This is the first episode of a series of conversations about technology, work and communities.

Will technology encourage more local collaboration or will virtual communities take over? there are no easy answers, but the possibilities are intriguing for sure.

In this 20 minute episode Richard Hunt talks about the printed book as the first form of mass media and the stepping stone for proliferation of information. He compares social and economic models from the past with the new forms of collaboration and conversation made possible by digital technology.

Richard is a typographer and design educator based in Toronto. He can be reached at www.atype.ca

 

 The Future: Richard Hunt pt1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (171)

Over the last few months, I have been interviewing the managers/facilitators/hosts/founders of coworking/shared spaces around the world.

In speaking with a friend about the podcast, I explained the amazing lesson was that all of these people sound like they’re describing the same place. In his subtle and knowing way, he responded: What I hear is that they are the same people. Either way you look at it, there are commonalities, and a general sense of optimism around these spaces.

So, the podcast release has begun. This first episode will introduce the people you will be getting to know over the next couple weeks. There are images in the podcast for your viewing pleasure. We spoke about the movtivations, inspirations, challenges, and surprises of seeing a shared space through its evolution. There are many insights and the experience was very eye opening.

To get it in iTunes click here

I hope you find some good nuggets in here, and grow to love these great people, in wonderful places.

 

 Episode 1: Spaces [5:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (331)

Today:

People are shifting their focus to the energy in their work and its impact rather than material they accumulate. Considering what their time is spent doing - rather than what resources are spent having; this is a shift from ownership to experience seeking.

Concentrations of power in our economy, often come from concentrations of monetary wealth. This economic structure allows for a great imbalance of power. 1% of the world maintains 50% of the wealth. 50% of the world lives on $2.00 a day. As long as a system allows for this type of imbalance, it becomes a system destined to comply to power-law distributions. Disproportionate concentrations of power breed behaviours in humans which are highly competitive and for the most part undesirable. This type of system compels individuals to create win-lose, or zero-sum, situations; themselves against others.

What if a system could, at its roots, support collaboration, encourage non-zero sum relationships, balance personal and collective action, while also discouraging stagnancy? What if it could be based in a measurable constant that could never be falsely inflated, fractionalized, or twisted through centralized manipulation of the system? Better yet: what if we could grow it from inside the old system?

Tomorrow

We will need to update our monetary system to reflect the new tightly integrated and widely shared infrastructure we depend upon. On our planet with finite amounts of resources and space we must play a win-win game of allocation. Such a system would have to reflect the contemporary values of people, i.e. the way they spend their time.

A Commoncy note is an electronic device which keeps track of tasks to which you’ve accepted & delegated. As well, it keeps a constant tally of your influence exerted and capacity remaining.

Time will be the new Money. More accurately, your time, and other peoples time, are a new form of currency. We all have the same amount, every day. Whether we are rich or poor in dollars, we are all equal in time. This is an incorruptible constant onto which a currency can scaffold it’s security and stability. This scaffolding for a new system will be called the Ecommony, and it’s measurement will be Commoncy. It will measure what you can do, and what you need done. Everything becomes shared, save our own personal time. Commoncy will measure how individuals spend their time to contribute to the commons of human progress. Ecommonics will be the study of how people contribute most meaningfully to this commons.

How Will it Work?
There are a few key items in regards to how to measure and trade one’s personal time.
1) Social influence
2) Personal capacity
3) Ecommony Task Index

Reputation is built out of the work you’ve done for others and how you treat people. The better reputation you have, the greater your influence. People will be more likely to accept task requests from you, and you’d be able to ask more of others, having already proved yourself useful. This type of inflation is actually sustainable! As it expands and contracts it matches the needs of the system. You’ve been recognized by a distributed body of people as having put more work into the collective, which frees up time for others, which you then have a say in where that time is spent. This is “Social Influence”, and it is finite for all individuals.

Abilities of individuals to get work done is the measurement of their personal capacity. Your personal capacity is finite due to the amount of time in a day, but grows as you become more efficient. This efficiency increases your reputation. This expanding of the pool of human capacity, opens up room for more to get done. As a reward you have the say in deciding where that surplus is spent by putting the request out there.

