CIPI - The Collective Intelligence Practitioners Initiative

What it is and why

10-15 people out of an email based invitation list of 20 people meet regularly each 4 weeks for one day's continued inquiry into collective intelligence – a CIPI Salon. And now we have also held a CIPI Retreat.

The idea is to support the emergence of a field of collective intelligence amongst us - a field where practices, insights, principles, etc. of collective intelligence can be evolved in ways that have not happened so far.

We use the field of collective intelligence engaged amongst us to inquire into the nature of collective intelligence it self.

Each of us have to put ourselves in service of that inquiry and (ideally) let go of any personal agendas for engaging the work.

The format of the meetings has since Feb. 2006 settled into this:

9-10 meditation for those who want to and come early
10 breakfast and check-in (not formal)
lunchbreak at some point
18 close; some stay and hang out

So far the form has mostly been dialogue in the circle, applying sensing into the middle or inquiring from the middle in an informal, selfguided way.

Since the July 29, 2006 Salon we started experimenting with harvesting insights and learnings from the meetings.

Who

The people on the invitation list are mostly situated in or around Aarhus, Denmark. There is no special professional profile, although in early incarnations of the initiative it was thought to be for people in the field of process consulting and related professional fields.

A practioner in this context is one who engages any specific area of skill or competence and while doing that holds the perspective of the entire social field that is impacted by the specific activity.

For instance a DJ, doing what a DJ is doing, and at the same time holding the perspective of the entire dancefloor of people as one field, is understood to be a practioner in the field of collective intelligence.

Likewise, a chef, cooking for a wedding party, and while working in the kitchen holding the perspective of the quality and energy of the entire social field of the party (including the chef herself), is in this context understood to be a practioner in the field of collective intelligence.

Principally the invitation list is open for anyone, but we have agreed to only add names to the list after one has attended at a CIPI Salon, invited by someone on the list. In this way everyone is  responsible towards the whole for only bringing in new people who has been briefed well, and who wants to participate on an ongoing basis.

We see the initiative as not single events but as a continued inquiry, and it reguires commitment to participate and willingness to contribute for the sake of the overall purpose of the initiative rather than for individual purposes. The nature of the inquiry is sensitive to people showing up just to check out what is happening.

What we do

1. Rules, experiences, guidelines, practices.

It is counter intuitive to think about CIPI as run by rules. But definitely a body of experiences has built and can be shared. These experiences can then be transformed into guidelines and practices.

Guidelines are ways of behaving towards specific tasks. Practices are intended ways to be and act under all circumstances.

For instance, we have established these guidelines regarding inviting new participants:
•    If you have participated in at least a couple of CIPI meetings, and think you are fairly grounded in an understanding of what CIPI is about, then you can invite new participants that you think would fit in well in the ongoing inquiry. Bring only one new at a time. Make sure that your invitee is well briefed about the purpose and the expected forms of the meetings. After the meeting: Clarify with your invitee whether he or she wants to be added to the invitation list, make sure that he or she understands the wanted commitment to respond to the list (not just hang around as a passive observer), and make sure that all on the list gets the added email-address.

We have come to understand some practices as useful. To the degree that this is so, the practices are put to use – unless we forget about them for some reason.

•    The format of the CIPI Salon – 9-18 – starting with meditating for an hour, breakfast, at some point a focussed inquiry starts, at some point a lunch break, careful attention on having completed the circle and done any announcements before 1800, so that people are free to leave at that point.
•    Invoking a short period of silence while in an inquiry by anyone choosing to ring a bell.
•    Having some kind of talking piece in the center. Anyone taking it indicates that he or she asks for time to share whenever what is going now is done. In addition to that it may also indicate a call for slowing down the exchange in the circle.

2. Social Practices that maybe can be established now

These are ideas and thoughts about practices that we now may have the experimental basis for being able to establish if we choose to. They may not all apply at all times, but can be evoked as needed.
•    Starting each period of inquiry with some time to sense into the middle. As a deepening to this practise there can even be a period of sharing what one senses.
•    Clarifying a question or theme for inquiry. In addition to that maybe also clarifying on the format of the inquiry.
•    Decision making based on clarity. When we know that we know what we want, it gets acted upon immediately. Otherwise the unclarity – whatever form it takes – points to something about what is said or done or called for being not completely connected to the field of the inquiry, and the search for clarity must continue.

3. Personal Practices that we may expect from each other

These are ideas to identify personal practices that we may expect each other to at least be aware of and over time more and more able to live up to:
•    Leaning in, taking risk, avoid holding back. Respond to something if you want to, or let it go – but don’t sit with an impulse to act that you don’t follow up. It is holding the entire field back.
•    Talk about or show what is present now. Don’t talk about what was or in your opinion has to come.
•    Avoid abstractions, generalizations, explanations, making evaluations about what is as compared to something else that could be
•    Be the change you want to see – do it, don’t talk about doing it
•    Take responsibility for what you do. Don’t ask for permission. Allow the collective field to direct you by the feedback you get.
•    Do what you do with the intention of serving the whole rather than yourself.

4. Formats of the inquiry

How we are doing it, what forms and formats of inquiry, whether to use circle conversation, breakout groups, singing, dancing, writing etc. is actually part of the very inquiry itself.

5. The need for all aspects of the human experience

This is continuing the question that has surfaced in several forms: What is the relationship between different modalities of inquiry when it comes to our purpose – speaking from the middle, sharing, dancing, eating, laughing, feminine expressions and masculine expressions (add more yourself). Are they of equal importance? Are some paving the way for others? Is their usefulness dependent on a specific context? Do they cross-fertilize each other?

6. The afterglow

It seems to be a pattern that about one third hangs out afterwards, and that the talks there for a couple of hours becomes an outlet for the momentum build during the day. From a process design perspective, it is important to be attentive to the possibility of such an after party to be able to take place.

History

The initiative was called by Finn Voldtofte in april 2005 to a broad invitationlist. In its first 9 months two CIPI Weekends and two CIPI Cafés were held. The experiences from these activities led in february 2006 to a focusing of the invitation list to those committed to the ongoing inquiry. The format of CIPI Salons held on Saturdays in Aarhus was also decided.

Prior to CIPI was a yearlong inquiry into practices around engaging collective intelligence. It took place under the name ”The Flag Ship” and was called by Peter Kahr Greve and Finn Voldtofte in an effort to find new ways for leadership training.

A vision seen in august 2005 of a First International Collective Intelligence Practitioners Adventure (FICIPA) transformed some months later into the extension of an invitation for the gathering Moving The Edge, held in March 2006. Many of the people now on the CIPI invitation list participated in Moving The Edge.

Notes from the hosting work of Moving The Edge

On this page we will post reflections and insights regarding the hosting of the ongoing adventurous inquiry into the role of collective intelligence in moving the edge of evolution.

Meeting 10 October
Tina, Martin L, Martin E., Finn, Andri

We put the question in the middle, What does it mean for us to host an ongoing adventurous inquiry into the role of collective intelligence in moving the edge of evolution? The following is a draft of insights from our 45 minute inquiry. A picture of the beautifully handwritten notes in Danish is found here.

