Implementing a real social project as a case for the European Commission

[jorge_couchet]

Session goal

The session ‘Living Together’ represents a window of opportunity, where a group of people, coming from different parts of Europe with different backgrounds, cultures, dreams and skills, but sharing the same desire to work to improve their environment, are meeting for dialogue in order to generate actionable ideas about how to develop healthy relationships with other people and themselves.

Why not just generating actionable ideas that will be articulated in a report recommending policies to the European Commission, but also taking advantage of this enormous concentration of energy, resources, contacts and talent that represents the session, in order to implement ourselves a sustainable social project to help develop healthy relationships in the community?.

Current socio-economic context relevant to the session

(a) Social relationships and social context:

Social relationships form the basis of the social structures building the society. Family, religion, law, economy and organization are all examples of social structures. Every social structure, such as economy, has defined a set of specific social relations, which regulate and determine the actions of individuals, thus determining their behavior and thus creating a mental structure that defines the limits of the possible. Therefore, we live our lives moving within the limits of our mental structures, determined by the social relations, and we rarely realize that are just that, something virtual that exists only in our minds and that is why they are called mental structures. Changing our mental structures, by changing our social relations, we can redefine what is possible and what is not, expanding or contracting our horizons of possible.

Today, we live conditioned by the mental structures created by the different types of social relations, that at least in its original form, come from when our basic social organization was small and isolated groups of humans living in caves and escaping from predators. But our environment is no longer the same, it has changed dramatically, especially in the last 50 years. Changes, such as disruptive technology advances, that have opened doors and unsuspected possibilities so far, and yet we are using them conditioned by the same mental structures developed for a totally different environment.

(b) Economic context:

Currently a huge crisis, of confidence and trust basically, is sweeping the planet, where an economic model, based primarily on short-term financial incentives, encourages the development of unsustainable social and ecologically relationships. Creating a deeply divided society that is structured by relations of inequality, and questioning our viability as a specie in the not too distant future. A concrete example of the effects of this inequality, one of many, are the thousands of young people better educated than the previous generation, who are unemployed and hopeless throughout Europe and the world.

Big question that guides the dynamics of the session

Clearly, the current socio-economic context presents both a crisis of the viability of our current mental models, and also an unprecedented opportunity to change them, because we have the tools necessary to manage our social relationships with independence of temporal, spatial and language differences; tools that also assist us in managing the increasing complexity involved in this new freedom. Coincident with this situation, there is the fact that there are in Europe a critical mass of young people with the  talent and willingness to seek and implement alternative mental models. Alternatives involving analyze, challenge and change, if necessary, the different kinds of social relationships that form the mesh of our society, most of which are  based on an environment totally anachronistic to the current one,  discrepancy that eventually ends up creating the current crisis of social and ecological lack of sustainability.

 

So the question we all need to urgently respond to us is: what kinds of new social relationships within our various social structures, we must develop in order to redefine our mental models thus taking advantage of this great opportunity that our socio-economic context offers us, with the aim of creating a sustainable environment based on trust, where people can develop and use their talents in a spirit imbued of autonomy, mastery and purpose?:

 

• Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
• Mastery: the desire to get better at something that matters
• Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in service of something larger than ourselves

Session dynamics

(a) Dynamics:

The session dynamics is based in a conversational process structured by the World Café methodology. This process aims to gather the main ideas and next steps in order to implement a previously given social idea into a sustainable social project within the framework defined by the session 's big question. Thus, the session dynamic 's objective is to offer some answers to the session 's big question by analyzing how to implement the given social idea into a sustainable social project that in itself is also an answer to the big question.

(b) Dynamics example:

Nowadays an idea implementation in the “normal” business world involves patenting the idea and creating a “normal” company in which the owners of the idea retains a certain percentage of shares that allow them to increase their profits indefinitely.

In the session 's analysis of the social idea implementation into a sustainable social project, what is raised is an alternative scenario, where someone has an idea, share it with others, the idea is enriched by the contributions of others and is implemented by creating a kind of social business. A kind of social business with a transparent operation to society where it is inserted. A sort of social business without shares but where every member, regardless of their original contribution to the idea, is equal to the others to the extent of their work. A kind of social business that is open to new members as they bring new ideas to improve the current functioning, or because its needed more people to work because the social business operation is requiring that. A sort of social business where each member receives no unlimited profits but what is needed to get a decent life, while the surplus is reinvested in the social business itself and also in the society where it is inserted.

