Nollind Whachell

It’s funny but I was thinking back to my idea of connected communities again. That being a collection of smaller communities that all work together on a larger common (and usually global) goal. What’s funny is that I realized that these communities actually exist today (more or less). Where are they? Right in front of you. Actually to make this really apparent, think about some of the more popular blogs on the web right now.

For example, think about Scripting News, Boing Boing, or Buzz Machine. What do these site’s do? Primarily they relay news and information of interest to them. But think about how these sites operate and interact with others, especially when something really important is happening in the world. These sites:

• relay what is happening
• relay which people are doing something about it
• relay the results of what these people are doing

For example, during the Katrina disaster these sites relayed information that made people aware of what was going on, which people were taking action, and also what was the results of that action. In effect, this is a simple yet perfect feedback system for an ecosystem. Those a part of this system help protect it, not by giving orders to others, but instead by making others aware of what is going on within the system. This is called situational awareness.

Awareness

Basically an event occurs and it is relayed to others so that they can be aware of it as well and thus do what they feel is necessary to protect the entire system. In effect, everyone works independently choosing their own means of support but they are all still working towards a common collective goal (i.e. protect the system). The best part of why this works so well is that everyone can contribute in their own way, no matter how small of the contribution, yet the overall collective effect of these small contributions is one large one. Thus everyone feels like they are contributing to something large and meaningful, even if their contribution is just a small one.

Yet in thinking about this I realized that something was missing. One important element. Why? Well as everyone knows, we’re overloaded with information today. Thus if you created a system like this and relayed every minute little detail, people would be overloaded by the flow of information. Something, therefore, is needed to make this system work efficiently so that people don’t get overloaded by a deluge of information. What is it? Meaning.

Meaning

Strong communities are formed when relationships are created between people who have a shared interest in something that is meaningful to each one of them. Meaning is therefore what binds these communities. It is what they are all about. Thus when information flows around this communities, often the information that flows the quickest through it is information that has the most direct meaning to the community. For example, if a lady in a neighborhood community told her friend she saw a dog in the woods nearby the other day then no big deal. If however she said she saw a wolf then this information would spread rapidly throughout the community because this means more to the community (as everyone is concerned with the safety of others within it).

The same thing happens online. You’ll have a site talking about this and that, day in and day out but then one day something happens in the world and the site relays something meaningful to the entire community around it. Immediately this information is relayed to other neighboring communities so that they can be made of aware of it as well, as it may hold meaning for them. In effect, this is what connected communities is about. And in realizing this, I think I’m coming to one very startling conclusion. Technology is not the foundation of these connected communities but people are instead.

People

Don’t get me wrong. Technology is an extremely useful method of relaying this awareness much faster than we could of before but it is still people at its foundation that truly make this work. If anything, I’m noticing that the leaders of tomorrow will not be those who give the orders the best but those who instead help others by making them aware of more meaningful and relative information. In effect, these leaders are like some of the more popular websites on the web today. They are like a hub, relaying meaningful information from others to others so that everyone around them is more aware of what truly matters to them which in turn allows these people to live and work more effectively and enjoyably.

I just realized that if I start taking this “things will happen” approach instead of the typical “very unlikely to happen” approach then it is safe to assume that I will once again probably put this journal into limbo in the future. In realizing this, I have to ask myself is this really a bad thing? If not, then how can I prepare for this the next time it happens?

With regards to is it a bad idea, I don’t think so. I mean think about it. Sleep is a necessary part of our life. It allows us to recharge our batteries, otherwise we’d drop dead from exhaustion. The same goes with mental labour though. It’s been proven in studies that giving yourself a break from your work allows the information you’ve absorbed a chance to “digest” inside of you. Or to put it another way, it gives you a chance to step back from what you’re doing and look at things from a different perspective. That, more than anything, is usually what happens with me when I “close up shop” on my site for a while. I come back feeling really refreshed with a lot of great ideas.

So now if there is nothing wrong with taking a break then how do you prepare for it? I’ve seen some bloggers bring in guest bloggers to fill in when they’re away. Well, I don’t really see my site as a “broadcast” that needs to keep going uninterrupted. Hehe, actually if you want to compare it to television, think about how a television season works? You have a period where new shows are aired over a period of time but then there is an off season as well. Depending upon the show, this off season includes either nothing or will actually consist of reruns of previously aired shows.