Leaning into the process of letting new structures arise, in a long-term perspective without a defined form. The Moving the Edge perspective can surface anywhere and we take upon the task of looking for Moving the Edge structures and pointing them, making them available for people to see. The process of leaning in is the opposite of taking rest in a particular form.

Moving the Edge transcends forms and people and is not dependent on any particular form or person.
The hosting team holds the field for the adventurous ongoing inquiry. The team creates connections between people and initiatives that seem to hold the perspective we call Moving the Edge. The team can take it upon itself to be present as hosts and can visit people and initiatives relevant to the inquiry.

Moving the Edge is about spreading the word that there is a collective field. The hosting work is about holding the field and creating a framework. Being vigilant as to what arises and what goes on that might touch upon the perspective held in the ongoing inquiry.

The hosting team is a life-work community with a particular mission, i.e. cultivating the willingness to be in ongoing inquiry into the hosting process. What is the highest perspective of each member of the team in relation to their mission? The team undertakes the work through collective intelligence and strives to let their highest perspective prevail.

The hosting team serves as an inviting anchor for people interested in and curious about the field. A host’s work is to receive guests and give them room.

The team works to expand the interface between the outer and inner collective intelligence.

The hosting work is about commitment and perspective. That the inquiry is adventurous means that forms are not allowed to serve as resting places. The team holds the perspective of being on the go, looking for the higher and wider perspective, striving to stay in the unknown, keeping this perspective alive in the daily life of the hosting work. This is a constant movement into unknown territory.

The Life-Work Community Inquiry

1. Life-Work Communities are communities of people.

2. That which defines a Life-Work Community is that it consists of people who choose to continuously inquire into which perspectives inform their life and work.

So we don't necessarily have the same perspectives. The point is that we are willing to inquire into our perspectives and their influence on how we work and live our life. The sense of community comes, among other things, from the fact that we choose sometimes to do the inquiry together.

3. The continuous inquiry into perspectives is the defining action and intention. But the 'every day' activity of the Life-Work Community is conversations on life and work.

These conversations can, depending on the situation, happen in various forms. The Flow Game is one such form that we are looking into at the moment. It could also happen in a concrete inquiry into an issue of a client of one of the participants of the Flow Game. Or a concrete situation in our lives. Or a picnic. Or...

4. Who is part of my Life-Work Community?, or: Which Life-Work Communities am I a part of? 'My' Life-Work Communities consist of the people in my life where we mutually know about each other that we are willing to, together, to be in a continuous inquiry into the perspectives that inform each of our lives and our work.

I find that there are degrees of intensity - with some people the feeling of community is intense and the willingness to inquire is great and it often happens, -and with others the feeling of community is less intense, the wilingness is less, or even if it is declared to be great, it still only happens more seldom.

5. Yours and my Life-Work Communities, then, are not communities of the same people, but where there is an overlap, we will experience them as one.

6. A Life-Work Community can be seen as a social structure, held together by the willingness to inquire into the highest perspectives and by conversations on life and work. So that which knits the social structure together, then, is less concrete than that which knits structures like networks, office communities, families, communes, businesses etc. But all the more concrete expressions of social structures could also be part of the Life-Work Community social structure - if it serves a concrete purpose. So, I can be part of a Life-Work Community with a group of five people, and go into business with two of them. And have the third as my spouse...etc. No earlier social structures of human communities are being made superfluous by the possibility of a Life-Work Community. The Life-Work Community is an expression of some new ways to be in community, in addition to the known and tested ones.

A quote by Rev. Dr Sarah Mitchell:

Communitas [Sarah York writes] is what happens when a whole group of people cross a threshold and together enter liminal time and space – that is, an in-between time that is neither past nor present and a space that is neither here nor there. In that threshold space, they experience a bond, and it is not like any bond they may experience in their ordinary structured lives. York’s definition demonstrates that communitas is not the same as community. Communitas is a process where no-one is marginalized, because everyone is on the margin. It is a transitory period of transformation, which enables societies to return to their way of living in dramatically new ways. Who the people are is not what is important here – any group of people can form communitas. What is important is that the focus is on the action of this group; they cross a threshold together.

Finn Voldtofte

The-October-gathering-that-became-a-CIPI-Retreat conference calls

Reports of the conf.calls of the convening team

Finn – Jan – Ria
August 9, 2006

We re-activate after holiday. Martin couldn’t make it, we will include him next time.

Check-in:
Finn: connect now; feeling the MtE-field - will be in the venue in a few days - warming up the field at the site. End of Aug. World Café Stewards in US: another specialised arena of this whole field of CI. For me these two processes are more noisy in my head: taking more time for work and preparing and closer in time.

Ria: MtE was not away during vacation, it was in my awareness, but I have an Art of Hosting training and a workshop in September coming up; a lot of my attention is going there. will send out invitation for art of hosting, and then attention is free for MtE in the coming days. I have sent part of Finn’s article to participants in shadow workshop.

Jan: MtE is on my mind quite a lot, but have been absorbed in family and working on the house. MtE has moved to Holland, we have had the first CIPI like meeting. We were not talking about network but on the inquiry itself - doing it without making decision on process - but it turned out that we engaged an "inquiry from the middle".

Questions for now:
How to make the call louder and clearer?
Who to address the 3 areas?
The invitation as process

Invitation as process
Right now: number of participants = 8.
8-9 persons that Jan know is interested but have not signed up.

Invitation is a process - not just sending out an email and waiting for the response, but engage in conversations like you will engage in mte itself.
We tend to be mechanical to invite. What we need: spreading the word; sending again + engaging with the specific topics.
We want those to be there who feel called. We don't know who they are. We have to listen and then follow up.

Around Sept 10th, Finn has to sign the contract with the venue. People who respond later are not supporting the process. Asking to commit is asking for the field; not for us personally. Not committing is mostly self-concern.

A balance to find: Make the call loud and some hesitance to become pushy. We don't want to push; but those who have interest to ask for their commitment. It is also about us being bold!!
It is about supporting the field - not about doing something pleasant. We can name that more clearly.

How to make the call louder and clearer?
Different channels:
- lot of friends in the WC gathering: Finn will mention MtE as an opportunity to take the work further.
- how can we use OpenBC? Jan is in process of finding out
- collective wisdom initiative - are we on there? Jan follow up
- spirit and business - an organization with a website: Jan
- Centre human emergence in Holland
- placing an add in WIE - finn looks into it

the website: needs more pictures! something like a pictures-slides show that can show the story.
can Ralph add pictures and graphics to the site
making the font bigger? add blank lines?
Martin L.?
Do we know how many visitors we have on the site? ask Martin E.

How to address the 3 areas?
• The possible roles of business as seen from an evolutionary perspective
• Our planetary home

• Practices for integrated life
Are there people who are outstanding in the different areas? and how to engage or connect with them?
One name within each area as a strategy

We start the contemplation about these questions. We can share on emails. Maybe to find a name with recognition in these fields that could be like a vehicle to continue the process.

using their networks as well; amplyfing the call!

This is also about being bold!

asking the recommenders their answer to this question

Actions:
adding this chat to the blog of convening Finn
+ posting the notes on ENexus Ria.

Agreement for next calls: to go deeper with the different areas

Check-out:
we seem to be competent; we know what we are doing!

very grateful to work together in this way: silence, nobody’s ego is taking time or space; efficient in one hour!

