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....

Our fresh new look

Special thanks goes to Stefano of Germany for, in the spirit of collaboration, letting us use his image in our header.

If you like his work, check out his porfolio and blog.

Super Stefano!

Something to stop my brain falling out...

I just wanted to mention a browser tool the FAR team is trying out called ZOTERO. It helps you do things like keep references, take notes, store brainwaves so is potentially very useful for us students / researchers. It sits as an icon at the bottom of your browser, and opens up when you click on it. It talkes up about half your screen (snappity - snap quick screen shot - see below).
I'm thinking of all you other thesis groups as I write this post.... Val you need to check this out.

The one thing it seems to be missing is the possibility of collaborating - i.e. viewing / sharing your zotero... It would make our lives in FAR alot easier if we could zoterotogether.

Did you lose your ninja?

Do you recognize this ninja?  If so, we'd love to credit its creator, maybe with a rad creative commons license.

Really- FAR needs to thank whoever made this tough little jigsaw ninja and beg their permission for a real life copy.  We're desperately seeking a mascot.

And in case the creator is MIA- consider this our official request for inspiring cool ninja graphics.  Preferably resembling a jigsaw puzzle piece.

back to basics- do I even want to collaborate?

HELP!

Today we were lucky to have Stanley Nyoni, senior consultant at The Natural Step International spend some time chatting with FAR about our project.  Stanley wasted no time knocking us down a few notches, stumping us with ridiculously complicated questions like:

"What is Collaboration?"  

"Why is collaboration different than partnership?"

"How does collaboration help us?"

FAR collectively mumbled some excuses about needing to 'hit the books' and tried to scrap together some semblance of meaningful conversation- but we thought maybe you, our diligent blog readers, might have a better idea.  What do you think about collaboration- why should we do it?  So really what we're saying is- hey Val- what does collaboration mean to you?

In case you need a place to start, Stanley highlighted the skeleton of collaboration- the basics we are striving to elaborate on in our thesis and in the Brave New Collaboration wiki.  Thanks Stanley for a great talk, and helping us get back to basics.  Alright the skeleton of collaboration:

• Collaboration is a choice- so why would you make that choice?
  
• If we do chose to participate- it's likely based on the assumption that there is something to gain- some benefit to be derived...
  
• So how, once we engage collaboratively, do we ensure all those benefits are realized?
  
• And finally- maybe collaboration isn't a good thing.  Specifically, maybe collaboration using the web, isn't a good thing.  Maybe it violates our needs- rather than supporting our needs.  Obviously FAR scoffed at this ridiculous idea and promptly laughed Stanley right back to Stockholm, but we thought we'd do him justice and allow you readers to consider that angle as well.
  

All sounds pretty simple right?  We thought so too.  So just let us know what you think, and we'll plop it right on in to that little thesis paper.

Hats On to the FAR team!

We took a day on Tuesday to let our research questions 'emerge' by going through the Qualitative Research Design book recommended in our course, and this also lead to us working out what information we 'need to know', so that we can be more strategic in this research phase of our thesis. We considered our goals (personal, intellectual and practical), looked at key concepts, factors, variables, relationships and assumtions, thought about our method and considered where we might go wrong.

So, our final research questions, at least for the next week are:

Can the web 2.0 and future web 3.0 enable strategic collaboration towards sustainability?

If so, how?

How do business models support/hinder the strategic potential of web collaboration?

Not bad for a days work and we all went home feeling like things were coming together and we were on the same page.



Wednesday provided a great follow-up to this whereby we were able to start exploring how we can use this wiki during our Thesis to explore and observe collaboration in the context of our Thesis Question. We started by exploring what we want it to be able to do, to be useful towards our thesis and created a giant mind map on the white board. Next up we wanted to collect and inspire our thoughts on the wiki, so we used this great 'hats' exercise which helped us to be objective and non-judgemental, culmulating in us generating a very positive list of actions towards this being really great resource.



There's still lots to do, so we're working on a timeline and schedule to keep us on track.

