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Describes a vision for a platform to mobilize people around a common vision
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ON THE POSSIBILITY OF AN OPEN SYSTEM MOBILIZATION PLATFORM
How the Principles of Real Time Interaction, Visibility, Openness and
Self-Organization Can Serve as the Foundation for a Technology
Platform that can be Utilized to Solve Large Scale Global Problems
(Draft 1.0)
Suresh FernandoJanuary 15, 2009
OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................................. 4
QUESTIONS TO PONDER............................................................................................................4
KEY COMPONENTS OF THE VISION...........................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 5WHAT IS AN OPEN SYSTEM MOBILIZATION PLATFORM?...................................................................6WHAT IS MASSIVE SOCIAL CHANGE?.............................................................................................6MASSIVE SOCIAL CHANGE REQUIRES MASSIVE MOBILIZATION.........................................................7MASSIVE MOBILIZATION REQUIRES LARGE SCALE CONSENSUS FORMATION....................................7LARGE SCALE CONSENSUS FORMATION IS A PRODUCT OF GROUP PROCESS..................................7
THE IMPORTANCE OF REAL TIME INTERACTION....................................................................7
GROUP PROCESS OCCURS IN REAL TIME: THE IMPORTANCE OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION........7GROUP PROCESS IS DEFINED BY ONES CONSCIOUSNESS OF ONES RELATION TO THE GROUP........7WHETHER GROUPS ONE PARTICIPATES IN ARE MEANINGFUL TO ONESELF IS DEPENDENT UPON THE EXTENT OF REAL TIME INTERACTION..............................................................................................8
THE IMPORTANCE OF OPENNESS.............................................................................................9
THE LIMITATIONS OF OPENNESS....................................................................................................9WE ARE MOTIVATED TO CONNECT WITH AND HELP OTHERS...........................................................9THE OPENNESS OF THE INTERNET AND THE HUMAN MOTIVATION TO HELP OTHERS.......................10
DRIVING USER PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE PROJECTS........................................................10
WHY PEOPLE PARTICIPATE IN PROJECTS ON A VOLUNTEER BASIS...............................................10THE SUCCESS OF A PROJECT IS DEPENDENT UPON PARTICIPATION IN THE PROJECT....................11THE RAPID SCALING OF PROJECTS..............................................................................................11
THE IMPORTANCE OF VISBILITY..............................................................................................12
CONSTRAINT ON PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE VOLUNTEER PROJECTS: THE ABSENCE OF VISIBILITY....12VISIBILITY OF PROJECTS WILL ENHANCE PARTICIPATION...............................................................13THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ACTIONS AND PROJECTS...................................................................14
THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF ORGANIZATION.........................................................................15
VISIBILITY OF PROJECTS ENABLES THE SELF ORGANIZATION OF PROJECTS...................................15PROBLEMS A SELF ORGANIZING TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM MUST SOLVE.......................................15CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEVELOPING TRUST ON SELF ORGANIZING TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS.......15ARCHITECTURAL THEMES FOR A SELF ORGANIZING TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM................................16SELF-ORGANIZATION ENABLES A SINGLE IDEA TO TURN INTO A PROJECT......................................17
IN CONSIDERING HUMAN EXPERIENCE..................................................................................18
REAL TIME INTERACTION: THE NATURAL WAY TO INTERACT WITH OTHERS......................................18REAL TIME INTERACTION AND GENERATIVE IDEA CREATION: GROUP BRAINSTORMING....................19HOW REAL TIME BRAINSTORMING CAN CREATE MOMENTUM AROUND LARGE PROJECTS...............19HARNESSING OUR COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE..............................................................................20IDEA DISCOVERY......................................................................................................................... 20THE EQUIVALENCE OF IDEAS: TRUE DEMOCRACY..........................................................................20
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................. 20
APPENDICES.............................................................................................................................. 22
ARCHITECTURAL CONSIDERATIONS..............................................................................................22LINKING AND MATCHING MODULE.................................................................................................22LEADERSHIP AND PROJECT STRUCTURE MODULE........................................................................23COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT MODULE...................................................................................24
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PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS...................................................................................................25
PHASE I: CREATING MEMBER (PERSON, PROJECT, ORGANIZATION) PROFILE..................................25PHASE II: CREATION OF SHARED PROJECT INFORMATION AND GOALS...........................................25
VISIBILITY AND REPRESENTATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS...................................................25
THE IMPORTANCE OF RICH MEDIA................................................................................................25REPRESENTATION, ONTOLOGY CONSTRUCTION AND THE SEMANTIC WEB......................................26THE PROJECT ONTOLOGY...........................................................................................................28THE ORGANIZATIONAL ONTOLOGY...............................................................................................28
RESEARCH.................................................................................................................................. 28
COMPETITION.............................................................................................................................. 28OPEN SYSTEM COLLABORATION/MOBILIZATION PLATFORMS/PROJECTS.........................................29BOOKS AND ARTICLES................................................................................................................. 30
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OBJECTIVES
My objective in presenting the following is:
1. To make the case for an Open System Mobilization Platform; a platform that will serve to
organize large-scale collective action online.
2. To stimulate dialogue about the idea by providing enough detail about the drivers for
adoption as well as the architectural structure of the platform.
3. To form a team to develop the platform once it is determined what the initial set of
features should be.
4. To present a vision that can be used to develop a technology platform with specific
architectural features. Although there is some discussion about what the architecture will
need to support, it is not designed, at this stage, to present a specific technology
architecture.
5. To provide sufficient consideration to aspects of human nature that bring to bear on the
utilization of technology platforms. It’s important to keep in mind that technology is not an
end in itself, merely an enabler for new forms of interaction. One cannot predict what new
sorts of interaction are possible without a view on what motivates us to act in the first
place.
6. To stimulate the reader to realize that the Internet gives rise to new forms of collective
interaction that were not heretofore possible at any time in the course of human history!
7. To stimulate the reader to realize that to the extent that new forms of collective interaction
are possible, new strategies and solutions to problems must be considered. There is no
reason to think that problems that were once considered intractable are in fact so.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
As you read the following it is helpful to keep in view the following questions:
Are seemingly intractable global problems like climate change and poverty solvable through
existing societal mechanisms? Does the rapid pace of technological change have a fundamental
role to play in creating potentially innovative solutions? I say yes!!
What sort of platform would you have to design in order to scale user participation into the
thousands, or even hundreds of thousands?
The Internet allows you, for the first time in history, to focus the attention of millions of people on
a single idea or process! How can this fact be utilized to make this world a better place?