I was waiting to get it started again after the holiday: I’m excited!

August 17, 2006
Finn, Jan, Ria, Martin E. (only listening and typing)

Bringing light and life to the field.

Silence.

Check-in:
Finn: this is connecting and touching on the same field: consciousness and business: retreat and two conversations. We are more growing into sustaining the field in between the calls. Overwhelmed and very happy about it.

Martin: okay, i've given up on the technical (others can’t hear him). I feel immediately connected to you, it's lovely to listen to you. Andri has pushed me in my wheel chair to come here, through a lovely evening

Ria: meeting with george and lieven this morning- integrating business and spirituality - meeting with a client - new to him, but it IS in the direction of MTE
Concerning the three topics (and thinking of lead-names): I am still pondering the second and third theme; not much text on the web about it yet.

Jan: busy with the same things as in the previous call: starting CIPI Holland. Meeting with 20 people who are spreading the word. What happens in holland is part of the ongoing inquiry of MtE.

What happened in CIPI Holland so far?
One meeting: not working on the network, but the intention with the inquiry. Next meeting in September, invitation went out this week.

We are mte convening team. We can inspire the people of cipi holland to inspiring people to come to mte october and the october meeting will inspire people to come to cipi holland
Don't wait for others to do the inspiring work, go for it!

The convening work:
the word is spreading:
- CHE and SOL Holland
- our website: 309 humans, definitely unique visitors!
- CWI is OK now;
- next week, world cafe stewardship gathering, word will spread there
- invitations went out to Jean-Francois; to Spirit in Business: no reply yet.

Business as Agent of World Benefit Global Forum will take place on the same dates as mte; is probably addressing the theme of business in a different way than we.

cfr. End question of Finn's book: What is the role of business in creating conscious social systems? It is a concrete question we can deal with now!
It is not an abstraction, not in the future, but how can it be done now by us as a group. It is real and now; the question is only How? has to be explored by a collective, it is way beyond for an individual.

The gathering Finn had these three days, made it very real for him.
The participants were people coming from many belief systems.
Acknowledging where they come from, not holding back; all allowed to be there and being in service of the whole. Being and doing is integrated as is inner and outer. This is something that has changed, it was not like this a time ago. That opens the perspective for the practices of integrated life.
Now we are ready to learn from each other, learning more about the integrated life. What are the patterns that can be seen?

Finn has made a great speech on integrated life - but we didn't hear it!!!

We did not include the word 'spiritual' in the theme 'integrated life' for good reasons.

Third topic Earth is our house: is a metaphor - even children understand. The earth as one house, with humanity as the family living in it. It leads to rules about how to live our lives: why do we turn off the lights and do not throw garbage on the street. If we thought of the earth as one house, then it would be easy to understand not to pie in the corner of someone else’s room!

It refers to “systems intelligence” (Helsinki University of Technology) combining engeneering thinking with human sensibility.
http://www.systemsintelligence.tkk.fi/
Apply systems intelligence: everywhere and anytime.

Actions:
The themes have to be unfolded even more to catch life.
Martin still has the ambition of writing more on the topic of an integrated life.
We can set up forums:
- A forum for each theme, great idea. Martin will start them tomorrow.
- + bringing life into the forums. This will also help us clarify our intentions.
- a fourth for the connection between the three; there is much cross pollination. They are not that different at all.

Next Skype call:
thursday 31, 2100 hours

Check-out:
Martin: I feel happy to have finally listened to you. I'm completely crippled these days (only temporary, though), so it was nice to be in touch with you, being crippled with regard to voice

Finn: we can do: 4 listening, 3 talking, one writing. The speed of learning new social technologies is speeding.

Ria: good for the clarification on the topics: life has been kicked into the topics.

Jan: feels exited…

August 31, 2006
Finn, Jan, Ria, Martin E.

Check in
Ria: I won't have much time today, as a guest will arrive at 9.30pm.

Finn: Jetlagged, happy to keep it a short meeting.
What started in Hazelwood - Salon and  MtE: I see patterns more and more. Excited how this gathering has grown in maturity! Regarding MtE: I've always thought that MtE was important, and even more so now! I see the difference between what people say and what they do regarding individual and collective perspective. There is so much to do; and it is timely!

Ria: I haven't digested The World Cafe Stewardship Gathering yet, I have blogged a
lot for it. Slept all the way home. I see collective capacity growing.

Finn: The gathering made me realize the importance
of the art of hosting gathering in october.

Ria: next week I have a workshop using systemic constellations on shadow work. Constellations should be followed by real dialogue - I wonder what will come out of that.

Jan: things are steady and easy. No big things on my mind now. My focus for this conversation is on a few practical things such as Forums on enexus, registration, and getting the invitation out. Have we invited everyone we want to invite? And the forums are not in use yet. We have to start using them.

Getting the invitation out
Finn: Personal contacts is the way to get the invitation out. We can make it happen in the next three weeks. 22 september we need to talk with the venue and adjust numbers. I will send invitaions to the World Cafe Stewardship Gathering participants.

Ria: I will resend to hazelwood, es2 and mte participants with the perspectives from our check in to day.

Jan: I'm working on creating an event on OpenBC. Will look further into it together with Ria

Finn: I will make a strategic marketing plan before the next meeting, in order to get focus and sharpness in the invitation work.

Next conference call
Thursday 7 sept 21.00 pm

Check out
Ria: My guest is coming. Bye.

Jan: I have tried to contact a lot of people - i don't hear anything back. complete silence. awaiting holiday seasons to end. the remarkable silence confuses me

Finn: Is there silence and confusion in you?

Jan: Well, maybe there is silence around the 3 areas of deepening enquiry.

Martin: I'm exited about Finn's marketing strategy plans. I would like to meet and work on them together with you.

Finn: Great - when are we going to meet about it?

Conversation concerning Moving the Edge
Inquiring into the middle between us
7 Sept., Tina, Martin E., Finn.

A question of forms (continuing a discussion between Tina and Finn): Is there a hierarchi of forms, moving the edge of the evolution of conscious social systems? Are there things that, e.g., a truly inquiring conversation can do to move this edge that a dance can’t do, even though the dance partners go to their edge in the dance? In emotional, physical, musical work, etc., there is inquiry, and this is a form of inquiry that probably most people have direct access to or engage in. Is there a true hierarchi of forms, or can all forms accomplish the same movement of the edge? If the people engaging in the inquiry are willing to engage the form the choose, can any form then do the work we wish? Is it a false dichotomy to assume these two positions as contradictory? In the inquiry leading to this clarification it became clear that an obstacle in even  addressing the question can be that each of us has invested a lot in the idea that one position is true. It also became clear that if the conversation comes from the perspective of one position being wrong and the other right it can bring up old woundedness. This can make it difficult to engange in the inquiry of what what works now and what can open up the process.

A question of inquiry and holding the perspective of MTE: Due to old experiences from the former gathering the question of whether it is a good idea or not seems repeat a pattern. It seems to be a phase in the process of hosting a MTE gathering. Even though we are open to the possibility that the October gathering of MTE is not real, not something that is meant to be but something that is just in our heads as an automatic follow-up to an important event. Is the October gathering a plan in our heads or is it an inquiry? The moment it becomes a plan that we are carrying through, it loses its quality of attraction among the conveners. Are we in inquiry? The process of making the call be heard is in itself an inquiry. Are we using it well? What needs to clarified in order for us to step into ownership and responsability for inviting to and hosting the gathering?

