Ted Ernst is a good friend – I missed this gem from last Friday 13th…
Archive for the ‘open space’ Category
Peer Coaching Triads
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009Posted in blogospheric, Chicago, community, education, excellence, friends, gift economy, open space, positive media, process | No Comments »
Networks of Collaboration and Service: Redesigning Work and Partnership
Saturday, March 7th, 2009On Monday, March 9 (2009) Jean Russell a.k.a. NurtureGirl and myself will be facilitating a Noon-hour design & brainstorming session under the above title at the Public Engagement Symposium and Technology Showcase convened by the Vice Chancellor for Public Engagement at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Here’s the description of the session, join us if you can!
Networks of Collaboration and Service: Redesigning Work and Partnership
Tools and Networks abound. Our challenge is in working together effectively. What is missing from the tools and practices of the social benefit sector? What are the opportunities for coordination among and across networks afforded by a shift in perspective towards building for the commons? Catalytic Communities, a pioneer in the solutions ecology will be the starting point for a collaborative design session — building the tools and culture we need to grow a plurality of commons.
That’s the idea. This could be the theme of a conference all it’s own. We’ll see how it goes. We’ve only got one hour, but this is one of the questions that drives me in my work., Even if we just foster a little seriousness on the opportunities this frame evokes, we’ll be taking a step.
Posted in civic entrepreneurship, commons, community, community informatics, education, EFN, ethos, excellence, flow, friends, gift economy, grassroots, green, Illinois, Internet, network, open source, open space, positive media, process, public, social justice, social source, strategic roadmapping, theory, thoughts, tools | No Comments »
Gleason’s Open Source Dreams
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Gerry Gleason, everyday philanthropist, concerned citizen, and open source dreamer … interviewed at the SourceTree Commons gathering in Breckenridge, Colorado (July, 2007).
Posted in Chicago, civic entrepreneurship, commons, community, EFN, friends, gift economy, grassroots, Internet, open source, open space, philanthropy, social source, sourcetree, tech development | No Comments »
Chicago (Net) Squared
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008Tonight we convened the first Chicago Net Tuesday at “The Point” at 600 W. Chicago… thanks Aaron! We had a great turnout by Meet-Up standards… (somewhere around 30 people) … we’re shooting for the second Tuesday of each month.
The metaphor of the mash-up is perfect for our vision. We want to bring together the talents and assets and interests and needs of Chicago — Chicago techies and community activists, NPOs and others ready to give back to the community and grow the network. Fundamentally, our perspective is that while NPOs are addressing deep needs in the communities they serve, our city and the neighborhoods and professions and trades are full of resources and talents that we have but to put together in new and exciting ways. This has been my credo for some time … this perspective informed the efforts of the Chicago Digital Access Alliance and our campaign for Digital Excellence (in the context of the Citywide Wireless Initiative that wound up stalling out).
We started off the evening with an invitation to everyone to step up and join us as co-convenors for this effort going forward… we all introduced ourselves to the group and then we sunk our teeth into our first big question about what Chicago Non-Profit’s really need.
That is an important question, to be sure, but I’ve reached the point where I want to start from our strengths and assets. We need to figure out how to share our skills and talents. We don’t have to start from a scarcity mindset.
More important than the answers to the question we started with, or any alternative positive framing I might offer, is the question of conversation and story, and widening the circle of participants. What questions do we have to ask? What are the big questions that will open some real conversation for Chicago? Who do we address the big questions to? Can we ask ourselves the really hard questions?
For myself – the issue of new social technologies leaves me rather ambivalent. We have to start from our purposes, and not from the faddish new tools. We have to get clear about what we want for our city. Let our technology choices and investments stem from that vision.
Posted in civic entrepreneurship, commons, community, community informatics, EFN, ethos, excellence, flow, gift economy, GIO, grassroots, Illinois, Internet, open space, public, social justice, social source, tech development, wireless, wireless chicago | 4 Comments »
Get Illinois Online: Join the conversation
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008G I O – Get Illinois Online. We’ve been hosting an email conversation for several years. Join the conversation.
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| Subscribe to GIO-Talk |
| Visit this group |
There is also a more Chicago-centric mailing list, here:
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| Subscribe to GIO-Chicago |
| Visit this group |
Posted in civic entrepreneurship, civic garden, commons, community, ethos, excellence, GIO, grassroots, Illinois, Internet, network, open space, politics, process, public, social justice, strategic roadmapping, wireless, wireless chicago | No Comments »
Civic Entrepreneurship, Community Informatics and the Gift Economy
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008I composed a short list of some essential readings that reflect a world-view appropriate to the Internet Era, I shared it with friends studying Community Informatics and Civic Entrepreurship, two domains seeking a better world. Since I recently catalogued (part of) my personal library using LibraryThing, it makes sense to share these here as well (as they are part of my virtual library).
These writings provide a conceptual matrix for an interesting breed of Civic Entrepreneur- (it’s a partial list) … really a new model of Citizenship and Society/Polity. They aren’t new to a lot of you – and if you have other works that you think really need to be on the list, please let me know.
Movement as Network, by Gideon Rosenblatt, also: The three pillars of social source
David Isenberg’s Rise of the Stupid Network
Pushing Power to the Edges (pdf) by Jillaine Smith, Martin Kearns, Allison Fine
The Cluetrain Manifesto (Doc Searles, et al.)
Cory Doctorow’s Down & Out in the Magic Kingdom
Coase’s Penguin: (by Yochai Benkler … his book The Wealth of Networks is also recommended. There’s a wiki inviting discussion of his ideas.)
The list doesn’t represent any hierarchic ordering.
Posted in books, civic entrepreneurship, commons, community informatics, education, ethos, excellence, gift economy, grassroots, green, Internet, media history, network, open source, open space, philanthropy, politics, process, public, social justice, social source, theory, thoughts, tools | 1 Comment »
Bee, Butterfly, Breeze
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007Via the Open Space listserv, courtesy Doug Germann:
Perhaps the earliest open space poet was Emily Dickinson. In 1858, she wrote:
In the name of the Bee–
And of the Butterfly–
And of the Breeze–Amen!
Posted in aphorisms, EFN, open space | No Comments »