Thus, the group attending the session is divided into smaller groups. Where each of these subgroups answers a series of specific questions in a specific area - economics, law, organizational structure, etc… - in order to implement the social project framed by the alternative scenario described above.  This process of answering the given questions requires analyzing and restructuring many of the social relations in our various social structures, such as law, economics and organization. Then, this process not only is giving many answers to the session 's big question, but also,  the resulting social business  is also an answer, both in how is organized its internal structure, and its external purpose for the society.

(c) Social idea seed for a sustainable social project:

Key insights for the social idea:

(1) It’s not a lack of desire and resources that keeps people from performing the necessary actions to reach their goals. The goals may be about reading more, learning something new, spend more time with family, exercise to improve health, or recycling more. The experience of thousands of dissatisfied people and thousands of goals abandoned, show us that there is a common cause: people are finding difficult to go alone. The lack of a clearly designed plan to the goals, and the lack of companion to design and follow this plan, is what keeps us from reaching our goals. Situation that makes us live unfulfilled and without the ability to realize our full potential, thus living a life without a sense of autonomy, mastery and purpose.

​(2) We are using the technology in a way that we are sacrificing real conversation for mere connection, and through this process we are running more isolated from each other and running out of the ability to reflect. 

(3) ​The technology is here to stay and represents an opportunity. The opportunity is that we can use it to develop a new kind of social networks. Social networks that develop real human ties and not mere connections. Social networks that reserve space in our real lives for real conversations, while are taking advantage of the ubiquity of technology and its ability to overcome the barriers of distance and time, in a way that, from the spirit of self-reflection and awareness of the other people earned in those spaces of real conversation, is giving us access to give and receive help, care and companionship of people that without the technology would be impossible or impractical to access and manage a day to day relationship. Social networks that in this way are expanding our capabilities to reach with true sense other people and live a richer social life in ways that before the technology would have been impossible or impractical.

Social idea based in these insights and framed by the session 's big question:

Goal2us, a new kind of social network based in:

(1) A social site on the web with the aim of helping people reach goals that can be achieved in a period of one to three months. This help is provided facilitating the access to other people in similar situations and using specific tools in order to help people define their goals, design a plan to achieve them and run them with the help and companion of others seeking the same

(2) A network of physical collaboratives spaces with the aim of bringing people together to strengthen the relationships developed on the web social site through real conversations about things that really matters:

Talking about their experiences, encouraging others, sharing their problems and even working face to face on their goals

[lyne_robichaud]

Time to wake up and stop being afraid about the future

To your question "what kinds of new social relationships within our various social structures, we must develop in order to redefine our mental models thus taking advantage of this great opportunity that our socio-economic context offers us, with the aim of creating a sustainable environment based on trust, where people can develop and use their talents in a spirit imbued of autonomy, mastery and purpose?:

• Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
• Mastery: the desire to get better at something that matters
• Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in service of something larger than ourselves

I listened to Sherry Turkle's presentation. Very good talk.

She predicted that the next step for Mankind - with the help of technology - is that we will jump into a different dimension, we will gain the ability to walk outside the Real (as we know it to explore new spaces).

I totally agree with this.

Mankind is currently on an accelerated path to evolution.

From Sherry Turkle’s presentation, I feel FEAR. At the beginning of her talk, she mentioned the reactions of fear that people had 30 years ago. The aversion to having a calendar on the computer. She is having the same fear about social media conversations!

We are not loosing anything. We are in the process of transforming into something more evolved, where conversations will be of a different nature perhaps. Instead of having a conversation with a fellow human being in the Real, we might have conversations in the immaterial, by connecting to our collective consciousness.

The fact of being constantly connected to other people, not just one or two people at once, but loads of people, brings all of us closer to our real nature. We are a localized part of a unified field. We have scientific evidence of this with the theory of non-separability. Nothing is separated. We are all connected with social media links, but in fact, there are solid links between everything in a another reality.

Does it serve our human purposes?, asked Sherry Turkle. YES, it does. It pushes the whole humanity towards a virtual state of being, a physical state of consciousness.