Why Don’t Existing Social Change Websites have Much Traction? Why is it that with the many
websites that attempt to bridge boundaries and connect those that care about the world with each
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other, most have a minimal install base, most projects on the sites are at a standstill, most
projects that utilize these sites have raised little money and most organizations that attempt to
serve the public interest do not see technology as a fundamental driver of their business
processes etc.?
What Makes Facebook Such A Successful Platform? How can the features that make it
successful be utilized by a platform the objective of which is to mobilize people around specific
projects?
What sort of platform could be developed that would make it possible for a single great idea to
gain momentum?
Why is the Internet, at this stage in its evolution, not contributing in a fundamental way to making
this world a better place?
What is the relationship between visibility into the details of an online project and the ability to
scale online participation? As you will see my view is that there is a very close relationship!
How can we increase the efficiency of the volunteers’ time and reduce the risk that he/she is
wasting time on a particular online project?
What are the implications of self-organization (the formation of an organizational/leadership
structure that commences with the assistance of the Mobilization Platform) for the scaling of
online volunteer projects?
What sort of user experience builds trust and commitment between individuals?
What is the relationship between the rapid adoption rates of rich media and the ability to form
virtual relationships?
KEY COMPONENTS OF THE VISION
Introduction
I am heartened by the fact that there seems to be an increasing realization that the Internet can
have a very large role to play in positive social change. The evidence for this is the large number
of websites and blogs that are devoted to this idea. A veritable cottage industry is emerging.
Although I don’t have specific numbers to back up my intuitions in this area, it is becoming pretty
clear that the number of website that connect causes to donors, volunteers to projects, allow
individuals to take specific actions etc. is increasing at a dramatic pace. Furthermore, all
organizations are beginning to realize the virtues of utilizing various online tools to connect with
others. They are implementing blogs, twittering, using IM, and hosts of other ‘web 2.0’ type tools
to enhance their reach into the community. They have no choice since for the younger generation
this is life as usual.
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Surely this is a good thing and will, if people understand the implications, contribute to the
betterment of society.
Nevertheless I cannot help but feel that there is something missing; that we can hope for more
than what is currently out there.
What we can hope for is the sort of technology platform that can make massive social change a
possibility!
This is to be distinguished from a collaboration platform in that our objective is more than just to
make it possible to work together.
The objective is to make it possible to scale the user participation of projects into the thousands
and hopefully hundreds of thousands!
In order for this to be possible, it will be necessary to develop an Open System Mobilization
Platform.
What is an Open System Mobilization Platform?
There are many systems that allow groups to collaborate. A mobilization platform can be
distinguished from a collaboration platform in the following ways:
Self Organizing: Built into the platform will be functionality that will make it possible for the a team
to develop on the platform, for the strategy to be developed on the platform etc. This will be
supported by a high degree of real time information flow industry news, project news, people
news etc.)
Open Projects: The system will be designed to accommodate projects that are open in the sense
that, in principle, the more people working on the project the better.
Catalytic Capacity: In virtue of the way that we will connect people to projects to organizations in
real time, with substantial information flow (industry news, project news, people news etc.), we
expect that projects will be generated off the platform. Like-minded people will be able to find
each other.
Large Scale Collaboration: The platform will be designed with the view that, in time, it will be able
to support large numbers of people working on open projects.
Note that this does not mean that we expect this to be the dominant functionality when
the platform is initially rolled out.
In short, a mobilization platform is designed, specifically to make massive social change a
possibility!
What is Massive Social Change?
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Simply put, massive social change is revolutionary! - something that happens on a grand scale! It
is the sort of change that is meaningful. It is the sort of change that we would experience should
we collectively decide on a particular path to address the issue of climate change, end poverty
and so on. In short it is massive!
Massive Social Change Requires Massive Mobilization
Let us for a moment assume that it is possible to make the sorts of changes that will result in
global change on a large scale. Let us assume that, for example, enough people in the world can
come together to force certain climate change related strategies to be adopted globally. What is
necessary is that large numbers of people be mobilized around specific ideas or plans.
Massive Mobilization Requires Large Scale Consensus Formation
In order for large numbers of people to be mobilized around specific ideas, it is necessary that
mechanisms be developed that make large-scale consensus formation a possibility; mechanisms
that make it possible for hundreds of thousands if not millions of people to agree on certain goals
and a specific course of action to achieve these goals!
Large Scale Consensus Formation is a Product of Group Process
When groups of people agree on a plan, it is the result of meetings and dialogue. It requires
assessment of ideas, compromise, negotiation and so on. Hence, it is the product of the
interaction of those that are part of the collaborative process. This sort of collaborative process is,
by definition, a group process.
THE IMPORTANCE OF REAL TIME INTERACTION
Group Process Occurs in Real Time: the importance of non-verbal communication
If we think of prototypical group experiences we think of people sitting around a meeting table, a
hockey team, a band our work environment etc. In all of these cases, real time interaction is an
essential feature of the pattern of interaction. It is via the face-to-face interaction that members of
the group develop their relationships with each other. They monitor how members of the group
respond to their question; respond to others’ questions, how respectful they are off each other,
how aggressive they are on so on.
It is only via real time interaction that non-verbal signals are communicated and interpreted, and
these are an essential feature of the bonding experience between people.
Group Process is Defined By Ones Consciousness of Ones Relation to the Group
What is important to note about Group Process is that there are particular dynamics at play that
bring to bear on the ideas that are generated and plans that are agreed upon. In particular when
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one is part of a group one is conscious of not just ones relationship to specific other individuals in
the group (what I think of Joe…) but also to ones relationship to the group (understood as a
singular entity). For example, one is faced with questions such as whether one is contributing to
the group, whether the group is functioning effectively, whether I am making friends through
participation in the group etc.
This consciousness that participation in Group Process gives rise to leads to a self
consciousness of ones relationship to groups that one is participating in. For example, one knows
whether or not one is the leader of the group, whether one likes the leaders, whether one ‘feels
as though they are a part of the group’.
We might then ask ourselves what it is that makes us feel as though we are a part of a group? It
does not take much reflection to realize our consciousness of our relation to a group and the
people that are a part of it is largely dependent not just of interaction, but a specific form of
interaction – real time interaction!
Whether Groups One Participates in are Meaningful to Oneself is Dependent Upon the
Extent of Real Time Interaction
Ask yourself which groups you participate in that you feel really invested in? If you work within
some organization, you no doubt feel a part of this group (one may feel positively or negatively
about this). If you play music in a band, you likely feel a part of this group. If you take a yoga
class on the weekends, you may feel a part of this group, although likely to a lesser extent.
