NC Engineering Center - ©2010 Pat Appleson Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used By PermissionTerry Bledsoe opened the meeting by discussing the reasoning behind the creation of the Future Economy Council, what it is all about, and what collaborative efforts that have taken place in relation to other groups throughout the community. Terry introduced Dave as an Expert from outside of our community that would discuss ideas that have been talked about by the Future Economy Council.
Rick Smyre next spoke in introducing Dave Baldwin who he met at the World Future Society Conference several years ago. He stated that Dave is very involved in biotechnology and building networks around economic development. Dave is focused on taking diverse people with diverse ideas and understand that we are shifting from an age based on standard ideas, hierarchies, and predictability to a world of webs, networks, and multiple choices, as well as becoming comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.
Dave began by speaking about how Technology has given us the ability to connect with others instantly. Networking is not about collecting business cards. It is about relationships, intentions, and using the network. He stated that you have to have a context about network development. Why are you creating this network? He categorizes his business as a microenterprise. He states that that is where the economy is going to grow. He helped start a seven county biotech consortium in northeast Ohio. They are looking to attract a biotech workforce and preparing asset and attraction strategies to attract people who want to start biotech companies in Ohio.
Dave talked about his consultant relationship with Dublin, Ohio, which is on of the Seven Intelligent Communities of the World - (in 2010 those cities are as follows) - Arlington County, VA; Dublin, Ohio; Dundee, Scotland; Eindhoven, Netherlands; Ottawa, Ontario; Suwon, South Korea; Tallinn, Estonia. This is based on capacity and use of broadband. They want Dave to develop network connections in Dublin.
Communities bring Dave in to build, grow, and sustain networks. These communities are looking to extend connections between communities to resources that they never thought were necessary or available to them. These networks are brought in in the spirit of innovation and growth.
NEXT BIG ECONOMIC CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
IT & Innovation Foundation in Washington, DC. There are industries that are gone and aren't going to come back. Our strategies for investing in these is not appropriate. This foundation has identified a new economy and they have created new indicators of prosperity and growth in dealing with where the economy and world are headed.
They state that the U.S. economy and, by extension, state economies, face at least five key challenges over the course of the next decade. How well they meet these challenges and turn them into opportunities largely will determine whether the national and state economies will be growing and robust in the next decade or stagnant:
* Achieve the promise of the digital revolution
* Ride the next wave of innovation
* Build on the transition to a low carbon economy
* Take advantage of the new globalization
* Build on more balanced regional growth
Overall, the report uses twenty-nine indicators, divided into five categories that best capture what is new about the New Economy:
* Knowledge Jobs
* Globalization
* Economic Dynamism
* Transformation to a Digital Economy
* Technological Innovation Capacity
Dave mentioned a company involved in this new economy that is centers around Biomimedics and Biomimicry.
Biomimicry - Biomimicry is the science and art of emulating Nature's best biological ideas to solve human problems. The Biomimicry Institute promotes learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs.
20th Century Innovations - (From: 21st Century Innovations by Eugene S. Meieran, Senior Intel Fellow at Intel Corp in Chandler, AZ as they appeared in “Grand Challenges for Engineering” of the National Academy of Engineering)
Electrification, Automobile, Airplane, Water supply and distribution, Electronics, Radio and television, Agricultural mechanization, Computers, Telephone, Air conditioning/refrigeration, Interstate highways, Space flight, Internet Imaging, Household appliances, Health technologies, Petrochemical technology, Laser and fiber optics, Nuclear technologies, High-performance materials.
21st Century Innovations - (From: 21st Century Innovations by Eugene S. Meieran, Senior Intel Fellow at Intel Corp in Chandler, AZ as they appeared in “Grand Challenges for Engineering” of the National Academy of Engineering)
Energy conservation, Resource protection, Food and water productions and distribution, Waste management, Education and learning, Medicine and prolonging life, Security and counter-terrorism, New technology, Genetics and cloning, Global communication, Traffic and population logistics, Knowledge sharing, Integrated electronic environment, Globalization, AI-interfaces and robotics, Weather prediction and control, Sustainable development, Entertainment, Space exploration, Virtualization and VR, Preservation of history, Preservation of species.
*** Dave stated that the above issues pose challenges, but they also hold the key to growth, prosperity, and a lot of excitement. Are we chasing the past or investing in the future?
Ideas of a Smart World
(“Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas” by Richard Ogle. Harvard Business School Press 2007)
An idea space is a domain or world viewed from the perspective of the intelligence embedded in it, intelligence that we can use – consciously or not – both to solve our everyday problems and to make the creative leaps that lead to breakthrough. Creative leaps arise not from exclusively internal operations of the individual mind (genius or otherwise), but from navigating the ideas of the smart world we have built for ourselves; locating the powerful, structured forms of intelligence embedded in them; and analogically transferring these to new spaces.
*** Dave stated that A lot of ideas come from the world through "collective intelligence." Networks promote "speed of change" and an ability to share information and an accumulate and build on information that the world has come to know without having to think it or learn it all by ourselves.
Critical Community Conversations
In many communities, it’s hard to find any effective civic process. There are no places where people come together routinely to discuss issues of common concern, like building a new community center or improving our schools. As we move our communities and regions to the Second Curve economy, we will need more vibrant, flexible and focused civic processes. We will need new ways of coming together to explore complex issues. We will need new places where we can routinely convene to explore new opportunities. We will rely on trusted conveners to help us. We will need new networks, yet building these networks should not be haphazard.