Requests are made by coupling your bill with the bill of the person with whom you are trading. Alternatively, through a network transfer point which links you to tasks on the distributed Common Market (ecommony task index)

If this sounds like it’s a barter economy, its not. Barter is limited to person to person trades. This is about individual and collective resource management. One who has what you need may not be the person who needs what you have! This is a key limit in barter economics. In the ecommony, skills are allocated naturally to the people who can handle them by adding degrees of separation to person to person trading. This transfer of value from object to representation is one key advantage monetary systems gave us and is worth building on. However, there are finite boundaries to what individuals can deliver and request due to the simple capacity and influence structures. Influence and capacity cannot grow to power-law level of difference the way money can. This protects the system from intense aggregation of power. It’s natural systemic tendency is to decentralize power with smaller peaks and valleys which proportionately represent contribution.

Where will it Begin?:

Some people need this today, the rest of us need it tomorrow. Open-source communities could collectively track the contributions of individuals to a commons, determining the next steps the community will take, then delegating that work to the people most apt to perform, all at once. People within ecommonies will be given a new and amazing freedom: to vote with their time, their ideas, and their work, rather than with their dollars.

Ecommonies can gain footholds just as nations once did, by taking the people in diverse geographic places and giving them a shared currency to get things done. Ecommonies will instead rally around a set of individuals rallied around an idea (like mozilla) as incentive structures to encourage their constituents to contribute. As multiple Ecommonies spring up, they will join forces allowing the wealth of the group to be shared with the wealth of another. Partnership increasing the power and diversity of each, much as states within nations combine up to a large common good today.

Conclusions:

A key acknowledgment will be that this is but one of many systems required for a healthy society. Certain goods and services might always be best traded in a monetary economy. Remember that if all this seems really far out, check and see if you have an Air Miles card or other points based loyalty program. Air Miles is now the 2nd largest currency in the world. These economies are all around us, and can succeed wildly when they reward us for behaviors we enjoy.

In the future we won’t look to monetize our ideas, we’ll look to monetime them. Turn them into tasks that others can help with, as we’ve helped them with theirs. As we understand that all physical resources are belongings of the earth, we will find our roll in collective stewardship of it’s resources. Then we will look to manage the most valuable resource remaining in the metaphysical world, to manage our time and ideas.

We will collectively decide on what needs to be done using technology to augment and amplify one of the most natural social and biological systems: reciprocity.

Ask, and then do. No one is without a say, and no one is without a hand to help.

Going to the Landscape Infrastructures symposium yesterday helped me realize(for the nth time) the diversity of ways to think big. Not only to think but also make big things happen, in this case buildings.

I spent today printing out applications to grad school for architecture, but have been in a constant muddle about the whole ordeal. On one hand I’d like to push ideas further, get accredited, exercise possibilities, and write all about the process. On the other hand I don’t want to pay tons of money, to take time off work, focus on building skills, which are niche and specialist, while neglecting the wider possibilities of THE truly growing MOVEMENT.

From that last sentence you can guess that I’m leaning heavily on the side of not going to school at all. This process of applying however is an eyeopener. The questions in these applications, and the tedious procedure of getting all this material into place, would certainly help orient future pursuits.

So I realize now, that the process of applying, rather than clarifying my fit to a certain institution, will direct me to opportunities that fit the application. This may seem like an obvious notion blown out of proportion, but applying is more the question of what do you want to make happen rather than why are you good for here.

I’m going to continue these applications. I’m going to meld them into one piece. Its not enough to say I choose to work rather than to go to school. Whichever direction we move in we must apply. The application actually defines our direction. The best part about this application, is the resolve it brings. When we formalize our intentions in a request, we can rejoice in the acceptance, or better ourselves for the next time around.

What I mean to say here is, I want to apply to be part of THE MOVEMENT. I hope I get in!