In short, the extent to which you feel invested in a particular group will be dependent upon the
how often you see people, how often you talk to them etc. – how often you interact with them in
real time! Real time interaction is the most essential feature in the formation of ones sense of
ones relation to other people, groups etc. It works both ways. Clearly you interact in real time with
people and groups that you are most invested in; your family, friends, coworkers etc. Just as
importantly, real time interaction is constitutive of the extent to which you are invested in the
situation. To see that this is so, just think of the feelings that one experiences when one doesn’t
like ones coworkers (one would prefer not to be invested in the situation!). Regardless of whether
one wants to feel invested in the situation (care about it), the very fact that you interact with these
same people every day makes this sort of interaction important. One has no choice in the matter.
Hence real time interaction is constitutive of the pattern of interaction that is necessary to make
processes have meaning to people.
The above line of thinking provides us with one pillar for the platform that must be developed: it
must be a real time platform. What else must we consider?
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THE IMPORTANCE OF OPENNESS
It is a widely discussed fact that the Internet bridges boundaries. We can search the Internet and
find organizations and people that are doing interesting things all over the world. We can then
send them emails and initiate a dialogue with them. The world is truly global. This is not news.
A less understood (or at least talked about) feature of the Internet is that one can represent
oneself (or ones ideas) to the whole world. One can create a website or a blog and, at least in
theory, anyone in the world can view it.
The Internet opens the world to you and you to the world.
The Limitations of Openness.
This is an interesting and exciting feature that many of us are aware of and trying to take
advantage of. Virtually all businesses and many individuals now have website and/or blogs, for
example. That said, as many of us know, this is not enough. Companies use websites in
conjunction with other sorts of media. Individuals puzzle over how best to get people to read their
blogs. In short, the Internet is open, but there is so much information in cyberspace that it is
virtually impossible to be seen.
For something to simply be present online is not sufficient, one must consider under what
conditions things that are online become widely known to others.
Are there particular considerations or aspects of human nature or human interaction that we
should consider when trying to understand why certain web companies, blogs, processes etc.
grow virally?
What aspect of human motivation should we consider given the context of our current
investigation?
We are Motivated to Connect with and Help Others
The question as to what motivates us is a large and vexed one and not one that I will attempt to
resolve. I will, however, make a few assumptions that the reader is welcome to challenge:
Humans are intrinsically motivated by the desire to be a part of a community: Whether this is
ones nuclear family, baseball team, whatever, it is fundamental to our nature to be connected to
others.1
Many (if not most) of us would like to contribute to the welfare of others: If we could make the
world a better place we would do so. Unfortunately, in the western world, we are too consumed
1 I actually hold a stronger view, which is that there is no sense in which we are human other than as a part of a community. There is no notion of personal identity that can be abstracted from the community(ies) of which we are a part. More detailed arguments supporting this idea can be found elsewhere.
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by the requirements of day-to-day life (jobs, family etc.) that we have little time or resources to
devote to others. In other parts of the world survival is the primary concern.
In either case, the welfare of others is not something that we can attend to effectively due to the
constraints of ordinary life.
The Openness of the Internet and the Human Motivation to Help Others
Previously we noted that the fact that the Internet makes things open is not enough. It is not
enough because what we present in cyberspace is not necessarily visible to those that want to
see it. There is no reason to think that anyone will find our website or our blog. How is this
problem to be resolved?
What if there were a platform that allowed those that want to help others to connect with each
other in a manner that allows them to work together? What if we were able to find each other on
the basis of common interests, common projects that we might be able to work on, common
values etc.?
One might think that there already exist a number of such platforms; that there are many ways for
those that are interested in helping out to do so. In some sense this is true since if one wants to
donate funds, there are many sites where this is possible. If one wants to volunteer in ones
community one can do so etc. It is true that there are sites such as this, but we all know that, to
date, they have very little traction.
Why is it that with the many websites that attempt to bridge boundaries and connect those that
care about the world with each other, most have a minimal install base, most projects on the sites
are at a standstill, most projects that utilize these sites have raised little money, most
organizations that attempt to serve the public interest do not see technology as a fundamental
driver of their processes etc.?
In short why is the Internet, at this stage in its evolution, not contributing in a fundamental way to
making this world a better place?
What is missing is a platform that can support very large projects that can scale rapidly!
For the reasons described below, if we want people to actively participate in online projects, it will
be necessary for the project to make a significant difference. It is imperative that it be possible
that the project could, in principle, scale rapidly.
DRIVING USER PARTICIPATION IN ONLINE PROJECTS
Why People Participate In Projects On a Volunteer Basis
To understand why it is necessary that there exists an infrastructure that enables projects to scale
rapidly we must consider why people participate in volunteer projects to begin with. Volunteer
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activity, for obvious reasons, needs to be distinguished from work that is motivated by financial
considerations. People participate in volunteer activity to satisfy certain personal or human
requirements.
1. They want to be a part of a community, 2. Learn Skills
a. Hard skills (marketing etc.) b. Soft skills (leadership etc.)
3. Ideological commitment (alleviating homelessness etc.).
The above represents interrelated motivations for people to participate in projects and all require
that the process to which volunteers commit must persist for an extended period of time!
If people are going to volunteer their time they need to know that the organization that they are
going to do work for, the project they are going to commit to etc. will persist such that they can
satisfy their personal requirements. If the organization fails, they will not make friends, nor will the
not have the opportunity to learn or grow.
What is the best guarantor of the stability of an organization or its project? Clearly it’s success!2
The Success of a Project is Dependent Upon Participation In the Project
It goes without saying that getting a project off the ground requires the involvement of others. If
we can’t build the team, raise the financing, partners and so on, it is impossible to make progress.
We now see that the reason that existing platforms have garnered little or no traction is because it
is not clear to people who view the project online whether or not the project is going to be
successful or not.
There isn’t sufficient visibility into the project to give people confidence that the project is going to
succeed!
It is important to note that there are many variables that might contribute to ones confidence that
a project will succeed. We might hear, for example, that a million dollars has been raised, or that
the Gates Foundation is getting involved. The clearest indication, however, that momentum is
being generated is that large numbers of people are getting involved in the project. Consider ones
response when seeing on the news that a hundred thousand people have attended a rally. We
know that something is up – that this process is having a substantial social impact! The sheer
critical mass that has been generated is indication that change is in the offing.