Do we risk loosing our capacity for solitude that energizes? NO, we don’t. Because by constantly expressing ourselves, we get closer to our dreams. More and more, we see the power of the internet transform democracy. The people are pulling down autocrats and selfish corrupted leaders. The power that energizes us is awakening in thousands of people at the present moment. We are walking toward a new era. And it is not the era of solitude.

Hopeless and passive? We might be temporarily feeling helplessness in this difficult transition phase, but there are less and less people passive and indifferent to the affairs of the world. Look at the millions taking the streets. Where do these people come from? They march because of some connection to the internet, someone that convinced them to get up and protest.

Yes, the path ahead is INDEED challenging. The question we should ask: what type of Man are we evolving into? Toward what purpose? What will this mean, in your daily lives? What effect will it have on society, on business, on health, on the economy?

Restart the necessary converstations. I don’t mind giving it a try. But I wouldn’t put all my eggs in this one basket. I share therefore I am. This could means something entirely different from what it is today.

To get back to your questions:

• Autonomy: there is a potential for gaining full autonomy, fueled by what 'energizes'.
• Mastery: As this potential gets triggered, the process of transformation leads to mastery.
• Purpose: The yearning to do what we do in service of something larger than ourselves. I have nothing to add to what you said about purpose, except that it is time for us to open our eyes, and realize that there is something larger than ourselves. It exists, it is inside us, it brings us life and energy. Through it, we are all connected to each other. 

Time to wake up and stop being afraid about the future!

[jorge_couchet]

Conscious cultural evolution towards a self-realized society …

Humans, unlike other forms of life on earth, are shaped by two kinds of evolution process, the biological one that is shared with the other forms of life, and the cultural one that is unique in our specie, and is what led us to be the dominant specie on earth. I agree with you, the human being is in accelerated path to evolution … but cultural evolution … a cultural evolution that currently is fueled by the astonishing speed of technological change, especially in the last century.

Its possible to read a really good overview of this cultural evolution process here: http://edge.org/conversation/mc2011-history-violence-pinker . Reading carefully the Pinker 's overview, we can make an analogy between Maslow 's hierarchy of needs for individuals with a similar hierarchy for the society as a whole, and are able to see through his description, how the society through cultural evolution is progressing in a positive way through this hierarchy. We as a society moved from satisfying the ‘physiological’ needs, then by ‘safety’ needs, then by ‘love and belonging’ needs, and now we are approximately satisfying the ‘esteem’ needs with the what Pinker is calling the ‘Rights Revolutions’

But we as a society are still far from the stage of satisfying the ‘self-actualization’ needs as is evidenced by our current crisis of social and ecological lack of sustainability. We as a society are learning to respect and recognize as a right the various differences, such as racial, sexual tendencies, etc., which ultimately form the tissue of our society. But, that means that we are at the ‘esteem’ needs level, not at the ‘self-actualization’ one. To achieve the latter, we must learn to respect and recognize as a right (by law), the need of each individual for self-actualization, i.e. living with a sense of autonomy, mastery and purpose. And we must learn to respect and recognize as a right (by law), that our economic structures do not have priority over the need for a healthy and balanced relationship with our planet.

But we must not forget that from the point of view of biological evolution, biologically and psychologically we are the same homo sapiens that is populating the earth from the last few thousands of years. And this human nature, as Pinker states, “comprises inclinations toward violence and inclinations that counteract them”. So, all inside of us have more or less the parts of of human nature that militate toward violence:

• There is raw exploitation, that is, seeking something that you want where a living thing happens to be in the way.
• There is the drive toward dominance, both the competition among individuals, and the competition among groups for supremacy or preeminence.
• There is the thirst for revenge, the kind of moralistic violence that inspires vendettas, rough justice, and cruel punishment.
• There is ideology which might be the biggest contributor of all, leading to large-scale violence via a pernicious cost- benefit analysis.