Working from a new place

Some people find meaning in religion, others in children, I tend to find meaning in meeting people. I find it so wonderful to, even for just a couple hours, talk to a new person and see how similar our concerns and passions are. I feel in this instance that I am not so alone, possibly not so much myself either. Better than just meeting is working. Working with new people is probably the most meaningful thing I could do. To build a working relationship and have a tangible outcome is a thrill. Working cuts small talk to the cracks of conversation and focuses my mind, and other people on a shared concern or task.
In my mind, this type of working with new people will be required in future if we are truly to have a connected society. Its foreseeable that the collective church building initiatives of the past will become collective meaning building initiatives. We will need each other, importantly diverse others, to understand complex problems. If I can make headway with this working in new places with new people, it might help us all.

In the past decade we’ve seen the power of decentralization to build knowledge; the internet. In the past century we’ve seen its power to build wealth; markets. In the next decade we’ll see decentralization affect our very relationships with work. When we decentralize, we open up work. We allow autonomous groups of people to determine their focus, and they create what we couldn’t imagine. Decentralized work allows for more people to work on the same project. It also allows for shared ownership, longevity of development, and continued improvement. Though we might have a decentralized attitude to work we do in close proximity to others, we are still able to fall into relying on space to organize our work. Space is a wonderful medium for performing work, but the place of organization should be available to all. Once this work infrastructure is available there is no limit to the amount of workers there can be. In a setting where shared space is not available physically, people are forced to create alternative widely accessible methods of organization.

In addition to gaining insight into work, a new place is novel. It allows for a refreshing change of perspective. Without new perspectives we’d be forced to look at life in one way, reliving the same day via routine. This place of work needs to be new in order to bring that new perspective. This helps very much when in a discipline such as design; perspective changes everything, everything has a perspective. When designing experiences, one must place a high value on such experiences. To understand the new, is to understand a valuable experience. A situation, or process which has allowed a new perspective.

Novelty is necessary, but innovation is the intention. These new places wear off. As humans we have a remarkable ability to adapt, both to horrid conditions and to wonderful blessings. After adaptation if we are left with nothing but nostalgia, then the experience was in vain. Valuable experiences leave us with inspiration, and ultimately innovation. We are able to take that which we experienced, twist it, and reapply the perspective. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but in my experience, it comes from the new ones. Even when working, we constantly invent new methods to tackle new problems. Just this new way of approaching a problem can present a plethora of approaches. These methods are simply experiences we design for our minds with an intended outcome; an idea.

Finally, the new encourages sharing. I’m moving to a place in Vancouver which is furnished. This means I don’t own the furnishings, and I don’t need to. Much like zipcar, I only use what I need when I need it. When I leave I don’t need to worry about taking the dresser with me. This frees me up, I only need what I can’t share, and hopefully, with some work, those items decrease. Since I don’t need to buy furnishings, or a car, I feel my spending can go elsewhere. I see the value of the shared and wish to reciprocate. So the benefit of the new is that it forces us to question what we need to own, show us that we can depend on others, then asks us to improve the place. In opposition to vacation shopping, through workation we might be able to leave more than we take.

The most important part is at the end. Place has a new importance. We see a local food movement, local crafts, revitalizing downtown cores, and a general interest in the places we are, as apart from the things we have. Place offers us an important combination: people in context. Both of these items must be in sync, we must have a strong social optimism, within a context that facilitates communication. We must imagine a better future than past, and be able to share that vision with people.

Certainly you can’t be friends with everyone. See magazine broke down to the effect of: crew, colleagues, community. New places offer us an opportunity to expand each of these groups. Through events we can find people with similar interests. Through chats we can get to know others and gain that valuable perspective. Through a prolonged stay(more than 3 months) we can make good friends. Place gives us a reason to talk. It brings people together simply because they are.