The Rapid Scaling of Projects
One characteristic of the Internet generation is the fact that certain sorts of processes generate
massive user participation in short periods of time. Consider businesses such as Amazon.com or
2 A related motivation is that people want to be associated with a winner! The success of an organization or process therefore results in user participation for two reasons; it ensures the stability of the project and it also satisfies a more fundamental need for people to associate themselves with/participate in projects/organizations that are successful.
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Ebay, user content platforms like Youtube or Flickr, blog platforms like Wordpress etc. A number
of years ago Napster revolutionized the way that digital content can be distributed. Characteristic
of all of these platforms is the fact that user participation scaled very rapidly in a short period of
time.
What we need to consider is what sort of platform we can create that can make it possible to
scale projects in a similar way!
By ensuring that a platform is developed that makes scaling of the project as ‘frictionless’ as
possible, we ensure that we make it as likely as possible that user participation levels are as high
as possible.
THE IMPORTANCE OF VISIBILITY
Constraint On Participation in Online Volunteer Projects: the absence of visibility
We have seen that it is imperative that projects persist in time if people are going to participate in
them and for this to happen it is necessary for them to be successful. We have also seen that the
best guarantor of success is massive user participation. Realistically speaking, however, not all
projects are going to scale rapidly and, furthermore, at the inception of the project they won’t have
massive user participation.
What other consideration, other than massive user participation, is necessary to minimize the
impediments to participation?
To understand this, we need to better understand what the impediments are to participation in
online projects.
Projects that provide economic opportunity can be accelerated because of the fact that they are
projects that are able to provide financial compensation to participants. The individual participant
trades off his/her time for money.
Volunteer projects have a more difficult time creating momentum because there is no immediate
benefit to the participant. He or she has to trade off time for potentially no tangible return. Only
those that are motivated towards working for goals without financial benefit will work on these
projects. Hence one has to invest time, with no immediate benefit. So the question we are faced
with is what features can we build into the platform to mitigate this inhibitor to participation?
How can we increase the efficiency of the volunteers’ time and reduce the risk that he/she is
wasting time on a particular project?
Increasing Efficiency: One possibility is to reduce the amount of time one is required to invest in
order to participate and watch the progress of the project. People will be able to watch the
progress of the project, and invest time only when they see fit, for whatever role is specifically of
interest to them. If one is not required to attend unnecessary meetings, participate in unnecessary
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conference calls etc. he/she is more likely to be committed to the project. For this to be possible,
it is necessary to make it possible that this information can be communicated via other means.
This can only be accomplished by making the project maximally visible!
Reducing Risk: The reduction of the ‘risk’ associated with participation in volunteer projects needs
to be understood in relation to the ‘reward’ that is expected from those that participate. We must
keep in mind that one of the primary reasons that people participate in volunteer activity is to
develop connections with other people. They want to express their caring for the world within the
context of a community with similar values, they want to show others that they are contributing to
the betterment of society and so on.
The human imperative to connect with others (make ourselves known to others) is enhanced if
the platform is designed such that the actions of all participants are visible to the group.
This, also, can only be accomplished by making the project maximally visible!
Visibility of Projects Will Enhance Participation3
We have already introduced the notion of Openness – the idea that cyberspace is, in principle,
visible to all. What follows from Openness is that what we represent is visible, and this has
important consequences.
What is most important about the visibility of projects is that it allows people to get a clearer
understanding of what is happening with the project. If, for example, one is able to see what the
longer-term goals are, the shorter term goals, the specific tasks and timelines, the people working
on various aspects of the project etc., one is able make an assessment as to how one can
contribute.
The reason that visibility will enhance user participation in projects is that people participate in
projects for a range of different reasons and they are able to make choices based on more
complete information. For example, someone might choose to work on a specific task simply
because he sees that his friends is working on the same task. He might work on another task
because it only requires meetings on Wednesday nights. Alternatively he might work on
something else due to the fact that the timeline for completion is a specific date, after which he
plans to leave the country.
Therefore, it is essential if we want to mitigate the inhibitors to participation that the Mobilization
Platform represents projects in as much detail as possible. This is consistent with the principle of
Openness and will inhibit barriers to participation.
Consider the case of a single mother that has little time to volunteer, but is committed to doing
what she can to impact local legislation on carbon emissions. What can she do? Let’s face it, the
3 See Appendices for more detail on the structure of project representation.
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challenge seems daunting and it seems that there is little that an ordinary citizen can do to
contribute to impacting such a complex issue as climate change. It is difficult to get motivated to
actually take action when it seems as though ones actions have no tangible impact.
One option for her is to participate in a letter writing campaign or a petition that might be
organized by a group such as Avaaz. This, no doubt, will have some impact but the question is
how engaged will she be? How important will this process be in her life? What is the likelihood of
whatever actions she takes at this time leading to her taking further action?
It seems clear that she will have much more confidence in the process if she knows the following:
The petition that she signed and the letter she wrote to her Congressional Representative
are part of a much larger coordinated strategy that involved a range of other actions such
as rally’s, letter’s to local officials, letters to members of the press, cold calling in ones
community, door knocking in ones community etc.
The overall project is being managed by a team of volunteers and there is a clearly
defined organizational structure. She can go online and view those that are managing the
project, who reports to who and so on.
There are regular meetings that are being videotaped and regular conference calls that
are being taped. These are all available online in case she cannot attend meetings.
There is a range of other tasks that she is interested in pursuing and she will have time to
take them on in a couple of months once things settle down at work.
There is an online Project Management System where all of the tasks for all of the
various strategies are tracked and updated on a regular basis.
There are profile pages for the volunteers so that you can get to know other people that
are interested in the project, what other projects they are working on etc. This gives a
human face to the larger project.
The Distinction Between Actions and Projects
At first glance it might seem as though this problem has been solved since there are a number of
organizations (Avaaz, for example) that have platforms to support petitions, letter writing
campaigns and the like. I want to make a distinction, however, between actions that an individual
can take that are part of a larger process and isolated actions that individuals can take. If, for
example, the group goal is to enact a particular piece of legislation, one can see how several
strategies can be developed and coordinated to support this idea; a media strategy, letter writing,
petitions, door knocking, telephone calls etc.
User participation will be enhanced by:
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1. The organization of larger processes: for the reasons described previously. People want
to participate in larger projects that will be successful.
2. The visibility of the process
THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF ORGANIZATION
Visibility of Projects Enables the Self Organization of Projects
Another important implication of making projects maximally visible is that it makes possible the
self-organization of projects.
Self-organization refers to situations where the team that works on the project, and the
associated processes that are required to implement the project, evolve off the platform itself.