And also we all have inside a brighter side with the capacity for:

• There is self-control, the ability to anticipate the consequences of behavior, and inhibit violent impulses
• There is the faculty of empathy, the ability to feel others' pain
• There is the moral sense, which comprise a variety of intuitions including tribalism, authority, purity, and fairness
• There is reason, the cognitive faculties that allow us to engage in objective, detached analysis

So it is true that we are evolving culturally, but we must not forget that our human nature remains essentially intact as that of the homo sapiens who lived in the caves not so long ago. Then we must consciously advance in our cultural evolution, in order to develop those kind of human relationships that will lead to self-realization state of society, promoting development that reinforce our brighter side and weaken the negatives ones. For that we must learn from the past, noting that the continued development of the following factors:

• Our sense of community and justice (“state and justice system”)
• Te fair exchange and sharing ('gentle commerce')
• Our sense of empathy and care for others (“expanding circle”)
• Our capacity for reflection (“escalator of reason”),

have been the main factors that have made us positively evolve culturally through this hierarchy of needs for the society as a whole.

And I’m agree with you, we should approach to the technology with the lenses of sharing and caring, not the fear. In order to use the technology with the aim of further developing in a positive way the above factors, and thus helping to walk in a consciously and reflective way, and through real conversations about things that matters, to that state of self-realization in our living together.

P.S.

And we also should take the technology with a grain of salt … it is wonderful and is here to stay … but not all is good (http://www.edge.org/conversation/infinite-stupidity-edge-conversation-with-mark-pagel) … and is not the panacea for all (http://www.gladwell.com/2010/2010_10_04_a_twitter.html) … we should also develop and trust in our old and inherent human need of being in physical touch, face to face conversations and enjoying our planet …

[lyne_robichaud]

We only have part of the evidence. Can we look for other part?

Great comment, by the way!

There is no doubt that there is a cultural evolution.

Homo sapiens… Evolution… we are talking about cultural evolution, but let us also consider the biological aspect of evolution. Let us try to consider this possibility also.

This is very edgy stuff… I am having difficulties to explain it because my name is not Einstein. It is very complicated, it requires to research on several levels at once. But the more I research, read and think about it, the more I find evidence.

For now, all I can say is that we have only part of an answer, part of a scientific evidence. So far, scientists has been able to prove the effect of trauma and stress on the body. But no work has been conducted to prove the opposite effect. This could be explained by the rise of cases of stress on the job, burnouts, depression, mental disorders, dementia and cases of suicide. We have been hearing about an increase of cases for many years. WHAT IS NEW HERE, is the ‘sweetness’ factor, that is so well described in the video that you posted here. What if some individuals felt so much sweetness that it turned into, instead of burnouts and depressions, it turned into bliss? Could this be possible?

I assume – it is an hypothesis based on logic, ok?  – that if we have accumulated scientific evidence for an effect on the body when there is a negative event or emotions, we could then make the assumption that there is an effect on the biological body when the event or emotions are positive. If stress modifies the structure of the body, we can make the hypothesis that extreme levels of happiness, or well-being, or name it the way you prefer, also modifies the structure of the body.

I found this information today:

“Ronald Duman of Yale University, a leading expert on the neurology of depression, is one of several scientists who have made some startling discoveries in recent years about the effect that stress has on the brain. The first was made in the late 1990s when researchers from Washington University in St Louis studied the brain anatomy of 10 women who had suffered several bouts of major depression. They discovered that in the depressed women, stress had caused a reduction in size of up to 15 per cent in a brain region known as the hippocampus. Other studies revealed similar shrinkage in the prefrontal cortex, the brain area responsible for thought patterns. This blew apart the leading theory of depression that, for 40 years, had described the condition as simply being caused by low levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin. “This new research showed that stress not only causes neurochemical changes but structural changes too,” says Duman.” (ref http://sciencefocus.com/feature/health/deadly-rise-depression)

These findings encourages me to continue to dig and look for scientific evidence that will demonstrate that we are on the verge of not being not just the normal Homo sapiens that we all think that we are now. There may be more to us than the normal state. If we keep at it with the internet and the social media connections, we could be surprized of the results. The ‘sweetness’ that the smartphones give may not be just an ‘addiction’.

This week, I noticed on Edgeryders that there has been curiosity around Elk Pavlik’ story by Cataspanglish. Have you read about his story? Fascinating… A man has been living for 3 years without any money. One could perhaps say that this is an extreme behavior. Does this experience say something about our future?