A question of transparency. Transparency is key. The website needs to reflect where we are in the inquiry, so if there is doubt or insecurity or passion etc., it should be reflected on the website.
A question of logistics and numbers: We are now eight participants. Should we aim at a smaller gathering or should we adjust the venue? We could meet in cottages around Fuglsø and supply the catering ourselves. What is gained/lost by organising differently, thinking differently about it?

Ideas: Getting the fora on Nexus going and inviting specific people to participate in the conversation. Sending the invitation out to new people. Resending an adjusted invitation to people who already got it. What should the adjustment look like? What is the message now? What do we want to communicate? Is the writing style on the website too efficient and confident and cool? Should it radiate more warmth and heart?

Sept. 14, 2006
Jan, Ria, Martin E.

Check-in
Ria and Martin both feel that they haven't had MTE as such a high priority as they thought.

Ria attended a meeting in Switzerland and has decided that embodiment and dancing, i.e., are very important parts of a gathering. Only talking won't do anymore. We need to include non verbal methods to have a more embodied experience. Ria holds this question for our talk tonight: What would we loose by canceling MTE October?

Martin: Really tired these days, trying in many ways to find a job and make a living. MTE is important. It's out of the question for me to cancel, but maybe change the venue - using the cottages at Fuglsø and do our own catering. Would be a very different kind of gathering. I'm in a state of unknowing and really trying to hold this sense of unknowing for a while.

Jan: very tired, in a rollercoaster.

What is the next minimum and elegant step to take?
Jan: MTE has a lot of energy for me but the energy is not moving to DK, but staying in Holland. Feels good for Jan, he needs his energy to be in Holland. Changing the venue is a good option to consider. My energy is kind of out of MTE october. Changing the venue is a good option to consider. I'm is working with the field of MtE; working with Ralph - think, talk and work from a non-dual perspective. The CI is going to the back, and what comes to the front is the awareness. A shift in perspective; busy with the awareness part and the topics we formulated are not on my mind at all now. Busy in Holland to contribute my two cents; I see Ria working in Belgium and Switserland: MtE is spreading very much; it is gaining the collective capacity. Do we need - at this moment - a centralised gathering? In the way we thought about it? So changing the venue is an option, changing the character of the gathering also. Supporting the field of CI: we can still gather and bring each our own stuff and feed each other; and then go back home again. Women MtE: conversations about taking leadership: it pops up in our personal lives also. This field is working on our personal lives; good to move along with it.

Ria: I like this perspective. And there is another aspect: I've come to a point where I need to bring this to the world and make money. Paying for the trip to DK etc. is not possible right now. I'm not sure I will come to DK.

Jan: I can also hardly afford it. Ralph wants to join but can't afford it.

Ria: I like the idea of changing the venue, and I like it when we do experimentation. Changing the venue would givve the gathering more of a festival character. We can make a buffet, taste and get fed.

Martin: There seems to be a pull to change the venue. I'm not sure. The cottages are quite small... if it is cheaper maybe more would like to come.

Jan: BUT: next Friday we need to take a decision; and draw a line. We would need some more people. If it is cheaper Ralph will come; and tomorrow there is CIPI in Holland.

Martin: More of CIPI Denmark will come. We hold the questions: What kind of gathering has life? Do we need the gathering in October? In Denmark the CIPI field is very alive. Meeting once a month + the flow game is going on. We need a longer gathering for ourselves, a gathering where we can meet other people from other fields and get new inspiration in our inquiry.

Question: What might help us to support us in our work? a regular getting together is needed, besides the skype calls. Important to connect with a larger field; the different perspectives; the global field.

Check-out
Martin: We are in a difficult situation but we had a good meeting: keeping the field alive and inquiring in a good way.

Jan: I like to be completely open, not attached to a particular form. Inspiring how active the field is; but in a different way then we envisioned it.

Ria: It is sad already. Good that we are open, not attached, trying to sense deeper.

Next call
Monday at 9pm; Thursday 9.45pm, dependig on what Finn is able to.

Sept. 14, 2006
Jan, Ria, Martin E., Finn

Check in
Finn: I have the transsript from the last call. I see something is out of perspective. I have thought, great, then will will get the perspective back in this call.

One thought that stays with me; since the World Cafe Stewardship - if the WC principles apply to all conversations with an evolutionary perspective - How would you then do that? something big and important to that. relating it with the notes of the last call... discreapncies; something is not in perspective.

Martin: feeling of inadequeteness. i am looking for perspective.

Ria: my not feeling totally engaged was in part of not sensing the overall perspective. couldnt sense it in the web site or in the calls

Jan: energy around MTE has a lot to do with things i do in nl theese days. lost touch - didn't feel the necessity of it. I would like to find ways to connect decentralized things.

Discussion around dissolving the convening team
Finn: A large part of the convening team is not prepared to commit to come to Denmark. We are not the convening team of this gathering.

Ria: This is one perspective. Another one is that the convening team is not alligned.

Jan: Same difference.

Finn: We withdraw as convening team. This is my suggestion. Let's open the question on the website, Martin and I. Let's cancel the October 2006 gathering, but let's do an extended cipi gathering on the same dates and place, inviting others to participate, outside of the cipi network. Let's build on the company of friends in the Danish cipi network.Amd everyone who feels called to join, are invited to join.

Ria: What is in the middle between the four of us? The analysis of us not convening the Oct 2006 gathering is one part. And we did say yes to something, the four of us. What was that. Something is not clear.

Finn: there was a lack of clarity

Ria: yes, there is no convening team of this oct gathering. I miss a deeper listening. We said yes, coming out of the March gathering. We wanted to carry something further. An extended cipi meeting is fine with me. But what you do with CIPI in DK is not my business.

Finn: But you are invited

Ria: The alignment was not clear enough for me

Finn: What are we going to do? The results didn't show up.

Jan: there was action, with results but not the expected results. We have results in Holland.

Jan: We need to keep these initiatives together, and maybe the oct gathering is not the vehicle for that.

Finn: We need to rethink the gathering. It is a meeting of a company of friends. And since they are doing the gathering anyway, they can say: come and join us! Rather than organising an inernational gathering. Let's go with the energy of the company of friends and take it from there.

Jan: MTE march had a real spin off.

Finn: My check in was about the overall connectivity of the initiatives in the world. Nexus is not thought to be 'like' world cafe hosting. This is about applying the cafe principles to a larger conversation. The tables etc. will then not be visible, just like it has been for Finn and A. for ten years. I hope cipi hollland and DK will visit each other - stupid not to!

Finn: I will post on nexus tomorrow to start conversations about cipi experiences.

Ria: I'm sad. Afraid that if this falls away, maybe I don't have much opportunity to evolve in that thinking and sensing, maybe I'm jealous that I don't have a cipi network.

