Are you interested in how we can rapidly innovate the social and environmental changes necessary? Do you have an experience or story you can share? Do you love the knowledge and innovation opportunities you're offered by the internet? Then we probably want to talk to you.

If you do decide to participate, we expect the interview to take no longer than an hour and could include the following questions we are exploring:

1. How can we know when web-based collaboration is appropriate or not?

2. How can the collaboration be designed to incentivize participation and break-down barriers; ie what governance structures work best for collaborative projects in your experience?

3. What is the role of motivation, vision and trust in successful collaboration- and what kind of leadership is needed?

4. What are your recommendations for designing a business model around successful web based collaboration? What is the value added for participants of collaboration, and how is that value realized?

5. What are your recommendations regarding legalities for web-collaborators? What is the best legal structure to encourage openness? Are the commons always the answer? Do we have the legal structures available to deal with international, web-based collaboration on a grand scale?

6. What does your ideal e-collaboration tool look like? Do you have any favorite collaboration tools that exist? How can we overcome the limitations of current collaboration technology?

7. How do you see the future of e-collaboration? Do you think the web is the best tool to facilitate collaborative innovation for sustainability? Do we need something else? What real world mechanisms do you foresee necessary, running in parallel / supporting e-collaboration

Thanks for considering- we really do need your help. Send us a DM or e-mail if you can offer an hour of your time in the next few weeks.

Cheers,
FAR
farthesis@gmail.com

Twitter:
rapetzel
roxfeI
petitepeche

Geeks Wanted

We are looking for Geeks, Nerds and the likes, to help us overhaul the wiki, replacing it with a CMS (Plone or Drupal or something) with a KISS (Keep-it-simple-stupid) user interface supporting a forum, space for people to interact and collaborate on content a bit (we want the whole site to be pretty open and easy to use), and a really easy way for administrators to alter the look and feel of the site.

(Alice Geeking)

Erm whats in it for you.... You get to geek and compete at being the best geek (always amusing) and we'll write you a stonking reference (if you're well behaved of course) and can link you to lots of useful people, especially if you are interested in the web as a tool for collaboration and you'd be doing a great thing for the world... (I believe it really I do). I.e. its voluntary!

Think you fit the bill? Get in touch!

Alice

alicemarie.archer@gmail.com

UsNow....Sustainabilists

Take the time to watch this 1.5 minute trailer if you haven't already. Great teaser into the power of the collaborative web to fundamentally transform governance. It is the same potential that is driving FAR's thesis exploration into how we can use the collaborative web for sustainability.

Have to tell you, I'm wishing we had a documentary film maker in our team (ahem Joel...).
Don Tapscott, Clay Shirky: if you're reading this, expect a call shortly from the FAR team.
And Val, if you like the teaser, maybe we can organize a meet-up and screen the documentary.

A presentation About Community, by the Community

Found this gem while surfing through Sam Ismail's blog- so thanks Sam. I recommend you tune in to the sixty one to get a sound track going- then sit back and enjoy this engaging presentation about what web based communities really mean for business and beyond.

A Presentation About Community, By The Community

View more presentations from neilperkin. (tags: branding brands)

An American Networking Abroad

I came to England this week to glean as much information as possible regarding on-line collaboration for a better world. After all, this is the country famous for having a prime minister on Twitter. However at this particular moment my thoughts are with America, after spending the past hour wandering the streets of London listening to a podcast of my new President Barack Obama.

Since arriving here in the UK, I've witnessed first hand how advanced many Brit's are in their use of on-line networking tools. In fact I spent the morning with social media gurus exploring the dynamics of such networks. We created together as a group, and influenced each other in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways. It was a fun environment to reflect on the chaotic yet powerful dynamic of networks that shape our lives and world. These Brits clearly understand the power of social media.

Now that America is led by the world's first you tube president who releases information through podcasts and twitter, maybe us Americans have a chance to catch up.