More soon

FAR out

Happy Thesis Day

FAR celebrate Fei and Alice's Birthdays

January 20th- an important day for all us

FAR officially kicked off thesis season with our first eight hour work day.  Besides Rebecca's constant hacking, a few detours into Chinese You Tube land and Alice's potentially groundbreaking mathematical revelation- it all went pretty smoothly.

And before you ask, no the significance of FAR's first day being shared with a certain someone else's first day was not lost on us.  And yes, we do think the similarities are uncanny.

I mean Barack Obama is America's first Web 2.0 president, and we are BTH's first Web 2.0 thesis group!

The inauguration was Tweeted live all day, and Rebecca made her third tweet!

The inauguration drew record crowds, and the MSLS common room was flooded with students dying to join our meeting.  It was actually a bit ridiculous (yeah we're talking to you Val...).

Barack Obama is working to raise the consciousness of America.  He is collaborating across party boundaries to bring about change.  Wether he really is change we can believe in is yet to be seen, but man it's nice to believe for a little bit.

And today our thesis group discovered that we are passionate about raising global consciousness around sustainability. We are striving to collaborate with as many people as possible to understand the power of the web to rapidly increase the pace of our societal shift towards sustainability. Wether this type of collaboration is possible for a thesis is yet to be determined (please don't ask our thesis advisors their opinions), but we are excited to be the change we want to see in the world.

Economics Economics Economics

Have I mentioned that I love the planet money podcast?  Today I listened to a piece about punctuated change, pretty much what is happening as industries transform (or collapse?) all over the globe in the face of this recession.  The piece emphasized the need for creativity, innovation and experimentation to redefine the rules of the game for the major global industries- and see what will shake out as the next standard competitive advantage.  I don't see why 'open' couldn't or wouldn't be that trend.

Two other 'economy' type things I came across this weekend.  The long tail theory by Chris Anderson (Ed put this one up on our wiki)- and Lawrence Lessig's descriptor of the hybrid economy.  Too brain dead to elaborate much more now- but seems like at the least we can start tackling definitions of these theories for our glossary- as theories that could support/describe an economy where collaboration flourishes.

What can WE do for you today?

I'm finding it difficult not to be an idealistic youth. I don't think I want to stop – we've been learning that holding vision is what will help us move forwards, that pragmatism and old ideas lead to incremental change, but that we can do better. I am from the Net Generation. The generation that thinks it can have anything, do everything, can have its cake and eat it.

I recently read in the economist that us Net Gen kids are a pain to employ. Selfish, divas and poor team players, that need masses of support. In my first job, you could definitely have got that impression from me, but the truth was, my whole office was on constant procrastination mode - surfing the web and delivering the bare minimum. Staff were unenthusiastic, projects were accomplished sloppily and when I asked for guidance to make sure I was doing the best job I could, the management answered a different question to the one I asked.

I'm curious: Do we Net Genners threaten the Biro Generation because we are raring to go? Because we want to go FASTER than old habits and systems will allow us? Whilst we're all bored and itching in the office do you see us as lazy and uncommitted?

As a member of the Net Generation, I have at my fingertips the collaborative knowledge of MILLIONS of people and if you can handle me properly, through me, they can work for you.
Its time for managers to learn how to make use of the Net Gen.

Our business systems are not geared up for the information age just as society is not geared up for the Net Generation. Like it or not, the Net Generation ARE the future and the information age is here NOW. Perhaps you, as a manager can learn to help me fulfil my potential which, with tools like the internet is getting bigger every millisecond because I don't only use my brain. I can collaborate using the internet and access thousands of other Brains – what can we do for you today?

Toyota wants your ideas...

http://www.toyotawhynot.com/#/home

By encouraging this exploration and sharing of ideas, will Toyota build itself a resource that can eventually provide a return on investment?

How do the participants of these collaborative concepts make money from their collaborating, begging the questions:

Does business just want their work done for free?

How will individuals 'earn' in the future?

How about a pay - per - collaborate site (a bit like pay per click?)