Finn: MTE is not going away. It is an ongoing inquiry. This opens the question: How can it take place. Like in March. We would like to see it again, with people committed to inquiry into CI for four days. And maybe it can happen, we just have to adjust numbers and who will be there. It's not a question about leaving MTE.

Jan: It's about that for me too

Finn: How can these inquiries take place in multiple places. This is not about what I want or any individual wants, we want to create the opportunity for this to happen. Someone has to do it.
Question for reflection: Deepening into the perspective: something is unsaid, something is too fast, something no listened to.

Finn: MTE.org could host the ongoing inquiry, existing networks, plans, history, making the history transparent.

Next skype call
Question for next skype call which will be a reflection-call: What can now be listened to, what has now had time to become clear.

Sunday 1 oct. 2100 o'clock.

Check out
Ria: I feel a rest in my self, we will look into what is not said - this gives me inner quiteness

Finn: Relieved because we have changed what we wanted to do into something do-able without struggle. CI is about the possibility humanity has right now. This takes something we don't have yet, something can maybe gained from CI. It should be out of love for the perspective, and not to just follow the plan.

Jan: I feel relief also. Powerful to let go of a form we thougth was the right.

Martin: I'm excited about the clarity right now. Maybe there is also some unclarity in me about going to fast.

10 structure-enhancing actions that intensify the life and wholeness of a thing, according to Ch. Alexander

 (1) step-by-step adaptation;

(2) each step helping to enhance the whole;

(3) always making centers;

(4) allowing steps to unfold in the most fitting order;

(5) creating uniqueness everywhere;

(6) Working to understand the needs of clients and users ;

(7) evoking and being guided by deep feeling of the whole:

(8) finding coherent geometric order;

(9) establishing a form language that arises from and shapes the thing being made;

(10) always striving for a simplicity by which the thing becomes more coherent and pure.

 

Alexander claims that, when thoroughly understood and practically mastered, these steps, always interconnected and overlapping, will contribute unfailingly to a living process that, at each stage in its development, “always starts from the wholeness as it currently exists at that moment. At the next moment, we take a new step—introducing one new bit of structure (always composed of new, living, centers) into the whole. The new structure may be large, medium, or tiny; it may be physical or abstract; it may occur on the land itself or in a person’s mind, or in the collective understanding of a group of people.

 

But the point is that at every state of every life-creating process, the new bit of structure which is injected to transform and further differentiate the previously existing wholeness, will always extend, enhance, intensify the structure of the previous wholeness by creating further and stronger, living centers…. The structure-enhancing step, which again and again intensifies one center and creates ‘hooks’ to other new centers, might even be called the fundamental process” (vol. 2, p. 216).

Source: http://www.arch.ksu.edu/seamon/Alexander_orderall.htm

Online space as Sacred space

March 16th Gizmo conference call notes and reflections
Participants: Ria, George, Ashley

"What is the field calling for?" in relation to an online space?

Below is what unfolded as we focused in on what is calling, what is emerging, how we are connected, …

We held in our awareness that:
The most inspiring outcome that we could imagine would be that each person felt truly seen and heard for the wisdom that they bring to the group and that the connections between us would be strengthened, forming coherent bonds and the beginnings of a trusting collective that is inspired to work together. If we show up in the call with a passionate curiosity for each other's wisdom, talents, and how we can combine them for meeting our significant challenges, we WILL realize that potential, no doubt.

It has been named that we currently have 2 entities, there is the nexus-site-as-it-exists-right-now -- the life and shape that it has, the audience that is engaging it. Then, there is the vision-nexus-site-as-it-could-be -- a sacred online space available to serve the evolutionary edge and individuals and groups that feel called to be connected to it and one another (or something like that). And there is a HUGE gap between the two.

The current purpose of our togetherness (online, with voice, and in person) is to deepen our vision of what could be, sharing with one another the insight, wisdom, and inquiries that we know to be important, dreaming together the greatest thing we could imagine, resting in silent stillness, letting go of our expectations and attachments, sensing what is emerging, and collaborating to give form to that which is alive with essence.

We are guided by our personal life callings and synergistic connections with the Nexus mission. What is your life work calling you to do? Is there a relationship with the Nexus mission? How do our individual visions give way to a shared intention?

We intend to embrace deep engagement with each other’s vision and a generative conversation for discovering and supporting our highest potential, individual and collective.

We are learning how to work together, listening with curiosity to each other's voices, seeing with new eyes what wants to emerge. Inviting creativity, boldness, passion, and fun we move forward with a sense of responsibility and integrity, our attention is aligned with a larger whole. We notice that when we sense into the whole, the practical wisdom arises without our added doing effort.

Some questions and observations: What are the needs of the community? Are we paying attention and responding? How do we hold and create and then invite into a sacred space? How do we imagine a sacred space? 'Our personal life callings' are the other side of the same coin of 'what are the needs of the community/world?' Whatever the needs of the community are or not, we can only bring our personal life calling, our own passion, nothing else! And it turns out that the world needs it; great!

We are committed to honoring as much as we can the integrity of the emerging social field of evolutionary transformation, and from that place of mindfulness experimenting with the best ways we can connect our minds and hearts, and accelerate our individual and collective evolution.

We acknowledge that co-inquiry into mutually inspiring questions would be a great contribution to our collective intelligence and wisdom. Perhaps this is the core of our togetherness practice: Co-inquiry into mutually inspiring questions. Perhaps to begin with we only play with questions that are mutually inspiring to those who are present and let that be the Guide for our rhythm and agendas. That feels juicey!

Do you resonate with anything that you are reading here? Do you feel called to join us in these conversations (online or on the calls)? The next online call has yet to be scheduled but we would love to hear your thoughts, insights or inquiries here or at the experimental wiki.

Women leadership in creating online sacred space

Ria, Ashley & Sheri – April 1, 2006
Skype call – Notes initially by Sheri with additions by Ashley and Ria.

Initially this call was convened to hear Ashley share about the girl geeks gathering. It grew into Ria sharing more about the evolution of Moving the Edge and how some of these threads wove into the Boulder gathering. Each of these circles and gatherings are distinct, with different characteristics, and different momentums in terms of their own unfolding and how that can be expressed. We want to acknowledge this piece as a way of not trying to find just the threads that are weaving and that we are discovering between them all, but as a way of seeing how their differences can ultimately serve the whole of our evolutionary community. This is a conversation that is just beginning.

Entering into our meditation space, what are some words or themes:

Women’s leadership
Sacred online space

Image offered by Ashley that we shared going into our meditation:

SILENCE

CHECK-IN
Ashley – just come out of two days being sick; one day back into my school world. No reflection of the girls gathering yet. Excited about this call to do some of that. Thankful for your invitation Ria. So much attention is on my stomach…stomach is hard….gravitating down there. Interesting centering of everything in that field of my body.

Ria – had a day with Andrew Cohen: …good, inspiring. New insights were dropping down on me. I’m really curious about what you girls did last weekend. Finished a phone call with Judy Wallace (US) from moving the edge, doing a study on conscious evolution and she’s making a paper and she was asking me to reflect on MtE for her paper… full of good energy.

Sheri – How to communicate when we are not together? The different circles and the different contexts? To find my place, as a woman; wanting deep dialogue; holding space for our evolution together… thrilled and exited.

We each attended a different gathering recently:…boulder, moving the edge, girl gathering….

