Eric-
Thanks for this and the later notes on this topic.
Eric Armstrong wrote:
>
> Paul Fernhout wrote:
> >
> > If corporations now doing IT have the major goal of profit as opposed
> > to "meeting unmet social needs" (to quote William C. Norris)
> > http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/update/william_norris.html
> > then corporations whether they do IT or KM are irrelevant to human
> > survival.
> >
> I really, really like that point.
> Along with several others you've made, quite eloquently.
Thanks.
> Requesting focus on goals/purpose is an extradorinarily good thing,
> in my view. And it beggars the imagination to think that we really
> haven't done so.
Yes.
Although, I do think the early colloquium presenters did focus on some
specific problems i.e. energy (if not solutions, rather than a few
specific learning organizations). I guess this is all a delayed reaction
on further reflection to those seeds. That is, I am not saying the
issues raised were not real, just that they may not be the "difficult"
problems we face given exponential technological change.
> By way of example: I have a vision in my head of a small, virtually
> self-supporting community that grows organic everything and has
> streets without sidewalks that kids can play in.
>
> Inside the homes in this rural paradise, there are advanced-
> technology communication and collaboration systems, through
> which much of the interaction with the outside world occurs.
>
> In the center of the community is a dance and music hall, where
> people get toether to entertain each other and socialize.
>
> The vision doesn't go much beyond that. But it is fascinating
> to think that if the vision for what we/I need/want is something
> like that, then the appropriate focus for our/my efforts may
> just be something completely different!
Regarding the idea you outlined, you might want to look at cohousing
ideas as a start.
http://www.cohousing.org/
http://www.cohousing.org/faq.html
Although I think a hard to deal with issue in cohousing (or any other
"intentional community" is the perennial one of how to manage conflict
and equity in a small group of people who share some level of ownership
of something. Always the question (fear) is what to do with the mean
smelly lazy violent etc. person who moves in? However, that is an
extreme. More subtle questions are always present (like disagreements
over how something is to be done or to what level of quality.)
There may be some difficult (or impossible) to manage size in between
family in one house (with family dynamics) and village of separate
houses (with laws and village dynamics). One could also put "apartment
building" in the village model I guess, although perhaps there is a
dynamic that the closer you live to a neighbor the more you ignore them
for privacy sake?
So in that sense, perhaps an eco-village is closer to what you outline.
http://www.google.com/search?q=ecovillage
Just one example from that list, "Dancing Rabbit" in MO:
http://www.dancingrabbit.org/
(picked because you mentioned dancing!)
From that page:
> Imagine a small rural town or village, set upon a hill amid prairies and
> woods. Imagine life there flowing in harmony with the earth. Imagine the
> people who live there cooperating and caring about each other,
> embracing a diversity of social, economic, and spiritual lifestyles and
> values. Imagine all kinds of people coming there to learn and see that
> there is a way for humans to do good for our planet instead of harm.
In any case, perhaps OHS/DKR technology to support the existing network
of these communities could be of benefit?
You also wrote:
> In other words, to pick the right hammer, you've got to size
> up the nail.
Or to pick the right tool, you need to know the problem. Gary has made
several good points on this related to the scale a tool should solve
being related to it's design, and I haven't had time to respond to those
yet.
-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com
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