Another angle of web-collaboration we haven't gone in deep with yet...

xxx

'HYBRIDIZATION of physical & virtual'=net gen's social capital

I love it when all my passions overlap:)  The author of Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirkey, was interviewed on planet money discussing a p2p lending site the government in the U.S. just shut down, called Prosper: Let's Bank on Each Other.

The truly fascinating part of this story is the need for strong, enforced Social Capital for such peer to peer lending to work.  There are few places in our world where social capital is still alive and well, and we generally tend to consider these places somewhat 'barbaric' (ie tribes in the middle east where if you fail to repay, you're murdered, or dismembered- not pretty stuff).

Shirkey explores the idea that sites such as prosper are bringing back social capital.  My instinct is social capital will be a critical concept if we are going to collaborate and share and support each other in a sustainable manner, but I'm curious to investigate more....

Web 3.0 Defined

So looking over Alice's definition of web 3.0, and exploring the only resource I use any more (I swear I'm trying to broaden my horizons) it seems to me the way we've started to use the term web 3.0 is not quite accurate.  

We've been thinking of it as the next evolution from the web as something you consume (web 1.0), to the web as something where the producers and the consumers are less defined (web 2.0) to a place where the web 2.0 collaborations end up with physical, real world interactions (web 3.0).  

I'm not sure where we got this from, and while I think this manifestation of physical world meet ups is something relevant- is it web 3.0?  As web 3.0 is the future possibilities of web technology (open being a key part) it's probably impossible to restrict the definition, but I'm curious if there's another more accurate categorization for our web networks manifesting in physical meet-ups.

How does twitter help us collaborate?

They call it informal collaboration.  I decided to investigate because my favorite podcast/blog just blogged about their tweeting community- and how all the tweeters in this planet money community are going to start meeting up.  More on this planet money community coming soon.... but for now this quick explanation (by Twitter itself) of just what need Twitter meets, what purpose they serve.

Alice's response to ED

Have you thought about doing a small 'collaborative' project as the basis of your thesis research...

This would be fab - I really would like to work on a real project - lets explore this idea further. Would the web - resource itself be this kind of project? I gather we are trying to construct a platform for collaboration - maximising the benefit, and useability of the platform will require working with users, tailoring it to their needs (this links to the language angle below).

So what type / area of collaboration do you guys share an interest in?

I think we need to go deeper with this question. We're meeting soon, so we have an opportunity to explore this together. I'm personally very interested in your suggestions around culture and language, in particular your comment that:

It's interesting that still on the web there's precious little truely inter-cultural collaboration... Wikipedia a bit, but they are separate languages, Linux has contributers from several countries (code languages are international, like music notation and pictures), but very little on more 'social' projects... yet that is what is needed for addressing global social/environmental challenges.

I had a brainwave of a real-time translation tool, for collaborative websites, so that you always see the page and posts in the language of your choice. The user would help with the continued development of the dictionaries... Maybe this thing allready exists...? (More to explore).

With FAR's Thesis in mind, we need to explore the application of such a tool for business towards facilitating 'truly inter-cultural collaboration'.

Alice :)

Bridging the gap - 6 degrees and couch surfing - Web 3.0 in action?

I'm postponing my thoughts on Eds email just for now so I can write down some quick thoughts spawned from my weekend Couchsurfing in Stockholm (and inspired by a conversation with Stanley Nyoni of TNSI).

It started when I was thinking about how Africa has the least amount of connections (6 degrees of freedom concept) - they have 7 or 8 (I should reference this but its hear-say I'm afraid). I realised that by meeting Stanley (Zimbabwe / Sweden), I have more connection to Africa, and vice versa.

I started to think about quality of connections in complex networks. I gather that the quality of a Connector or Hub is normally 'how many link it has, but I want to change it to the relevance or usefulness of those links to specific tasks. So that depending on the task in hand, a few quality links are better than numerous useless ones.

What does it mean - to be linked to someone? What is the point of my link to Stanley's Network, and what does this mean for sustainability?