But why would we want to catch up? While these networks of influence are amazing, and let's admit it twitter is pretty addictive, what does this really mean for me as an American and global citizen concerned about the state of the world? Does it really add value to have a web 2.0 president?

I think so, and Obama's first day in office just built my excitement.

Some of you may have noticed that on his first day, all information released from the Whitehouse was suddenly available through a Creative Commons license- a license that supports collaboration through the open sharing of knowledge and information. Considering it was all unlicensed information to begin with, this appeared as a bit of a political statement.

No coincidence that another action taken on his first day was a presidential directive for greater openness, transparency, and collaboration in the U.S. government. That's right- collaboration. You see while twitter, facebook and the works are entertaining- they also represent the unlimited power of the web to connect people and allow the open sharing of knowledge. I think many of us collaboration nerds hoped that Obama's advanced usage of social media indicated a move towards openness and collaboration- and he just confirmed our hopes.
In response to the presidential directive, the collaboration project released an inspiring report calling for government to break out of it's departmental silos to solve the seemingly impossible challenges of our time. It called for greater openness and utilization of the web 2.0 technologies to reshape our governance structures, practices and culture.

Suffice it to say I'm feeling like FAR is doing the right thesis, at the right time, and am hoping Obama will find the upcoming collaboration ninjas web 2.0 resource valuable in achieving this governmental paradigm shift.

23:57 and we're still here

So it's Wednesday night, and FAR is preparing for some serious withdrawal. After weeks of intensive, physical real life FAR time we're about to be separated for 13 days. Oh my! I guess it's time to put our money where our mouth is and move our collaboration to the virtual world. Skype, google docs, twitter here we come.

In case you're worried about how FAR will fare as three individuals, you can follow the experience on twitter. To see Alice's progress, friend petitepeche. To hear of Rebecca's pain, search rapetzel. And for our dear Fei- Roxfei is awaiting your friendship.

Not sold on twitter yet? We understand- we're recent converts ourselves. But in our short experience we've made global connections and found resources we never could have imagined. And if you're already a google user- you can add a simple twitter gadget to your igoogle home page nice and easy to allow for easy collaboration. So Val- get on twitter already ok?

We're anxiously awaiting your tweets....

So now that we want to collaborate...

I'd like to share a quick snipet from a recent gchat:

me: collaboration makes it (the thesis process) slower- but hopefully stronger

Sarah: collaboration is a challenge and a jewel

Amen sister, Amen. Luckily we live in 2009- and the web has evolved some really nifty tools to aid us in our collaborative endeavors- ensuring things remain all shiny and jewel like. I'd consider collaborative thesis writing to be on the high end of the collaboration spectrum (high being the most collaboration imaginable, low being just providing feedback) which means we demand more of our collaboration tools. Over the past week FAR has probably explored every tool out there. We'd like to share our insights- and hopefully crowdsource some suggestions as well....

• Alice mentioned the nifty little tool zotero- which I am thoroughly in love with. However it really just helps me myself be organized- it doesn't have sharing capabilities. It's open source so it's improving all the time and sharing capabilities are on the way. But since none of us are quite nerdy enough to program in the capacities we need, we've turned to other resources for collaboration.
  

• Google. Although I share the skepticism of trusting google, or more accurately anyone, with all my personal information, I still love the tools they're putting out. A shared google calendar has been the frontline of our collaboration- setting meeting agendas, schedules the works. Follow that up with google documents so we can really co-create ideas together. This has been strengthened by the recent addition of google gears for offline work- a service we hope will expand. But there are limitations. Fei almost smashed her computer the hundredth time the document she was reading scrolled to the top because her fellow 'collaborators' were reading a different segment. Add that to the 'i'm sorry your most recent edit clashes with that of a shared collaborator' delete message- and we knew that while we loved google- we'd have to keep searching...
• Drop Box. Thank you drop box for both providing a back-up of all our documents and allowing us to easily pass and share resources/documents to work on without having to send e-mails. It's great- although the file management is getting out of control. How on earth are we supposed to stay up on all the changes and edits and additions being made by just the three of us? Especially without the tagging/sorting capabilities we've come to love in all our other on-line tools.
  