In the case of concern here, the effect of connections on your ‘mental condition’, are there individuals that could be considered like Pavlik?

To look for evidence of a biological evolution, provoqued presumably by the massive use of internet that large proportions of the populations have been doing these past years, could one try to identify which individuals are having extreme experiences of ‘sweetness’ or altered ‘mental condition’ — in a similar manner as Elk Pavlik —, and observe these cases, and try to learn something from them?

[jorge_couchet]

Changing mental structures using our brain plasticity …

Well, biological evolution requires mutation and selection .. a gene in our chromosome pool should be physically changed for an external source (as for example radiation, chemical exposition, etc.) .. and once mutated, the mutation should be positive, something that is really extremely difficult .. you imagine that you have a really complex machine and it is struck by lightning, so that alters the function of a component without melting it, and thanks to this "new" component, the machine can now do something that previously could not, while retaining all their old functions .. that isn't impossible, but its really really difficult to get .. well, imagine now that this complex machine is our body .. and its a really really complex machine .. so, first at all, is very difficult to get a positive mutation, it takes really long long time (in the range of thousands of years) in complex organisms as the ours, and much much less in viruses and bacteria (in the range of days) .. but that is not all, after that the mutation isn't only positive (produces a new ability), but this ability is so useful that increases your opportunities of matting, so you are reproducing more than others and are passing your mutation to your offspring .. and after a long time (in the range of hundred of years) enough percentage of the population has this new ability and you can say that the specie has definitely this new ability … this is the normal and accepted biological evolution .. and its a really a hard and long process ..

 

 

There is another a complementary and controversial theory known as lamarckian evolution .. that for example if I train myself in something (that is basically rewiring my brain circuits and tightening the muscles in my body), this training is going to my genes and the new ability is passed to my children .. well its controversial cause there aren't definitely evidence for such thing .. and most of the changes that can be observed, is due to the environment affects the expression of genes, but such thing is not evolution, cause the gene itself remains untouched ..

 

 

But one thing is true and is the really important thing for our 'Living together' session ..  it is the plasticity of our brains for life ..   it means that a new context, as for example Internet, is able of rewiring our brains (changing the physical structure of our brains) in new ways and through that is producing new behavior (**).  And these are really good news!!! .. cause we are able through, for example, the use of technology (such as Internet), or developing new kind of social relationships to change our mental structures through the rewiring of our brains .. and changing our mental structures we are changing our world .. 

 

(**) But such change is not biological evolution, that is cultural evolution using a physical ability that we already have .. the plasticity of our brains!

[lyne_robichaud]

We should not be burdened by previous limitations

I am glad to see you speak about the “plasticity of our brains”. We should not allow ourselves to be burdened by what we have previously believed were limitations to mental achievement.

What WE KNOW for certain about the mind and its instruments, the brain and nervous system, is still in its infancy. There is a wide gap between the present condition of the brain and the ultimate state that it can reach eventually.

There are at least 2 known cases of this “mutation” amongst active Edgeryders participants.

THE MUTATION: a transformation occurring in the structure of carbon 12, due to the action of a force, to create a new isotope of the carbon element.

Carbon 12 accounts for almost 98.89% of the total amount of carbon. It contains 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons. Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of the six elements, carbon being the second most important element.

The backbone of the DNA strand is made from alternating phosphate and sugar residues. The sugar in DNA is 2-deoxyribose, which is pentose sugar, composed of five atoms of carbon.

THE FORCE CAUSING THIS MUTATION: It can be compared to be struck by lightning. It is similar to the release of energy within the atom through atomic explosion. Two poles of energy unite and the expression of that unity becomes a third force, which results in a transmutation of basic energies to an entirely new level.

Unusually high levels of electromagnetic energy can also trigger this process.

It is an evolutionary mechanism dormant in every human being.

There are: 1) congenitally active cases; 2) born with it cases; and 3) activation occuring later in life cases.

WHAT IT DOES: It alters the functions of the body and develops new capacities. The final stage does not appear all at once but marks the culmination of a continuous process of biological reconstruction, covering approximately 15 years (or more).

It reshapes one’s whole personality.

I won’t go into details here, but I can answer all the questions about this process. I talked a lot about it on Edgeryders. But few people understood the real impact and applications of this information.

