HistoryOfInvitingFriendsAndPartners

PARTNERS: JulieEvansCaldwell, TedErnst, MichaelHerman

To me - understanding what organizing as a commons is (especially around what gives life to being human) -- and coming up with a simple and shared language to express different points of strengthening is what Open Space, the Humanist Movement, Buddism et all is about. There are two approaches:

1. We stumble and bumble around without having an understanding of where we might be headed or

2. We use our wisdom, shared language and understandings to paint our best pictures, metaphors and possible stepping stones for actively engaging in a strategic process that helps facilitate a collaborative effort.

I'm interested in constructing a possible map that we can use to guide us for the overall journey:

· What does the organizing process look like?

· What roles facilitate this type of organizing?

· What models and examples provide us with illustrations of successful systems and their outcomes that work as a commons (at different scale)?

· How can we explain this process and these roles using common language?

· What are some hypothetical examples of what the process looks like at different stages of development?

· What functions need to be in place at different levels of scale to facilitate sustainability and replication?

Understanding how our language can be used in ways that facilitate how we go to scale is critical in designing an action plan that address point 2 vs. point 1 – which I believe is what you are aiming at accomplishing with your work. It’s tricky, because the design is multi-dimensional and is not linear. Thus it can not be truly planned, yet, we need to be able to communicate intentions to create design plans. This type of planning (in the more linear context) is sometimes called Action Based Research. Are you familiar with the term? I can define it and post some definitions to the wiki if you like. In fact all of this might benefit us at the wiki. Perhaps you and Michael can help with this, as you are better at generating structure.

If we are interested in how these languages and constructs fit into becoming a web within a web within webs -- and are interested in ultimately presenting this content to others to educate them and ask for their participation, we need to be able to explain how these concepts scale up. For example, the following (which is no where near clear) is how I see the same aspect of scalability for the following three languages:

Humanist: (instance 1 + instance 2 +instance 3 + instance 4 - assembly)

Open Space (open space conference + dialogues + global chicago wiki + e-list + monthly calls + weekly team meetings + action fronts + network of action fronts + common infrastructure)

Appreciative Inquiry: (Defining a question + AI interviews + understanding common values + dreaming possible futures together + designing the ultimate larger concept together + writing a vision statement + scaling the large down to small simple commitments each participant agrees to do + delivering commitments --- common function --- + evaluating what works + defining the questions again + AI interviews....).

Please feel free to cut and paste any of the above to the wiki. And, if you don’t mind, can you try to make order out of what is there and here – before I jump in again. Please cut out anything that you don’t see as fitting. I can always put it back in!