• Blog, blogs, blogs. So we have two blogs. This blog to solicit other people doing the work for us (thanks again...), and our private blog where we can post all our ideas and tag them- in a sense letting the tags organize our ideas into a thesis for us. This blog, kindly hosted for free by blogger, has access to all the great google gadgets so feels very familiar to us google fanatics. Our private blog is hosted by wordpress- which is open source so allows for thousands of people all over the world to improve it rather than just one company. And it has tag clouds, which FAR is pretty obsessed with.
  
• Twitter. We've just fallen in love with twitter. Every time one of us has a question- there is someone on twitter who has an answer. It's a smart, smart world out there and we love being able to tweet and access all that intelligence.
  

What else you got? I know there are quite a few other thesis groups out there going through intense collaborations... any tools we've missed? I've heard that evernote is amazing, and its tagging/searching capabilities seem pretty cutting edge. I'm definitely planning on using it for my personal life- however not sure about as a collaboration tool.

When collaboration zombies attack...

I know I should be sleeping, but too much black tea and far too relaxing a day, has me all itching and ready to burn internet rubber... So in my meandering, illogical (right brained) way, I came across this awesome project, whereby a lady by the name of Bryony has used the internet to make a ZOMBIE MOVIE with people writing, acting and making special-effects all over the world. She set up a kind of COIN: Collaborative, Innovation Network (not that she'd call it that), and probably could tell us plenty of stories about the challenges of working collaboratively over the internet.

Zombie movies...not necessarily sustainable, but Bryony with her why not attitude characteristic of us 'net gen' bunch, is giving us a great example of a creative application for COINs. Yes, you heard it here first. COINs are not just for Linux Designers. They're for amateur Zombie Movie directors too.

And before you ask, not all amateur Zombie Movie producers code Linux.

the evolution of a research question

What happens when you bring together three people, from three different continents to collaboratively develop and explore a research thesis? Some might say chaos, others might say misery- but at the end of the day FAR chooses to think of it more as a little bit of magic.

You start with three people with very different interests but a shared 'hunch' that wikinomics and new forms of web collaboration have some potential to transform the world as we know it.

Then you throw in a little bit of Beyond Zero, Brave New Collaboration and the amazing exploration and insight of the wonderful Menka and Ed.

Shake it all up a little bit, and throw in four years of past research into the field of strategic sustainable development, the cutting insight of our advisors, some Natural Step International and presto you have a research question!
Or that's what we thought- until we sat down for a day and 'let the sparks fly.' After a day holed up in la casa de Petzel, diving into the literature and trying to finalize the details of our thesis proposal- something funny emerged. A lot of the spark came from Peter Gloor's articulation of collaborative innovation networks. Much came from Menka's always thoughtful questioning. And so much came from The Partners4SSD thesis group. But by the end of the day, our research questions emerged from the ruble brand new, and hopefully improved. Let us know what you think.

1. In what ways can collaborative innovation networks contribute to transformational change towards a sustainable society?

2. What emerging factors effect the strategic functioning of collaborative innovation networks (business models, technology, licensing models, the semantic web....)

3. How are individuals working towards sustainability currently using collaborative innovation networks?

4. What could collaborative innovation networks look like in a sustainable future?

5. What barriers and opportunities confront collaborative innovation networks?

We know, we know, it's a lot to bite off in four months. But luckily we're not going at it alone. We're excited about the opportunity to partner with the Brave New Collaboration team to launch a wiki that will both embody the opportunities of collaborative networks and add to the field of knowledge about these networks. We're inspired everyday by our MSLS classmates, and the insights of alumni such as Andre who volunteer their time. Then there's Sam (whose collaborative global warming network made it into our thesis proposal- thanks Sam!) Iain, Adrian, Val, Mr. Petzel, Juice and all you other crazies who kindly help us out through this blog.

Can't wait to collaborate more and uncover some answers to the pesty questions above....