The final stage of this mechanism leads to Sherry Turkle’s prediction… and much more: “We could basically bail out of the physical Real at any time to go to all the other places and spaces that we have available.”

[k11]

Reminded me of Gapminder and Hans Rosling

I suppose you know of this one, its pretty old but nice.

http://www.gapminder.org

[k11]

business partnerships before your startup starts?

There are so many decent sites for raising funds through crowdsourcing,

but not a lot web tools to team up soc ent. Specially if you want to try out one short project first to test if your idea is working.

So the choice of business partner is often classmates or family.

Which is fine, but little bit limited.

Any ideas on that one?

[jorge_couchet]

Co-business - Open Source Business …

Indeed its a really interesting your idea. I agree with you, there are several sites in order to raise funds through crowdsourcing, as for example: http://www.kickstarter.com/ , but I didn’t see one aimed to the idea you you are proposing.

Now suppose the following alternative scenario; there is a site implementing a concept named Open Source Business (OSB). One lucky day, you are having an idea, but:

• you alone don't have enough resources and skills to implement it
• you really don't know if the idea is worth of implementation
• you are open to share your idea, improve or change your idea with the contribution of new ideas, and accept new partners

so, you are going to OSB and sharing your idea (*), and the following OSB process is happening:

• (1) Idea Refining Time:
  • The proposal for a new idea is raised:
    • (1.1) This proposal has a expiration time:
      • At the end of it, the people in the idea draft is deciding if is opening a venture proposal or not
    • (1.2) A idea draft is created, it has:
      • The idea being refined and all its versions
      • The OSB 's members that are talking and contributing
    • (1.3) At the idea refining plan:
      • A group of people from OSB are interested in the idea and begin to talk about it, obtaining as result of this process a new idea
    • (1.4) Some of the idea draft's members decide to go ahead in order to open a proposal for a new venture
• (2) Venture Proposal Time:
  • The proposal for a new venture is opened:
    • (2.1) This venture draft has a expiration time:
      • At the end of it, the people in the venture draft is deciding if is implementing the venture or not.
    • (2.2) A venture draft is created, it has:
      • The list of the resources needed
      • The members that are belonging to the venture:
      • The people that was included as a member at the idea draft and was interested with opening the venture proposal are the first members
    • (2.3) At the venture proposal time:
      • People with some of the resources listed are becoming members of the venture proposal
      • People with resources not listed, but who can argue that they are useful, and are accepted by the others, are becoming members of the venture proposal
    • (2.4) At the expiration time some of the members in the venture draft decide to go ahead in order to implement the venture
• (3) Venture implementation time:
  • The implementation process is also going through OSB adding more members to the venture to the extent that more resources are needed and these new people have them

(*) In fact when you are sharing the idea, it is ceasing to be your idea even you are retaining certain rights, as for example the right to belong to the venture that could be started from that idea.

Is this scenario close to your idea??

This scenario could be used as a framework to work with the implementation of the social idea that will be used in the ‘Living together’ session (being the site described in the scenario -OSB- another social idea itself). The scenario is raising some specific questions that could discussed and answered at the session (and meanwhile also here in the forum):

• (1) How the venture is structured?
  • How are the members participating in the structure?
  • Is it a co-operative, have shares, etc?
  • How the decisions are taken?
  • It has a hierarchical structure, a partnership one, a mix, etc. ?
  • How the benefits are shared?
  • How new members are allowed to be incorporated?
  • How a resource contribution by a member is valued and which kind of profit is this contribution returning?
  • How is the relationship of social responsibility to the society where it is inserted?
  • How is the relationship with the member 's family?
  • In our current economic model, the cost of raising a family and the time that raising a family need is not taken into account by companies
  • How is managed the intellectual property?
  • Others?
• (2) It would be only one kind of venture structure allowed or several?
• (3) How the venture is sharing benefits with OSB?