This is to be contrasted with the typical case where the concept for a project, the team, the tasks
etc., is developed first, after which it is determined that a technology based project management
process can be utilized to increase efficiency.
Problems a Self Organizing Technology Platform Must Solve
The essence of a technology infrastructure that supports self-organization is that it is designed to
mobilize widely dispersed, arms length participants by supporting the generation of a shared
vision and the required execution plans. This requires solutions to two types of problems:
The Problem of Building Trust: A self organizing system must solve the problem of getting
geographically dispersed individuals to work together, and this requires getting people that didn’t
initially know each other to gain enough trust in each other to foster effective collaboration.
Architectural Problems: The technology architecture that supports self-organization must solve
three specific problems:
1. Linking and Matching: It must provide a intelligent mechanism to link people with projects,
people with other people and projects with other projects.
2. Organizational Structure: It must support the development of a structure that defines the
relationships between the members of the group. Who is responsible for what, who
reports to whom etc.
3. Process Structure: It must support the development of specifically defined goals with
specific tasks and timelines associated with them.4
Considerations for Developing Trust On Self Organizing Technology Platforms
The factors that contribute to developing trust online will parallel the factors that contribute to
developing trust in real world situations. Trust in real world situations is dependent upon the
4 See Architectural Features section for more detail on this.
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extent to which we are a part of a common community (and therefore get have common
contacts), the frequency of our interaction, the competence and consistency with which we
execute tasks and so on.
Therefore developing trust online will require features that make it possible to experience our
online contacts in similar ways.
Hence, online systems must be committed to the following:
Transparency: the development of trust is enhanced by the extent to which we know the specifics
about those that we interact with. - The more information that we know, and the more willing that
others are to share information, the greater the trust level is.
Commonality: One of the biggest contributors to the success of facebook is that there are two
senses in which we are connected to our online friends:
1. We share the same real world community: Facebook is developed on the notion of a
‘network’, which makes it such that we share something with the others, in the real world,
that we are connected to online.
2. We share common friends: Facebook provides visibility into the online contacts we have
in common with others that we are friends with.
Hybrid Structure: Commonality, in the case of facebook, has evolved because facebook was
developed to enhance the value of existing real world networks and relationships. People were
friends in the real word first, and the facebook platform just serves to enhance existing
relationships.
Frequency of Interaction: If we interact a lot with someone we are presented with more
information from which we are able to get a better understanding of the person. This contributes
to our ability to develop trust in that person.
Trust In Process: we also gain trust in those that we work with when it is clear that the objectives
of the group are being realized. Hence it is necessary not only for the project to move forward, but
for details on how the project is to move forward to be represented in real time via the news feed,
for example.
Architectural Themes for a Self Organizing Technology Platform
A technology platform that supports self-organization must have, at the least, the following
features:
Open System: It must allow anyone from anywhere to participate – to contribute their ideas and to
engage actively.
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Scaleable User Participation: It needs to be able to support the real time participation of
thousands of people.
Real Time Interaction: It must support instant messaging and videochat features. Real time
interaction is an essential feature for creating a sense of shared experience. This will contribute
greatly to getting people to feel that they are a part of the process.
Process Structure/Project Management System: It must provide an infrastructure for people who
choose to work on a specific project to actually work together.
Organizational Structure Tools: Since this will be an open system, it must have specific tools that
allow for the creation of organizational structure from an initially open, egalitarian, pattern of
interaction. Hence if someone wants to volunteer to lead a particular initiative, and to create the
team to bring this to fruition, this needs to be possible.
Intelligence: An open system is designed to involve large numbers of people on specific projects.
Effectively engaging large numbers of people will require that we solicit input from everyone. It is
clear that the information that is input into the system cannot be processed effectively without the
aid of tools that can extricate semantic content from the information in the system.
A process that has been garnering interest of late is the notion of Mass Dialogue.5 The idea is to
utilize the Internet to engage people in a real time conversation. Imagine 100,000 simultaneously
chatting! This would be meaningless chaos unless platform had the capacity to identify common
themes as they were being discussed. Modern semantic web technologies certainly make this
possible, and will enable the system to identify which themes are of greater interest and so on.
This sort of process would replicate, on a very large scale, the benefits of meeting in groups
around a table!
Self-Organization Enables a Single Idea to Turn Into a Project
What is most exciting about the Internet revolution is that it has changed the nature of the
relationship between us, as individuals, and the rest of the world. It has made it possible to create
visibility for ourselves, and projects that we are interested in, without the need for traditional
media channels. Consider how specific home-made content can get virally distributed via
Youtube, a self produced song can be virally distributed, or how a particular blog can gain
popularity without the assistance of newspapers or television.
It is, in theory, now possible for someone with a great idea or plan to engage those that might
agree with him!
5 Recently an organization called 2DegreesC organized a mass dialogue in conjunction with youth climate change talks being held in Poznan, Poland. See http://www.2degreesc.com/page.php?id=94 for details.
The best example of a mass collaboration that I am aware of was organized by IBM in conjunction with the World Urban Forum in 2005. Details can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_Jam
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Self-organizing systems make it possible for a single idea to become visible to the world and to
gain interest and momentum!
IN CONSIDERING HUMAN EXPERIENCE
A common mistake made by technology companies is that they don’t pay sufficient heed to the
considerations that underlie user participation in systems. Technology is an extension of human
experience and interaction, and therefore careful consideration must be given to what makes
people utilize technology platforms.
Real Time Interaction: the natural way to interact with others
An essential feature of any technology platform that aims to generate effective group processes is
that they support all forms of real time interaction.
Real Time Interaction and the Real World: Real time interaction is an absolutely essential feature
technology based group process simply because interaction in the real world is in real time.
Ultimately life can be reduced to moments of real time interaction. The closer the online
experience is to the real world experience, the easier it will be for people to develop trust in each
other. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have hardwired us to function in relation to
each other in real time. Our understanding of our environment and the relations that are
constitutive of it are generated as a result of the ways in which we naturally interact with the
world.
Real Time Interaction and Leadership Formation: Real time interaction provides a context for the
natural evolution of leadership. Therefore, the extent to which technology provides for the
opportunity to simulate this, the technological platform enable specific patterns of interaction that
are natural and the basis for how we normally interact with each other, form relationships, and
from which leaders will emerge. Thus, there will be a correlation between participation rates, the
evolution of leadership, the generation of ideas etc. and real time process.
In order for us to follow a certain leader we need to see what he has to say, see how he behaves
and responds to situations and so on. One must not confuse this point with the fact that we
currently follow elected political officials without interacting with them in real time.