IMAGE ON OUR SCREEN REMINDING US: This image of jelly fish and its lessons on transparency and vulnerability and the silent invitation.

GiGi’s – Girl Geeks, Ashley

There were 8 of us present and the idea was to come with the awareness of: What is the role of the feminine in online space? With the awareness of the world café at the forefront, but bigger than WC, how it applies in each of our worlds… This type of invitation around one specific purpose that connects to many larger purposes kept resurfacing in our gathering, noted as a powerful way to invite.

And invitations in general. What is the art of invitation? When feminine essence is infused in an invitation it reaches into heart space, into relational space. In that theme of inviting, we found a lot of power.
I invite you to look at the picture created in our space on the first night
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78084501@N00/119916396/
…I’ll use it to explain where we were coming from and what was emerging for us that first day.

We came with a big YES. And then a dam broke! (see pictures)
The dam broke and the computer and keyboard are there, and the eyeball is a globe.
There was this big blockage against the relation of everything that is unfolding, that is CI, and all the memes, and how all that feeds into the online world and technology. So in the first day, we were sharing the stories of how we all came to this and discovering little pieces of knowledge we have about tech and other such stuff. There was a real sense of something being birthed and we were unclear about what that was. I think that is something powerful about the feminine, its capacity to hold the presence of something birthing but not needing to know what it is and not rushing to fill in the space. In this case (the picture) it's a pomegranate. Swirling and electricity. There is not the hurry to go in and DO and make clear and make known… it is as if what is emerging and the unknown empty space has to incubate. Letting that unfold.

Here's the final drawing:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=119916552&size=o

Powerful concept: the role of the feminine for bridging.

Bridging capacity for dualities, for conflicts: Social systems and social networks and process arts and relation to tech. All these dualities kept showing up and the vision of how we see them going together. Seeming impossible. The online world actually is helping to train people to be more present in the face to face world. We were really sinking into what are our roles as bridges, bridging capacity. Then a raven landed, as we emphasized this piece, the raven opened its wing, dropped a bone and cleaned it.

Cleansing in service of bridging

As we’re at a place of so many different memes and modalities, there’s a need to include and embrace that which is most essential and transcend that which needs to be transcended. The place of cleansing: we often don’t recognize what needs to let go. We often grasp what we need to let go! Cleansing in service of bridging and honoring the wholeness.

See the graphic image: the dam… it was beautiful and whole as a dam. It was needed for whatever reasons to exist as a dam. And it needed to be broken through. The need to be attentive to what needs to be cleansed. To what we’re holding on to. What we’re clutching instead of embracing and discerning what really is in service now for the greatest good. In other times, the dam was essential. And yet now, it no longer serves us…..but it needed to be there.

ATTACHMENT

Another piece, and this piece I really centered around The World Café … I really value about TWC how it brings aesthetics in, it invites and shows people how to do these things (visually express ourselves) in new ways, easy ways. And hosting, TWC offers an on the spot beginning intro into being a host. People get to experience that and learn tips for doing it. I value the experiential teaching that is being offered through those two pieces.

The presence of heart. The feminine of heart. We are not just the presence of heart, we are guides for heart. There’s a lot of openness and readiness to receive the feminine flowing through, there also needs to be that complementing guiding/direction orientedness (masculine) on how to actually engage and be with in new ways. The women who were there have strong masculine aspects as well, we had that integrated in a way.


Another thing I valued was that Juanita was interested in how does the technology effect the largest population. How does technology reach every day people?

Nancy gave us a tour about tools that are already out there, that already exist: Flickr, tagging. Fernanda and I were exploring the relationship between tagging and taxonomy of content. TOC is defined already and tagging is evolving, everyone is creating them. So you can follow what the greatest whole is defining and have the taxonomy. The balance of those two.

BEAUTY

We talked a lot about beauty. Nancy W. had only been the one working on the drawing and then during the conversation about beauty 4 more people joined. It birthed new capacities. On one of the walks, we explored "what is the essence of beauty?", listening and paying attention to reflections in the natural world. How do these things translate into online world? symbols and metaphors. How can we be as generic as possible and yet as evocative as possible?

Beauty online

One of the valuable things was to surf the web together. Getting a group of people together, really starting an exploration into beauty online together. Meeting regularly. Last easily amazed meditation…images, were the language of the meditation. Deepen that conversation.

Beauty – bridging and cleansing…

Beauty as it relates to other means of expression….i can feel it when I stumble upon it.

Biggest thing that birthed – the whole that we could finally name was recognizing that we see the potential for creating some sort of common language in online space that links all of these evolutionary and process oriented arts, that are weaving into this same vibrant whole. So looking at the open space world and world café and evolutionary salons and evolutionary nexus, moving the edge. What if there is a common language online? What if they use the same symbols?

Ria named it: WE ARE BUILDING AN ONLINE CULTURE.

At the end we tried to define our guiding inquiry:

THE FEMININE STEWARDSHIP OF TECHNOLOGY IN SERVICE TO COMMUNITY….and then we took off community to be more inclusive, and then we added it back and added relationships, and left it that it was evolving!

Ria – Moving the Edge

What touched me most is the building of this online culture. You named it common language. I wrote something about this: Beyond events. What we are doing or learning or creating is a collective capacity that is not just related to these salons and the next gathering. It’s a growing of a culture of a community, a big community of people who are inventing their language and habits and…. like starting with silence and using the bell, working with the talking stick. Finn calls it social technologies.

And it’s great that beauty comes in. In MTE we made a beginning with bringing in movement and dance. First we spoke about it, at a certain moment it just happened. It was natural that it happened. That will become part of the culture too.

The other learning from MTE: the ‘success’ of the gathering is in a large part due to the convening of the hosting team who was a really a collective being, which kind of opened up and embracing all participants but it was actually one flow. On the 3rd day in the afternoon, it was magic! As a hosting team, the first evening we did this kind of reflecting back like we did in the salon: How was the day and how will we facilitate the next day? We decided not to facilitate and to just let the field work. So the leadership was there for everybody. A lot of things happened in the group, little pieces of emotions and pains and things like that and it was all possible to have it in the container. The second evening people were asking: Are we having a meeting about facilitation? I don’t know, but you are already the 5th person to ask, so maybe it is. There was a facilitating meeting with everyone who felt called to go there, but not Finn or I. It was a big shift.

The next day Finn announced world café, we had tables, flowers and then something happened and again we were sitting in the big circle and giving it attention. In the afternoon this real CircleBeing, came to life. It was magic. This kind of listening to the middle, speaking to the middle with nobody saying so and everyone did.

That too is building a collective capacity, building a culture of how can we be really a collective. How can we have such a big container that everything can happen what needs to happen.

Peggy has some hand motions for these things. We talked about a container with our hands as a bowl, and then flat and that’s a field, and then hands behind our back, because we don’t really need them.

Building of an online culture: What do we do to create this culture, to bridge the different languages? to connect these communities? Back to the bridging!
Every community builds its own culture. When we have gatherings, rituals, own language, own symbols; that’s what makes it a community.

Ashley - Two things that jumped to me in regards to that are:

1. Peggy’s insight to follow the energy that is present!
2. Anne Dosher inviting us to ask: What are the minimal, elegant next steps?