In the command and control world of the First Curve, conversation is regarded largely as a distraction…First Curve leaders often think of conversation as “just talk”. On the Second Curve, conversation plays a much more central role. Through conversation, we make sense of what is happening. The complexity of the change defies easy understanding… We need to test our assumptions and make adjustments… We have no way to ask the world to slow down or stop while we engage in a deliberate and lengthy strategic planning process. (“New Models of Economic Development” White Paper Version 0.5 by Ed Morrison, Director of I-Open – The Institute for Open Economic Networks. May 2006)
***Dave stated that we have been doing this through the FEC. In the past we focused so much on productivity and efficiency. In the 21st century, we need to talk to one another and build our communities. Community and economic development have blended. We need to build relationships through networking. In the past conversation was viewed as a distraction.
Bridging Disparate Worlds
Technology brokers have discovered how to bridge the disparate worlds they move among outside their boundaries, and how to build new ventures from the technologies and people they come across. In the process, they have developed four intertwined work practices that help them do this:
1)Capturing good ideas
2)Keeping ideas alive
3)Imagining new uses for old ideas
4)Putting promising concepts to the test
***Dave talked about the disparate worlds that he is involved in and how he is educating himself about these different industries and how it makes him valuable to other entities, because of what he has to offer.
The 4 Laws of Networks
1) Luck = consciousness x transparency
2) Innovation = learning x diverse connections
3) Influence = credibility x location
4) Network growth = introductions x generosity
*** Dave stated that he and his colleague Jack Ricchiuto (Designing Life) are designing community development strategies and structures for participation. The old way was very cloistered and secretive, because of hyper-competition. Networking Science shows that it is best to collaborate, because there are many ways that we can collaborate without competing.
Effective Networks - Boards are becoming tired structures for organizational change. They don't involve the richness of the other parts of the network and don't respond fast enough to the changes in communities and organizations that we are seeing.
Five general patterns are observed in all effective networks:
1. Birds of a feather flock together - nodes link together because of common attributes, goals
or governance.
2. Diversity is important. Though clusters form around common attributes and goals, vibrant networks maintain connections to diverse nodes and clusters. A diversity of connections is required to maximize innovation in the network.
3. Rich Connections - Robust networks have several paths between any two nodes. If several nodes or links are damaged or removed, other pathways exist for uninterrupted information flow between the
remaining nodes.
4. Some nodes are more prominent than others – they are either hubs, brokers, or boundary spanners. They are critical to network health. Roles emerge because of position and personality.
5. Most nodes in the network are connected by an indirect link in the network. A-B-C-D shows a direct link between A and B, but indirect links between A and C and A and D. Yet, the average path length in the network tends to be short. There are very few long paths in the network that lead to delay and distortion of information flow and knowledge exchange.
*** Knit the Net - Intentional strategy - Valdis Kres & June Holley
Experience shows that most communities start as small emergent clusters organized around common interests or goals. Usually these clusters are isolated from each other. They are very small groups of 1-5 people or organizations that have connected out of necessity. If these fragments do not organize further, the community structure remains weak and underproducing. They are working with communities to make them recession proof by weaving networks to grow local sustainable economies.
Network Weaving - Master Capacity Building
Strength of Weak Ties & Innovation - As the weaver connects various individuals, organizations and clusters, these entities connect to each other loosely. A new dynamic is revealed here – the strength of ‘weak ties’. Weak ties are connections that are not as frequent, intense, as strong network ties that form the backbone of a network. Strong ties are usually found within a network cluster, while weak ties are found between clusters. As clusters begin to connect to each other, the first bridging links are usually weak ties. Over time weak ties may retain their structure by bridging separate clusters or they may grow in to become strong ties binding previously separate groups into a new larger cluster.
Bridging ties between clusters are also important in innovation. New ideas are often discovered outside the local domain. To get transformative ideas you often have go outside of your group. A successful formula for creating ties for innovation is to find other groups that are both similar and different than your own. Similarity helps build trust, while diversity introduces new ideas and perspectives -- Connect on your similarity, and profit from your diversity.
Meta Networks - Are large networks of networks; That are multi-centered – having no single center of control; Yet bound together by trusted relationships and shared values, goals, and experiences. Multi-Centered - No Center of Control - Illusion of Control. We are moving away from Hirarchies and from command and control organizational strategies. Out of chaos and complexity will come order if you allow it to self-organize.
- Duncan Work - Inventor/designer of social software for the Internet; organizational consultant. former Chief Scientist for LinkedIn. Bio: http://www.linkedin.com/in/duncanwork.
What are the effects of Darkness in Networks - Dark Networks exist, but they are invisible to us, because we have not met the people we need to meet. Fragmentation of the network that impedes flow of ideas and resources. Making more mistakes than would be made in a ‘brighter’ meta network. Delay, excess cost and effort, or failure to deliver needed money, talent, knowledge and ideas that are vital for success.
Questions
Steve Ivester asked about Capital and its effects on this system? Dave discussed asset mapping and community economic development. How do we define wealth and assets and the ability to get things done that don't cost as much through connections, through bartering and volunteerism. Looking at new indicators of wealth. Coming up with a local stock exchange. Coming up with a different way of fostering capital. Changing jobs and technologies that are available to the community.
Rick introduced Keva.com as a way to access capital. PayPal was about developing capital outside of the Central Banking system. He also talked about Instant Manufacturing and Boutique Manufacturing around the world as part of the emergence of the Creative Molecular Economy that will help deal with the issue of capital not being defined in the traditional way.
I (Thom Shell) asked about strides that have been made in Dave's community? Dave talked about Open Source Economic Development and asset mapping involving things like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. There are a lot of assets that have been available in the local community that businesses didn't know were available. He talked about how they have identified developed a supply chain. It's about agenda setting and capacity building. No one is excluded. This system is not ignorant of capitalism. It celebrates it.