If, for example, Obama were not someone that his close associates wanted to follow, he would
not have been successful. That Obama’s associates wanted to follow him is due, at least in part,
to their real time interactions with him. Furthermore, it is certain that those that trust him (and
whom he trusts) and work closely with him interact regularly with him in real time. This will be true
of all leaders and those that follow their lead.
Secondly, the emergence of leadership in a self-organizing system will have different dynamics
since there is no analog to someone being endorsed for you by others. There will simply be a
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number of people that are strangers to each other that are interested in working on various sorts
of projects and a leaders will need to emerge. How can that transpire unless trust is developed as
a result of frequent interaction?6
Real Time Interaction and Generative Idea Creation: Group Brainstorming
A real time process that we are all used to is the idea of brainstorming with others. What is
essential to the success of this is that we feed off the energy and the ideas as they are being
generated by others. We are able to synthesize and evaluate the thoughts of others as they are
presented to us in real time.
Let us envision what is possible if we conduct large scale brainstorming sessions, in real time,
with the assistance of intelligent systems that are able to process the feedback in real time.7
1. Ideas are input from distributed locations, in large volume, in real time.
2. Ideas are sorted into certain themes using key word and/or semantic techniques
3. The popularity/importance of certain ideas is distributed back to the group, in real time,
and the group can respond to the feedback in real time.
For example consider 100,000 (or maybe a million!) people inputting ideas on how best to
address the problem of global poverty. Imagine if the system can determine that 32,000 people
are interested in pursuing strategies related to farming practices, of those 32,000 people, 12,000
have a more specific interest in farming practices in Africa etc.
How Real Time Brainstorming Can Create Momentum Around Large Projects
This sort of process serves two functions:
1. It immediately provides visibility into what people are thinking right now, how many
people are thinking about the same sorts of things and so on.
2. It makes it possible for people to modify their areas of focus in real time to stimulate
momentum!
The latter point is extremely important since it is likely that most people are more interested in
solving the problem of global poverty than they are in precisely how to go about doing it. Hence if
it is clear that a particular strategy is garnering substantial interest, then there is nothing
preventing one from committing to that project.
6 This does not rule out the possibility that, as people use the platform more and more, that a reference/endorsement mechanism cannot be built into the system. There is nothing preventing the creation of a mechanism that allows people to post anonymous (or attributed) references of people that they work with. 7 Again, this process was implemented in 2005 in preparation for the World Urban Forum in Vancouver, Canada. The process was called Habitat Jam! Details can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_Jam.
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This, for example, is what happens during the primary process in the US where those that are
undecided or just voting strategically will wait to see who the front runner is before they commit.
Again, for many, it is more important to ride a winning horse than it is to operate on principle.
Harnessing Our Collective Intelligence
The fundamental power of the Internet and communications technologies lies in their ability to
allow us to collectively focus our intelligence, and to collaborate. The best example of this is the
development of the Linux operating system.
Many minds trying to solve a particular problem is more effective than a single mind trying to
solve a particular problem!
The important point is that, for the first time in history, it is possible to focus potentially millions of
people on a single idea!8
Idea Discovery
As it stands, if one has a great idea the only way that one can take advantage of this idea is
follow formal structures that have been codified within our institutional culture. We can write an
article or book, form an organization, start a company etc. Many inhibitors exist. For example, in
order for one to be taken seriously one needs a formal education. There is little imperative for the
average citizen to be bold in their thinking; to feel that they can actually contribute to the welfare
of humanity. How could they possibly overcome the hurdles they are faced with? They, in
practice, have no voice.
An open system mobilization platform could discover their ideas! The average citizen will be given
a voice that can catalyze effective change. Not only will they have the opportunity to present their
ideas, they can also watch as their ideas gain traction with others!
The Equivalence of Ideas: true democracy
A related notion is that an open system mobilization platform will be truly democratic and will
respect individuals in the most fundamental way. It will, in principle, be just as possible for a
peasant in India to present her idea to the world as it is for someone in better circumstances in
the west. Everyone’s ideas have equal merit and can be the basis for effective change in the
world.
8 See the solutions offered by http://www.innocentive.com, NextModerator: http://www.nextpractice.de/en/services/nextmoderator/product/information/ or http://www.globalideasbank.org for an example of this process in action!
Also see the work being done at the MIT Centre for Collective Intelligence: http://franc2.mit.edu:8000/ci/show-top?Ii9oZWxwL3F1aWNrc3RhcnQuaHRtbCI*+E-3KWLQQ-205
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CONCLUSION
The preceding is designed to provide the reader with sense as to why the time is right for the
development of a platform that can be used to mobilize people towards positive social change.
The aim has not been to focus simply on a discussion of technology, but to ensure that the reader
considers human motivation when trying to understand why a particular technology solution
works (doesn’t work).
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APPENDICES
Architectural Considerations
The Ecosystem: In the preceding discussion I have tried to make a case for the timeliness of the
creation of open system mobilization platform. For the sake of brevity and in order not to
introduce excessive levels of complexity at this very preliminary stage in the discussion I have
focused the discussion on considerations relating only to the requirements for getting people
involved in projects.
In principle, however, we can view the ‘ecosystem’ in a more general way as consisting of: People Projects Organizations
Therefore, we could state the more general problem of an open system as requiring a solution to
how to connect people to people, people to projects, projects to organizations and all of the other
combinations.
Ideally, this system is as automated as possible. The following describes what, in the best case
scenario is possible.’9
The Linking and Matching Criteria: I propose that the basic structure that we utilize to connect
members of the ecosystem is a framework that is based upon:
Resources: what a person has to offer (for a project, personally, etc), what an
organization has to offer…
Needs: what a person needs (for a project, personally, etc), what a project needs…
Objectives: the goals, timelines and associated tasks that people, projects and
organizations have.
With that in mind, we can think about what the basic structure of the system might look like:
The following represents a few thoughts on what preliminary functionality would be required to
create a open system mobilization platform.
Linking and Matching Module
The objective of the Linking and Matching module is to provide an intelligent capability for
soliciting and sourcing information that is represented in Natural Language, in any file format, and
extracting the relevant information that will satisfy the Linking and Matching Criteria defined within
the Resources, Needs and Objectives framework.
9 I am fully aware that sourcing/developing solutions that will allow for full automation will be challenging. The payoff, however, will be worth the effort!