Sheri – Boulder Sacred Circle

I am a bridge weaver and I love this image that you shared Ashley of the bridging work that women are doing. I feel this energy. I am still in the gestation and integration phase of my experience in Boulder and it was so rich and deep that I need to reflect and perhaps write more before I can share as clearly as both of you have done. We are starting to do this. Eric has begun this process and I have been inspired to join by writing up a deeper reflection piece. We have a sacred circle wiki that is beginning and we are doing the initial gardening and nurturing together and I see the fruits of our time together being shared with our larger community as things move further in the birthing process. Your description Ashley of how the feminine holds the patience of the birthing process and the patience to suspend wanting to know what is happening and what should we be doing feels so alive for me and was a strong theme in Boulder. This dance between the doing and the being and the unfolding of something we are creating and birthing together. The role of the women holding space and how we are learning how to all do this holding in the online building of our cultures. I am seeing these connections between all of our different cultures and communities. The power I feel is how we really begin to share our “best practices” and our learnings through these birthing processes together. I will also share that I am not always sure about how to hold space and what happens when I feel alone in doing this. And how perhaps that is when I must be even more patient with myself during this birthing.

Ashley – sensing into all that I heard and felt from you Sheri, and this that you last spoke of, opening into what is holding space and what is clutching and holding on too tight? Playing with that duality, and the presence of what’s behind the deep emotion. They are touching something so potent and powerful that when we allow them out, we allow that power out into the whole.

Ria - Holding space when you were/are not part of the convening and hosting team is probably not really possible…

Our connection felt out/sensed into:

“A collective being … feeling its vulnerability in the manifest world and staying connected beyond..”

Ria – this is so rich this conversation! I’m trying to sense what is in the middle?

Holding
Birthing
New life forms
Birth pains

Feeling the center within me and how that center is the same as the center of we…. the middle of me is the middle of the whole…

Holding the space, the bridging of the dualities. Holding space big enough so that dualities can be in it and can be embraced.

That connects in with my image: The bridge that is the connection between the center of me and the whole that is the same…

Awareness of women’s role: is changing in this birth process and a great, exponential kind of responsibility for holding space for this..

Feeling it all fluttering through…

Birthing process for ourselves: I don’t know who I am and I’m in love with who I’m becoming…

This culture that is birthing itself and how in love I am what is becoming!!

A big lesson is releasing some of the stress of what you’ve been holding, that emotional release of holding space and a real letting go of trying. I don’t feel attached to trying to create anything with nexus…and yet I’m so passionately in love with this opportunity to create. Follow the energy that’s present and that’s flowing. And not push against and force where it doesn’t get us anywhere.

Not trying, but a flowing!

This brings me great insight into how I hold my own dissonance and how I can bridge the dualities I experience. And to flow with the river. I can not push or try, I can flow. And move around the large boulder in the stream. And I love what Ashley said about maybe stopping and sitting with the boulder as well and basking in the sun might be a great thing to try as well. I love this image. It allows me to be free to love what is, moment by moment.

Thank you ladies!

Wish List

Here is a beginning collated wish list for the Evolutionary Nexus site. 

There are two good ways to incorporate your suggested improvements to this page:

1. edit the page directly to contribute a change to the proposal
2. use the "add new comment" feature to talk about your ideas and/or the reasoning behind the changes you make.

Please do not simply delete items. We have to come up with a good way to prioritize.

1. General

• Bookmarks (at comment or topic level or wiki page)
• More profile info such as phone # and location (also bio, files such as resume, link to home page). There's a profile.module built in, and another one with different capabilities - http://drupal.org/project/members
  
• Clarify read/write auth controls and policy
• Very obvious visual clues to tell you whether you're on a wiki page, forum, blog, etc.
• Replace or supplement the current taxonomy with open tagging capability, like del.icio.us or Flickr
• RSS/Atom feeds for blogs, forums, wiki RecentChanges, etc.

1a. Navigation

• Capitalize links in upper-left nav consistently
• Organize nav in additional dropdown groups:
• Recent Activity links (hits, top users, top pages, referrers, posts)
• Blog links (Salon blog, My blog, Member blogs (which lists blog authors by name))
• Admin links (items like "image galleries" that are only for admins should not be visible to other users)
• "Create content" goes to a nice page that has links for creating the various content types; why is "blog entry" given privileged status as a dropdown item in the nav?
• Maybe group my blog and my subscriptions under My Account?

2. Search

• Search should cover the forums!
• Structured search (range control; poster name; date; boolean; quoted strings; etc.)

3. Forums (many of these items are also relevant to wiki pages and their replies)

• Condensed view option: indented title list or VERY brief excerpts
• Sequence option: new entries last (suggest this be the default)
• Default anon access or other as decided, but have a default that is not "no access"! See Forums open to whom?
  
• Nesting topics
• Uploaded files linked within posting
• Inline images
• This is already possible. Just click on the 'Insert/edit image' button in the edit window. --Floris
  
• Avatars (poster can can turn their own on/off; viewer can toggle all)
• "Next New" button to move in series through new postings
• Mass "Mark as Seen"
• Ability to print topic, subtree, range, or individual comment

4.Wiki (also see Wikifying Drupal)

• Ability to link to wiki pages by name (rather than only by URL) - WikiWords and Brackets to make links. (done!)
  
• Linking to pages that don't exist yet (a powerful way we do inquiry in wiki) (done!)
  
• Backlinks (something you can click on to see a list of the pages that link to the current page)
• Naked URLs become links (done via urlfilter)
  
• A list of Recent Changes to the wiki (a block of changes to Book nodes should do it)
• Linking by name to other Drupal pages - e.g. user pages, forums, blogs (coming...)
  
• Access to earlier versions of a page, and a way to see what's been changed (aka diff)
• You can already see the different 'revisions' (tab at top of page). Real 'diff' viewing could be possible by using the diff module: http://drupal.org/project/diff --Floris
• Not seeing a revisions tab. Maybe only visible to admins?
  
• An easy way to embed images (in most wikis, the URL to an image embeds the image)
• Wiki markup for bullet points, horizontal bars italics/bold, etc. - this would be in addition to, not instead of, the wysiwyg thing already installed, and would makes pasting from other wikis much easier.

5. IM/Chat/IRC

• Integrated IM or IRC function: with email defaults off and the time lags in delivering contact mail, there's no easy way to contact people online
• Could be possible with the chatbox module: http://drupal.org/project/chatbox --Floris
  

6. Subscriptions

• Email alerts at customizable frequency
• Digest or full item formats

7. Homepage

• News

8. Library

• Hierarchical folders
• Column sorting
• Metadata (filename, title, file type, name of poster, date, size, comment)

9. Admin

• User activity, posts, pages by time period (e.g., how many this week, month, cumulative?)
• A real bug database!
• Will all admins etc. please consider turning email contact "on" (go to 'my account', then to 'edit'. Scroll down to the 'Personal contact form' and check it on)
• capability to move subtree from one forum/topic to another (good for keeping threads on topic, also for archiving completed requests)

10. Calendar

 

A little history of ENexus

The  little History of ENexus (as seen through Ria’s eyes)

The idea of ENexus was born in the head of George, a long time ago. In the months and weeks running up to Evolutionary Salon 2 it became more into reality, Ria supported the idea and in an email conversation Finn said he would love to join.
George and Ria did some co-Presencing work on it between Christmas and New Year. In the mean time George was doing most of the practical work to have the site up and running just in time when the Salon started.
It was only on the Salon itself that the three of us were able to meet in person. We talked most on the relationship between EvoNexus.org and EvoNexus.com, as a possible form to get money into the system.