With Stanely we discussed this and he helped me to the realisation that: When I watch the news I care MORE if I know someone from an aflicted area - even if they arn't there at the time. By knowing Stanley, I feel more concern for Zimbabwe, because I feel a link to his family there. By knowing Khuloud in my class from Palestine, I feel more concern at the current situation, to the point that I care for Khuloud, and feel and extra concern regarding its effect on her.

Stanley thinks that raising consciousness is key in the path towards sustainability. So how do we raise conciousness? How is the internet a tool for raising consciousness. Facebook and other social networking sites help me to maintain communication with people I allready know, and links me to their networks, however to draw those networks closer - for me to raise my conciousness I need more - in general (bar the odd occasion) social networking hasn't developped my sense of consiousness, simply has webified my connections - I added them to the sites - that is soooo 2.0

Couchsurfing - I / we couchsurfers have a need - for cheap sleep or to make friends...
Using the internet to communicate, and collaborate, leading to meeting someone NEW. to developing a rapport and to caring for those people, is helping to build HIGH-QUALITY links. The more international surfing that goes on, the more international links we can forge. By Hosting a surfer from China, we share our cultures, learn and bond, facilitating the development of our mutual consiousness.

The glue for my ideas hasn't set, but I'm starting to think around how web 3.0 can help us work towards sustainability, and where business fits within this.
Can couchsurfing provide a business platform template towards service orientated web collaboration that actually encourages people to care about each other? (SP4 combatting the systematic degradation of the capacity of people to meet their needs)
What other concepts and projects are out there that work in this way? - that not only leverage business towards sustainability but have some physical real-world outcomes with SP4 repercussions?

Thats all for now...

Alice

In response to Ed....

So thank you to Ed for sharing those thoughts- I couldn't agree more about the importance of exploring what collaboration truly is and bringing that into this project.  And I couldn't resist responding....

Our class really spent the first half of the program discovering the power and challenges of collaboration; which is what led me personally to this topic.  Our program has people from all different walks of life, from all over the globe, and all of our academic work is done collaboratively- with the thesis as the capstone of that work.  I came to Sweden to learn more about leadership and how to tackle our shared sustainability challenge, but the true Aha! moment came when I realized I was here to learn how to really collaborate- and the necessity of this to address the sustainability challenge.  I realized that in my past I'd done lots of group work, but very little meaningful collaboration where different minds come together and are empowered to create something greater than each individual involved.  I know one of the greatest experiences for me was working with three other individuals all from different continents, different ages and different levels of experience to develop a learning experience for our peers about Theory U.

I'm sure Alice and Fei can speak of similarly eye opening collaborations- and the three of us are really excited to put all our learning to practice on this project.  I'm excited about Brave New Collaboration because I think the web has the opportunity to change the way we share, learn and organize ourselves to allow collaboration that transcends barriers- but only if its developed intentionally to overcome those barriers.  As a group from all over the world, I think we have a better chance of really addressing those- but that's also why I think it will be so valuable to bring in Beyond Zero's experience in Africa and some of the unique barriers to that region.

One obvious barrier to the web's usefulness is the danger of information overload, particularly e-mail overload.  In our program it's clear that because we e-mail in english,  it is more time consuming for non-native english speakers to process e-mails; posing an unequal barrier to participation.  And then there are those of us who constantly fear the work e-mails coming in at all hours of the day, always staring at us when we sign in.....

At the same time, we don't want to lose those random thoughts and insights that are relevant to building shared knowledge, passion and understanding just because we're afraid of sending yet another e-mail, especially considering we are collaborating at a distance.  One strategy we're toying with is saving e-mail communication for logistical necessities- timely things needing response- and then post all other thoughts, commentary, insights to this blog people can check at their own convenience during set times.  We haven't used it much yet so no way to know if it will work.  Maybe over the next few weeks while we're waiting for our site to go up, all the 'facilitators' of this project (FAR, Menka, Ed and anyone else who is keen to take such a role) could share thoughts here- because I'm sure we'll all have many.  And then if we find it necessary to have a private means of communicating for the project facilitators, we could keep this on an unlinked part of our site.

Ok- more than enough from me.  I'm sorry brevity is not my strength- I promise I'll work on it...