Flow of the 2nd Evolutionary Salon

host: George Por
participants: Lion Kimbro, Susan Cannon, Alexander Laszlo, Sheri Madrone,  Ria Baeck, Fernanda Ibarra, Ruben Nelson, maybe others moved in and out…
notes: compilation of notes taken by Fernanda and Sheri, and the drawings of Lion, by Ria

How can we weave a web of Evolutionary leadership conversation that can grow into the systems of the new society that we dream of?

Or: How do we help online, emerging society?

Desired outcome: to develop a (small) description of a course of action to pass forward to salon conveners where they sense/see what is emerging and to bring something forward into the community tomorrow.

Different conversations lead into convening this session around this topic. These kinds of gatherings, with people who are aligned with the same kind of energy, stay fragmentary. When one leaves, one is disconnected. Growing these conversations – coupled with intention - can become the systems of the new societies.
What support system would allow this kind of connection?

What are the requirements for such system, given the multiple dimensions?
Systems - Social - Individual - Technical - Evolutionary - Perspectives
Only one requirement: Sustainability: How to sustain collaborative, co-creative conversations, combined cyberspace and physical space, that can move the field, that can reach the 7th generation, at least the next generation?
We have seen many good people who put their soul into online community building and they die and don´t expand because they are not sustainable.
What are the requirements:
-    to meet the sustainability of meaningful leadership conversations?
-    to sustain community building - in physical and online environments?

The Community Design Architecture (George’s term) has four layers:

•     Learning Architecture:
•     How do we learn together, how do we continue to learn together?
•    What is needed to share and build knowledge and how to build it in a way that is not time consuming?
•    How to stucture/organise a knowledge base to allow new meaning to emerge? and on the other hand how to structure, portray the emerging knowledge of the community in a knowledge base that is accessible?
•    Which taxonomy allows community members to have any piece of info in the right moment?

•    The social architecture;
What are the agreements in the comm, the basic principles we want to live by?  (building blocks).
•    How to allow sub-communities to develop? Emerging leadership groups are at heart of this architecture.
•     How do we create the warm, fuzzy feeling online that we have in physical level?

Business architecture: Resources needed for the community to sustain. It takes time, effort, some resources acquired and distributed; What is the process by which we are doing this?

Tech architecture:
•     Technology is not leading the action; Technology enables the rest of the architecture, and it is bringing its own value. It has a pro-active role.
•    Time to find tools for the learning and social needs we have
•     and the technical pioneers of the community, the tech wizards who keep an eye on emerging technologies and make recommendations, which we can use for the purpose of weaving the conversations that will go into the system of the society.

Putting the wheel into action is about the online dimension of the spaces we are in, in the Salon. We don’t have it now. It is a missing piece. We need systems that take the online conversation into the next level.

What are the barriers?
Some of these layers are perceived as bigger barriers than others. Some have the feeling that it is the business architecture, the resources.
For ENexus, resources is not a barrier, because Comm.Intell.Ltd is the place holder.
In the salon the main scarcity is time. We need to provide the platform and gentle simple structure to help feed ongoing, online Open Space Sessions.

Evolutionary nexus website: requires a degree of patience over the next couple of years.  The seattle wiki was started 2 years ago…

What are enablers?
* We need a nexus of websites to welcome the bloggers and the voices of the newcomers (regarding technology skills).  There is an evolutionary tension in this.

* We need a commitment to a joint creation of meaning. We need to catalyze a living community where we all want to contribute to. A creation of meaning that is attractive (Nature doesn’t sell; it attracts.), that is more than a common identity, but a shared purpose. So that we set time aside for it, it the same way we all have set aside time to be able to come here.

* We need education for net-illiterate people; lack of network-concept.
How to guide people to be a better self-instructed learner? When slow in technology I don’t have time to feed a website with my experience and so I don´t give the input on the knowledge related to the context.
How do we make it attractive?  So we can expand the circle and not just have it be the people who are already online?

Chaiwat – put some reality into this.  We start with this big question, it is not just about conversation, it is walk the talk.  Without doing it there cannot be change.  I just tell you my real life.  I learn a lot from internet.  I rarely put comment.  My barrier is net illiteracy.  Takes time to write in English.  In one day what have I done?  How many times a day I have to visit this kind of website.  I am a thai, I have a context.  You are coming from Europe/u.s.a.  but to translate this to other cultures.  Even in Thailand, they cannot communicate online, only the younger people. Generational things.  How can we make a higher level of conversations in real time?  And maybe we can bring it online.  It took me 3 months to write something online at world café.  And now I start to give feedback.

* To make it real it has to be connected to real life. For some people internet is a resource for information, not a conversation space.  

* ENexus need to be a hub (not an additional project!):
-    to add value to people who come and do their work.
-    to support their work
-    to allow cross-pollination (not an additional project).

* Open source social architecture: so it is not a high barrier to be involved.

* How to create a mediated multi-sensory interactive environment?  Virtual reality…
The more transparent the technology, the more real the virtual experience, the more people have a sense of the community.

What is the relationship with the others. How do they get the feedback on what is going on.

* We can be a learning interface. We have to be the resources for others to develop. “How can we serve your project? You are not alone in technology, we worry for you.”

What do we see happen in the future, like 5 years from now, and how can this inform us now for our prototyping? What is our shared vision?

How do we help to the emergence of the online society? How can we create an online society that can further the interests and passions of the kind of people that comes to this event?

Our first circle: How can we make this community continue?
We don’t need to create the best system.
“The Learning Expedition” metaphor: we started with the first base camp, the first salon. The scouting parties explore together and they do it on behalf of the whole community. Co-creating explorations addressed in specific areas and the interrelatedness between them.
The learning society has emerged, this new habitants of cyberspace create new ways of interacting. And its happening.

ENexus wants:
- To create increasing connections and CI between people working for a better world.  
- to grow coherence to help everyone to pursue their dream.

What we want to do is to create the prototype for supporting online communities. Our model should model and invite others for their projects, like the World Café community.
Take the best practices of all social platforms into our prototype. The open source nature of this: we have to transmit our own knowledge.
 
We need to work on the Characteristics of this community. It is not about how 'equinomical?' it is not clear if the Salon is creating a vehicle for transformation that will create mutuality. Or are we imposing specialized vehicles, or both. The evo salon may be a meta energy or weather we are making a contibution.

George recommends that we concentrate in the own identity of the community. In the longer frame of evolution is the blossoming of things where then there is a rigidity that doesn´t allow boundaries to breathe. Differentiation/Integration.

What are our discoverings that we share to the other groups. Be able to listen in today session to adapt to what others are talking about. We need to settle a purpose and breathable boundaries.

Practical ideas for the site:
-    Presentation of information would have to be present in different learning styles.
-    Lots of maps for people find their work.  
-    provide the platform and gentle simple structure to help feed ongoing, online Open Space Sessions
-    making it attractive
-    welcome to bloggers AND to online newcomers


We want to develop this further:  Lion, Susan, Alexander, Sheri, George, Ria, Fernanda.
And commit to bring people into different parts of the conversation.

?????: working with visual maps online –  Bob Horn, colleague and friend
Sheri, Lion and Susan can meet in Seattle
Sheri: drawn to the social part and the weaving together + lot of techy geek friends, inspired by some elements of the whole picture
Lion: I want to be part of it!
Ria: taking care of the community aspect
Alexander: I’m into this, I’m part of the dialogue,
George: tremendous experience, tools; to be the learning architect to bring forth the draft of this community,