Then the Salon took over! We engaged ourselves during the Salon and after; and ‘forgot’ how to be or become a true collective.
There was a meeting scheduled with the techies and one with the stewards, which happened to be most women. But there was no building up of the hosting collective.
Finn, George and Ria had some forum conversations on Principles and Commitment, but for Ria it was ‘too heady’. This conversation died and the outburst of activity in the first weeks after the Salon slowly diminished…

Finn wrote on Febr.8th:
“I would rather focus on the few principles that are specific to who we are, our work, at this time. That would be the principles that we discover "in the flow", and that we surface and give voice to become aware of them. Right now the principle "slow down" may have some value.”

Ria wrote on the same day:
"radical trust" and "listening to the middle" could also be good principles.

We wrote it, but we didn’t live up to it.

Then there was an email message from Bill (proposing an agenda for a next stewards meeting, nobody responded), an email from Ashley (asking for more response) and finally a big letter from Tree, the heartkeeper for the next Salon.

Finally I heard it and could step out of the little box I had placed myself in.

slow down – radical trust – listening to the middle

not just George, Ria and Finn;
but with everybody who cares for the mission and vision of ENexus

I started with a call with Ashley:

Highlights from a call between Ashley and Ria:
(Sunday March 5th, 2006)

We began by starting in silence with the awareness of a line from the EvoNexus mission statement: "Sensing from and acting on the biggest context"

Ria noted that the habit of starting our real time engagements in silence could be carried over into the online space. We noted the importance of silence for emergence. We also noted the importance of simplicity in online space.

Ria noted the need for a collective to hold space for a bigger collective.
Much of the conversation returned to this idea of a collective, needed to meet regularly (regular phone calls) and coming to know itself as a collective and working/generating together.
We noted the need for clear intentions. "How can we bring this into being" . . . ‘this’ being the mission and vision of the site. An invitation to be a collective, consciously listening to what is emerging and giving voice to it.

Pattern of hosting:
We agreed on adapting the format of weekly phone conversations  (as used by the ES3 hosting team and the Moving the Edge team), which invites all the stewards that are interested in participating to show up on a weekly call and then in that space we sense into what is calling, and when there are action steps to be taken, those who feel called will steward those projects. . .

We explored the notion of starting with (a part of) an online space that has all of the qualities that we want right now. And then, as it grows and matures, the bells and whistles that we think are most valuable can be added. By qualities we mean the essence of what the space is, not the content structures that it supports (like a place for information, news, conversation, etc).

4 main lines or essential parts of being were defined:
1. A site that is beautiful, warm, inviting (user friendly and seducing to come back), simple, honors silence
2. A place where knowledge is shared and that is searchable
3. A site that is sustainable... money: Awareness of time, effort, and energy spent.
4. A site that facilitates relational connections and engagement
These are all aspects of hosting.
The community of stewards will need to look at all 4 and integrate them!

Ashley talked about the process of vision becoming manifested reality and Ria said how the physical is always more slow than the thinking and visioning... and we have to pay attention to the presence of such things as emotions. We looked at the process of bringing this site into being as similar to the vision growing a body.

An exciting idea that came after the call (Ashley in conversation with Thomas) was that prior to entering into the forums (the area where the most conversation and dialogue occurs) there could be a screen whose only words are "We invite you to rest in a moment of silence, connecting with the collective presence of this space." or something like that.
 

Community Roles

Here is a proposed design for a set of community roles to support a rich future for the Evolutionary Nexus site. 

A sufficient number of people have to show up to do some critical amount of work in all these functions for the site to succeed. Some people, naturally, may be active in multiple functions.

There are two good ways to incorporate your suggested improvements to this page:

1. edit the page directly to contribute a change to the proposal
2. if you are unsure of how to do that, post your additions as a comment and ask someone to integrate it in the table

To talk about your ideas, questions about the roles,  and/or the reasoning behind the changes you make, please use the Community Roles topic of the Community Facilitation and Roles forum.

Evolutionary Nexus Site Roles

 
Members

Read and create content

Visitors

Read content of blogs and wikis

Co-initiation Team

This role is sometimes referred to as the "owners," which is misleading because a community can be cared for by the founders but not "owned."

Typically, the founding team is responsible for:

• Drafting community agreements, principles, source documents, and manage the process of collaborative updating them

• Making decision about development issues that concern the integrity of the community and its platform, until organs of the community's self-governance take over that role

• Collecting, managing and allocating resources that the community needs for its development

Community Architect

• Develops the initial segmentation of the community's virtual space. Using the available platform features,. s/he designs  and configure special-purpose structures to support various community functions, e.g: document archives, workspaces, polls, online classrooms, etc.

• Makes recommendations regarding the structure of the community and its relation with its fractal-like subcommunities.

• Advises the community on specific issues related to, for example, trade-offs between various technical solutions inn terms of their impact on the community and its members.

• Works with the cybrarians, coaches, facilitators, admins, and others to continually improve harmony of all of functions.

• Conitnually improves site  navigation - creates a menu structure that will minimize  the number of steps a member has to take to reach a desired destination.

Developers/Webmaster

• Respond to bug/feature requests in forums -- first, a human response to let the requester know they have been heard, then doing whatever's needed to put the request into the pending work pool(s).

• Install modules

• Fix bugs

• Write new code

• Interface with Drupal dev community and other dev communities as needed

Admins

• Manipulate site setup parameters including look & feel & other defaults

• Turn features on & off

• Add/delete user IDs

• Escalate to developers as needed

Facilitators

The social host or "host as innkeeper" is the most well-known online facilitation model originating out of long time discussion communities like The Well, Electric Minds and Salon Table Talk. As a dinner host brings together the elements of a successful party, a social host helps create an environment where the members feel comfortable to participate. Part conversationalist, part counselor, part role model and sometimes even part bouncer. They are also usually part of the conversation. (from Nancy's site)

Cybrarians

Cybrarians represent the gift of knowledge and information. They are "topical" experts. Cybrarians help members find information internally and externally of the community. They organize information and make it accessible. And they stimulate interaction with the introduction of or pointer to new and relevant information. (from Nancy's site)

Content Stewards

• Add/delete forums

• Create/move/copy/xref topics and posts as needed to maintain coherenceˆ

•Archive completed requests

Site Coaches

Help novice users learn to work with the site, monitor and respond to requests for help.

The Town Council
The emergence of governance structures in online groups has given rise to roles that approximate those of "mayor" or "town council." Whether elected, appointed or self-appointed, this type of facilitator generally operates based on a set of community rules or norms. Again, the more explicit the norms and expectations, the easier to fill this role.  (from Nancy's site)

Great collection on further resources on community roles and other online facilitation topics at Nancy's  site:

http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communityfacilitation.htm

Continuous site improvement and