So is that the idea then? When I “sign off”, do I give a good explanation of why I’m taking a break, summarizing a lot of points that are frustrating me and I need time to think about? Or maybe I could even create a bunch of posts (one a week) ahead of time that basically recap certain things I’ve talked about in the past, so they help fill in this break. I mean if you think about it, a lot of times that’s really what you’re doing the most on a journal anyways. You’re just repeating things in different ways to emphasize something. Anyways I guess I’ll just have to do a bit of thinking about this the next time I think about taking a break from the site.

If we really want to start innovating with fresh new ideas, then we need to start playing and experimenting with things. Of course, when this happens, mistakes occur. Don’t assume they won’t, know that they will. Actually every morning, when you wake up, think to yourself “I’m going to make a mistake today.” Accept it. Hell, actually look forward to it! Why? Because with that mistake will come the knowledge and understanding of something that you may not have been aware of before.

Don’t be afraid to play and get dirty. That’s where the hidden treasures are usually found, way deep down in the dirt. 🙂

In my last post, I mentioned that you need to be open to accepting inspiration from unlikely places (in that case from feedback). I think this mirrors my thoughts a while back when I said that doing at least one thing differently daily will help you see the world through different eyes which in turn can lead to new ideas and inspiration as well. Back then, I was talking about my discovery of permaculture. Today I’m talking about a book that I discovered by chance that basically confirms a lot of the thoughts that I’ve been having over the past few years.

Why I’m saying this happened by chance is that there’s a local community paper that I read basically once in a blue moon. Luckily I happened to glance at one of the captions on the cover the other day and I noticed a mention of Margaret J. Wheatley who wrote a book called Turning To One Another that I had read some years back. So interested in what she was up to now, I decided to grab the paper so I could read it later. Well in reading the article on her later that day, I basically sat there with my jaw dropping down the floor in amazement, as everything my intuition had been hinting at over the past few years was basically confirmed in a couple of pages of that single article.

What this article was entitled was Community: The Promise and Paradox which relates to her latest book entitled Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain Time. Of course, I immediately called the local bookstore near my place and asked if they had it. They did and so I grabbed it, returned home, and immediately started reading it. However, instead of starting from the front of the book, I skimmed the table of contents at the front and found a chapter entitled The Real Work of Knowledge Management. Again in that single chapter, almost everything I had been thinking and feeling about over the past few years was confirmed and even more so clarified for me.

To sum up, if you are interested in the Web (yes this includes Web 2.0 as well), organization, structure, knowledge, relationships, communities, culture, or anything along those lines, I’d highly recommend you read this book. Here’s one quote from it below that really stood out for me and mirrored my thoughts on what the culture of the Web would be like if it were a business (that being the dream “business” that we’d all like to work for).

It Is Natural for People to Create and Share Knowledge
We have forgotten many important truths about human motivation. Study after study confirms that people are motivated by work that provides growth, recognition, meaning, and good relationships. We want our lives to mean something; we want to contribute to others; we want to learn; we want to be together. And we need to be involved in decisions that affect us. If we believed these studies and created organizations that embodied them, then work would be far more productive and enjoyable. We would discover that people can be filled with positive energy. Organizations would be overwhelmed by new knowledge, innovative solutions, and great teamwork. It is essential that we begin to realize that human nature is the blessing, not the problem. As a species, we are actually very good to work with.

Other Recommended Books:

Randy S. Nelson: “We’ve made the leap from an idea-centered business to a people-centered business. Instead of developing ideas, we develop people. Instead of investing in ideas, we invest in people. We’re trying to create a culture of learning, filled with lifelong learners. It’s no trick for talented people to be interesting, but it’s a gift to be interested. We want an organization filled with interested people.”

Dave Seah sent me an email indicating that he had participated in the Four Things meme and was passing it on to me. Ever the rebel, never wanting to do things like others, I’ve decided that I won’t follow the meme exactly as indicated but instead rip it apart, analyze it, and rebuild it if you will. You know Six Million Dollar Man sort of thing.