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Semantic Intelligence: Keeping in mind that the system is open and therefore information flow is
dynamic and potentially present in great volumes, it will be necessary that the linking and
matching process be automated. Furthermore, it is essential to reduce the impediments to user
participation therefore the system cannot be reliant on structured documents for the input of
information. It cannot, for example, require that online questionnaires be filled out etc. The system
must be able to utilize existing documentation that is drafted in natural language and to be able to
extricate relevant information as necessary.
There is much hype about the ‘semantic web’ and this is the basic idea that underlies some of the
research in this area. By way of example, we can see that…
Possible semantic relationships:
Certain sentence structure and combinations of words result in Categorization, for example:
Resources “We can provide…” “We offer…” “Our resources…”
Needs: “I/we need…” “I/we want…” “I/we require….”
Objectives: “I/we will…” “I/we want to…” “our goals…”
Leadership And Project Structure Module
After a project has some membership, and Organizational Objectives have been developed from
the Linking and Matching Technology, it will be necessary to create a team that provides the
project with leadership and structure.
1. System will review inputted data and create shortlist of Leadership Candidates
2. System will communicate with Leadership Candidates to determine their interest
‘Our evaluation of the information you provided us suggests that, of the 54 current
community members, you are amongst 4 that we think may be interested in providing
leadership for the group.’
3. System will forward notice to System generated candidates for feedback
4. System will send out update and notice to rest of community members to get feedback
regarding progress of the team development.
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“ John Smith has decided to act as the Group Leader, Mary MacKenzie will handle Sales
and Marketing, but we still need can you think of any one that may be able to help?”
5. System will arrange Real Time Meetings to Generate Dynamic Interaction Conference Calls Video Conferencing
Options for Organizational Involvement
‘Please Identify Positions that may be of Potential interest.’
Group Leader Finance/Accounting Sales and Marketing Administration Operations and Management Brainstorming
‘Please Identify Participation Constraints.’
Timeo Hours/mth: “…. Only available after 7PM”o Days of the Week: “not available Tuesday nights or weekends”
Peopleo Only interested if……participateso Not interested if……..participates
Objectives Only interested if we focus on……
Communications Management Module
This module will serve as a mechanism through which people can manage and filter all of their
communications tools in a manner that delivers information to people when they want it, and in
whatever manner they want. This will be achieved by providing the following functionality:
The platform will provide a single number to which all information can be sent. Information is then
Filtered and resent to the Member in accordance with the following specifications.
The Member can customize Communications Options, which will be dependent upon
Time: End User chooses when to receive information
Real Time Specified Time
Priority: End User chooses which information is of highest priority
Provide Filtering Options Phone numbers Names Subjects
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Enabling Technology: End User chooses how to receive information
Cell Phone Voice Contact Cell Phone Email Instant Message to Desktop Email to Desktop Pager Handheld Device
PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS
The following represents a few thoughts on how one could automate the process of project
formation itself; how the platform could potentially identify projects that would be of mutual
interest to people and catalyze the formation of a project. In actual practice, we would expect
certain individuals to take it upon themselves to catalyze projects and to utilize the tools provided
by the system to accelerate the process.
Phase I: Creating Member (person, project, organization) Profile
1. Platform compiles Natural Language Information from various community members2. Platform Filters and Categorizes information as above3. Platform Creates Personal Profile that contains individuals Needs, Resources and
Objectives4. Platform forwards information back to Member who modifies information if desired
Phase II: Creation of Shared Project Information and Goals
1. Platform forwards modified information into Community 2. Platform compiles aggregated information on Resources, Needs and Objectives3. Platform Creates Collective Goal Objectives by sorting and synthesizing individual goals. 4. Platform initiates Collaborative Dialogue to create more specific organizational goals5. Platform might say: ‘27 community members in the group have a strong interest in
fighting climate change, 14 people have an interest in renewable resources. In combination this represents 94% of all participants in the Vancouver are that are able to meet on Tuesday evenings. Based upon the Availability Inputs, Tuesday the 24th is the best time for a Real Time Collaborative Meeting. Why don’t we have a Telephone Conference Call at that time. Notification will be sent to everyone according to his or her Communication Specifications.’
VISIBILITY AND REPRESENTATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
For the reasons described previously, how the members of the ecosystem (people, projects and
organizations) are represented within the system is of extreme importance.
The Importance of Rich Media
Continuous increases in computer processing power as well as reduction in bandwith constraints
have resulted in dramatic increases in the utilization of various media (photos, videos, music etc.)
over the course of the last several years. This has led to the creation of a generation of
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youngsters that are growing up using media of various forms to represent their lives (consider
user adoption patterns for Facebook, MySpace etc.
That this is a trend that shows no sign of reversing is self-evident. What is more important to
understand, however, is:
What is the relationship between the rapid adoption rates of rich media and the ability to form
virtual relationships?
Relationship formation is dependent upon receiving information from, and interpreting information
about, the party in question. Rich media makes this process more efficient for two reasons:
1. More information: obviously when you are able to see what a person looks like, hear how
they talk and so on, you have at your disposal more information than if this information is
not presented to you.
2. Non Verbal Information: we are attuned, at the subconscious level, to a host of non-
verbal cues. This is information that hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have
taught us to be attuned to and to interpret.
It is because rich media provides us with information that is required in order for us to form
judgments about others that utilization patterns of rich media are on a dramatic rise.
Representation, Ontology Construction and the Semantic Web
There is much discussion about the notion of the semantic web. This is not the place for an
extended discussion of this topic but I will raise a couple of important themes as it relates directly
to the issue of Linking and Matching of people, projects and organizations.
How, in principle, can linking and matching be accomplished?
Only if there is an effective way of representing the members of the ecosystem that can need to
be matched. Hence we need a way, for example, to represent people such that the right people
can be matched with the right projects etc.
The abstract schema that is agreed upon to represent a particular entity is known as an ontology.
The most well developed ontology is that which is used to represent people, and is known as
FOAF (friend-of-a-friend) 10 Once the ontologies are agreed upon, then all information that comes
into the system that relates to a person, project or organization will be structured according to the
ontology.
10 http://www.foaf-project.org
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The following is the current FOAF ontology, which represents the way that people are
represented. Similar ontologies for the representation of projects and organizations will need to
be developed.