These specific questions should be answered framed by the big question, i.e. helping to answer the big question and aligned with its goal:

As a clarifying example:

• There is a interesting structure for the venture that is aligned with the big question goal:
  • (1) Social business:
    • http://www.muhammadyunus.org/Social-Business/social-business/
    • We can take this idea of social business as a draft and suggest our own modifications, as for example:
      • (a) The owners don't have dividends but they are allowed to work and receive a salary
      • (b) The resource contribution by a member in considered an initial investment, and the member is only recouping this investment
      • Etc.
  • (2) Implementing the venture as a kind of social business is also raising some other specific questions:
    • Is it needed to change/adding in the legal framework to implement this kind of social business?
    • Is would be good to have from the State some financial help in order to promote to implement this kind of social business?

[k11]

OSB sounds brilliant, thanks for sharing this.

Crowdsourcing at the moment is still based more on the Donation principle, rather than the Investment,

OSB seems to be a clue.

Kickstarter, startsomegood and alike, are business ideas themselves.

These are great tools to raise funds, but are not specifically designed for raising social capital at the same time.

Even though many of the webbegging tools are marketed as communities rather than tools.

So money network and steakholders network turns out to be a bit disconnected one from the other.

I am triying to: mobilize all my social ties who will help me to design the process before I launch fundraising campaign on a fundraising platform. Because I want the project to be designed with the participation of stakeholders and for them, and create a service which is needed.

Film director Hanna Skold, managed to do both during her last project: crowdsourcing and participatory design http://edgeryders.ppa.coe.int/spotlight-social-innovation/mission_case/how-not-sell-your-kidney-during-participatory-film-making-s But I think she was using magic.

[darren]

Open source business and raising funds for the commons

This thread of the discussion made me think of Goteo the Spanish based crowdfunding site for the commons.

"Crowdfunding + distributed collaboration

Goteo is a social network for crowdfunding and distributed collaboration (services, infrastructures, microtasks and other resources) for encouraging the independent development of creative and innovative initiatives that contribute to the common good, free knowledge, and open code.

A platform for investing in “feeder capital” that supports projects with social, cultural, scientific, educational, technological, or ecological objectives that generate new opportunities for the improvement of society and the enrichment of community goods and resources."

Also Bettermeans which is a open source platform for running open enterprises.  Great idea but for some reason it doesnt appear that any groups have been using this tool efficiently (maybe needs some user interface polishing / redisgn??)

A project I was involed with, an open group that span off from the animation Coalition of the Willing, was developing ideas for a mapping tool which would have various functions, including one to help people / projects find each other and enable mass interaction/swarming.  Sadly the wiki is no longer live and archive.org has not got caches of many of the later wiki pages. There is not much action in the group any more (still a bit of interaction on the google group mail list.) but I (and I guess many others) learnt a lot through the interaction.

This was the last work done although it was a small team that span off working on part of the idea. (I didn’t like the fact that they were going to use google maps, but could understand why)  I dont think that there is still any ongoing work on it.

I am interested in how mass swarming actions are/could be taken into the real world - how can such things are given some structure (governance?)

[alberto]

Back with a vengeance

Hey Jorge, you really are back to Edgeryders with a vengeance! Welcome again, it’s good to have you back - and thanks for volunteering. Keep up the good work, and see you in Strasbourg.

[jorge_couchet]

And the vengeance will be terrible

Ciao Alberto! Yes, I’m back with some ideas ;) We are seeing in Strasbourg!!!

[andrea_paoletti]

virtual + real = maximizing opportunities

I really like the big question even if It’s really complex, and maybe difficult to answer in a clear way.

I loved the video (more questions rose in my mind) and I liked also what Lyne argued about the challenge of this particular moment.

Putting together the 2 aspect of the real conversation and  the virtual connection , in my opinion, we can maximize opportunities and create new paths.

Our session, Living together, can be a good chance also to think about how the real spaces can interact with the virtual ones, and how the co-spaces can add a value to this natural evolution process.

I think it is not about being afraid of the future, but about developping new concepts without forgetting the importance of human centrality.

[jorge_couchet]

Session content for our breakout session.

For the tomorrow session we are using as a content for the conversation the ideas from the post ’ POST III - JOINING TOGETHER THROUGH A PRAGMATIC APPROACH '.

If you have time, the theoretical bases for this content are at the post ’ POST I - THE TRUE NATURE OF POWER ’ and the post ’ POST II - THE TRUE NATURE OF THE HIERARCHIES '.

We are seeing you tomorrow!!