Why do people do stuff like this? Easy. They want to know more about the people around them. The assumption is that people can often tell a lot about others by what they read, watch, and so on. A good example of this is Dick Hardt’s presentation about Identity 2.0 at OSCON 2005 in which he asks “Who am I?” and proceeds to basically tell us that I am where I live, what I watch, what I read, and so on.

So why do we have to ask for this information? Because a lot of people don’t put this stuff on their website. Sometimes it’s not the big things that people want to know about (i.e. What’s your life’s ambition?) but the little things (i.e. What do you usually eat for breakfast?), as all those little things connected together (aka Small Pieces Loosely Joined) give a more accurate representation of the person than the one big thing.

Should people be putting this stuff on their website? Hmm, well, I think it really depends upon the person. For example, if I indicate four places I’ve been in my life, I think that’s kind of pointless. Yes it gives you an idea of the places I like to go but it doesn’t really tell you why I wanted to go their in the first place. If on the other hand, I had a journal entry for each location I went to, giving a brief description of the ups and downs of each trip, then I’d think you’d get a more accurate idea of why that place interested me in the first place. In other words, what was the motivation for me wanting to go to that location. Same goes for reading books. I may list the lastest books I’ve read on my site but unless I give a brief description of what I like and disliked about the book, you aren’t going to know what motivated me to read this. For example, I may indicate I just finished reading a fantasy novel. Ok you think, he like fantasy books and you picture in your mind some D&D geek. Yet if I told you that novel made me realize the importance of friendship, community, and global cooperation, you’d probably be surprised that I even found that in a fantasy novel or was even looking for it in the first place. What I’m getting at here is that everyone sees the world through different eyes and thus while we both may be looking at the same thing, we probably aren’t seeing exactly the same thing.

So what am I going to to about this? Right now nothing, primarily because I don’t have the time. However, when I do get the time, I would like to add journal streams to my site that cover topics similar to what this meme talks about (to a degree anyways).

Jobs I’ve Had – An employment journal of where I’ve worked. Categorized, rated and with job descriptions. Unfiltered, it would be like a mini-resume of my past employment. Filtered by rating, it would be some of the best jobs I’ve had.

Favorite Movies – A movie journal of those I’ve watched. Categorized, rated, and reviewed. My top four rated movies would equate to the movies I could probably watch over and over again.

Places I’ve Been – A location journal of where I’ve lived. Categorized (by world location), rated, and with descriptions. In effect, a mini-travel review of the locations I’ve lived. The things that I loved (and possibly hated) about living in these places.

Favorite TV Shows – Not really sure I’d add this as I’m not that big of a TV watcher, as most TV shows are mindless to me. Hmm, although if I did displayed it then you might be surprised at what I did watch (i.e. documentaries, history channel, etc), so having it might actually be beneficial in relaying “who I am” and “what interests me”.

Websites I Visit Daily – Hmmm, this to me would just be a link list (ala del.icio.us) journal. The top four rated sites would probably be those that I visited daily (or at least more frequently than others).

Food I Love – Hmm, not sure about this. I could maybe see a restaurant review type journal instead. In effect, you discovered the food I loved by the places I eat.

Places I Want To Go – Again, not sure about this. I mean there isn’t any one place that sticks out in my mind right now. More than anything I like wandering from place to place off the beaten track. Gypsy boy that’s me. 🙂

Taggers I’m Blogging – A people journal of who I know and have interacted with. Categorized, rated by frequency of interaction, and with descriptions of the people. Filtered by “virtual buddies” and freqency of interaction (as Dave Seah calls them), you’d see a list of of the people I’m interacting with online the most.

Ok that’s all I can write. Back to work!

Dave Winer: “Look, the tech industry is and always will be fucked up. They still somehow manage to make a semi-usable product every once in a while. My Mac is slow as a dog, even though it has two CPUs and cost $5000, but I use it anyway because it’s prettier and slightly more fun than the crap Microsoft and Dell ship. But give me a reason to switch, even a small one, and I’m outta here.”

From the top of the first page
To the end of the last day
From the start in your own way
You just want somebody listening to what you say
It doesn’t matter who you are.

– Square One, X & Y, Coldplay

For some reason I keep buying books that relay things I already know. Not sure why but it may have something to do with just wanting some confirmation of my beliefs and intuition.