FOAF Basics Personal Info Online Accounts /
IM
Projects and
Groups
Documents and Images
Agent
Person
name
nick
title
homepage
mbox
mbox_sha1sum
img
depiction (depicts)
surname
family_name
givenname
firstName
weblog
knows
interest
currentProject
pastProject
plan
based_near
workplaceHomepa
ge
workInfoHomepage
schoolHomepage
topic_interest
publications
geekcode
myersBriggs
dnaChecksum
OnlineAccount
OnlineChatAccount
OnlineEcommerceAccount
OnlineGamingAccount
holdsAccount
accountServiceHomepage
accountName
icqChatID
msnChatID
aimChatID
jabberID
yahooChatID
Project
Organization
Group
member
membershipClass
fundedBy
theme
Document Image PersonalProfileDocument topic (page) primaryTopic tipjar sha1 made (maker) thumbnail log
We see, then, that the challenge is to properly define the ontology to suit the needs of the
platform that one is developing. As with all networked processes, it is most efficient to use
existing, well known, ontologies such as FOAF.
There is currently much research in this area and we would need to include those that are experts
in this area in our discussion process. The following are a few references…
Ontology Projects Worldwide: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/related.html
An Intrepid Guide to Ontologies: http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=374
W3C Semantic Web Activity: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw//
An approach to automatic evaluation of ontologies: http://iospress.metapress.com/content/kxw547102114g533/fulltext.pdf
Applied Ontology Special Issue:http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-rules/2008Aug/0016.html
Ontologies Come of Age:
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http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/people/dlm/papers/ontologies-come-of-age-mit-press-(with-
citation).htm
SchemaWeb: http://www.schemaweb.info/
The Project Ontology
In order to solicit participation in projects it will be necessary for the project to be represented with
as much clarity as possible.
The question that needs to be answered when developing an ontology for a project is: ‘What is a
project?” In answering the question we need to keep in mind that the answer to the question must
facilitate the linking and matching process. A few essential elements of a project might be.
VisionGoals
Long term, mid-term, short termTeam/Organizational StructureMarketing PlanOperations PlanFinancing PlanCompetitive AnalysisKey Milestones
The Organizational Ontology
Similarly, we will need to take develop an ontology that represents organizations. This will likely
be similar to the project ontology except that it will consist of multiple projects. Hence we can view
organizations as entities, the object of which is to execute multiple projects.
RESEARCH
Competition
To my knowledge there is currently no platform that simultaneously emphasizes the principles of
real time interaction, visibility and openness and self organization. That said there are many
existing solutions in the market that offer certain features that are similar to the platform that we
are envisioning. The landscape breaks down into the following:
1. Online Ecosystems
2. Online Donations
3. Online Project Management
4. Online Community
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Open System Collaboration/Mobilization Platforms/Projects
The following are a few projects that represent the spirit of what has been discussed thus far.
They represent new and innovative ways of utilizing the Internet to allow people to constructively
interact in real time across geographic boundaries. Obviously the vision that we are presenting is
unique and not represented in any of the projects listed below.
Organization
/Project
URL Description
Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.com
Development of
Linux Operating
System
SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/ Mass collaborative environment for the development of open source software.
Habitat Jam http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Habitat_Jam
http://www.un-ngls.org/
habitatjam.htm
Habitat Jam was a massive online event organized by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), the Government of Canada and IBM. It was held on December 1-4 2005 to help solve urgent problems of the world's cities.Habitat Jam was conceived to set the stage for the World Urban Forum 3 conference, which will be held in Vancouver in June 2006. Ideas collected through the Jam will be used to define themes and shape discussion topics for delegates attending the conference. Participation in Habitat Jam was open to public and private-sector organizations and individuals around the world with an interest in urban issues.
Innocentive http://www.innocentive.com Our Mission is to offer alternative and authoritative resource of free, entertaining, quality Online Literature, and one stop environment for everyone looking not only for good reading experience, but also, for the opportunity to shape that experience by taking active role in its creation.
Mass Dialogues on
Climate Change –
Poznan, Poland
http://www.2degreesc.com/
page.php?id=94
Through a series of approximately 30 interactive web conferences, The mass dialogues will enable youth delegates to the Poznan negotiations to connect directly with young people from around the world. As many of you know, a COP experience is an incredible opportunity for learning and inspiration, and for gaining a sense of empowerment and accomplishment. The mass dialogues will be an opportunity to bring extend the learning and inspiration far beyond the small group in Poznan.
Open Space Online http://www.openspace-
online.com/
Change Facilitator Gabriela Ender and her team from Germany developed the internet real-time methodology OpenSpace-Online®, which especially promotes autonomous, responsible, respectful, and results-oriented collaboration, thereby helping to overcome the limitations of time and space, as well as saving lots of travel costs. The easy to use system helps sponsors to quickly organize OpenSpace-Online® meetings for small and large groups. The virtual-led procedure of this "Do-it-Yourself" real-time meeting method makes it possible for participants to work together WITHOUT "human" online moderators in a highly productive liberated and joyful manner. This worldwide unique methodology is setting new innovation standards for global e-collaboration by enabling unique, holistic and highly participative architectures to link multifaceted ways of face-to-face and on-line activities in business, community, education, health-care, social and governmental settings
Second Film http:// The 1 Second Film is a groundbreaking non-profit collaborative
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www.the1secondfilm.com/ movie project that anyone in the world can be part of. As a global community, we're creating the World's Biggest Shortest Film.
Make Literature http://
www.makeliterature.com
Our Mission is to offer alternative and authoritative resource of free, entertaining, quality Online Literature, and one stop environment for everyone looking not only for good reading experience, but also, for the opportunity to shape that experience by taking active role in its creation.
Story Mash http://storymash.com/ StoryMash, the future of collaborative fiction. A creative writing community for authors, amateur writers, readers and anyone interested in collaborative fiction and collaborative creative writing.
World Wide
Simutaneous
Dance
http://muse.jhu.edu/
journals/leonardo/
v034/34.1knott.html#authbio
World Wide Simultaneous Dance was presented for 11/2 hours beginning at noon Greenwich Mean Time on 7 June 1998. The project consisted of two components: live dance performances happening at the same time in 12 countries around the world and a live Internet video conference that linked participants and allowed audiences to interact with the event. I produced and directed the project and danced in the event, at Do While Studio in Boston [1].
Books and Articles
The Power Of Us: Mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_25/b3938601.htm
Innovation in the Age of Mass Collaboration: The co-authors of the recent bestseller Wikinomics explain how businesses across the board can spur innovation by going Wiki http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2007/id20070201_774736.htm
Mass collaboration could change way companies operatehttp://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2006-12-26-wikinomics_x.htm
Five principles for successful mass collaboration, part 2 http://www.linux.com/feature/130024
’Collective intelligence’ tool enters European Parliament http://franc2.mit.edu:8000/ci/show-top?Ii9oZWxwL3F1aWNrc3RhcnQuaHRtbCI*+E-3KWLQQ-205/
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