If we can adapt our methods of organization, and dematerialize those processes, we might be able to see place as a creative medium rather than a place to store paper. We might be able to see people as continuous collaborators, and find them within the new places we inhabit. We might expand our capacity through each other, and amplify the work we can do through methods of decentralized work. We might find that the things we own are similar enough to share, and that the things we keep have unique, non-economic, value to us. We might make all this happen, it may simply happen to us. Either way, we will gain a new perspective, new inspiration, and move that to some form of innovation. We might fail, but just enough to succeed a bit.

This collection of twelve steps is a work in progress look at process. It was presented at FITC and more recently Spread The Word’s April Design is A Superpower workshop.

1. Take note of your impact
Look at your daily actions and consider your impact is a good metal exercise. More often than not, what we do as a job has more of an impact than any of the plastic bags or bottles we recycle. Both the personal and the societal issues we face stem from our routines, so be aware of those.

2. Consider what to preserve and what to change.

All to often we see the future as better because of change. The truth is that humans have been doing fairly well for quite some time. We have institutions, principles, traditions, and ideas that are grounded on our predecessors. It’s important to identify what we want to change, in light of the truth that it’s not all bad.

3. Draw the line, what won’t you do?

Everyone has a point at which they’ll say no. Think about how far you could be pushed until you’d snap. It’s important to realize that we already have a threshold, and the unfortunate situation is when that threshold is slowly chipping away. Your grandparents probably would say that a polluted river is too far. Your parents would say no access to public pools is too far. What will you put up with?

4. Set priorities, what matters most?

Most conflicts don’t stem from a disagreement on values, but rather a conflict of implementation. What is the most important change that needs to happen? What is the most sacred value we must uphold? Do we want cleaner water or more education? Should we spend our time retrofitting houses, or parks?

5. Share the worst deed you did for an evil client.

For us it was having a client who wanted to look green. We were to put a green plastic leaf on their product. When we asked if the product was actually any more sustainable than competitors the answer was an obvious, though cleverly implied, no. Our big mistake was not completely reprimanding this action.

6. Tell somebody you’re about to make a change in you professional work.

In order for growth, someone else needs to know what you’re trying to do. When you tell others, not only do you encourage them and set an example, but you hold yourself accountable. Cognitive dissonance tells us, when you talk the talk, you end up walking the walk.

7. Implement a system to help you.

Our brains are faulty, and our memories are getting worse. Figure out a way to remind yourself on a constant basis why your are doing what you are doing. Have a weekly meet-up to discuss progress with your friends. Change your client brief to include sustainability. Collect the disposable cups you use for coffee.

8. Make an ideal client list. Don’t let it sit there, contact them.

What do you have to lose in attempting to work with who you respect? If anything they will be flattered, and know you exist. Make a list of 100 people you want to work with and then just call them. Imagine that your work could be exactly in line with your beliefs. Isn’t that worth a couple of days?

9. Join Something

Personal progress is best shared. Especially when that progress is also beneficial to a great group of people. Join something, and talk to people. There are so many people thinking the same thing as you, and it is a wonderful feeling to be around them, providing those thoughts are good.

10. Meet-ups and Serendipity

In Hong Kong they have five keys to success, luck is at the top. Put yourself in a position to be lucky, and as we all know, no one gets lucky on their own at home.

11. Do. Then Talk. them Do More.

As we share we grow, as we grow we share. The cycle of growth works through us, but only as long as we tell each other. Make sure you use the words you have to speak about what you truly care about. After all, ask and ye shall receive, and no one really wants gossip.

12. Try these, then try something else.

We really haven’t figured this out, and no one ever will. We only get closer to the truth in different ways. We’d love to hear from you about your pursuits, challenges, and insights. In the age of connection let’s have a global conversation.

It has been a bit of a problem defining what we do here, and not for lack of answers. It seems each time someone pops the question “So what do you do?” the response begs only more questions.

Partly this is due to our insistence on remaining generalists and exploring new avenues of intervention. Partly this is due to the prevalent industry mindset of looking at people’s expertise rather than their inclinations.

I have spoken with engineers, industrial designers, literary critics, teachers, lawyers, writers, and photographers. Despite the differing professions there seems to be a similar divide within these industries. That divide is one of integrated thinking versus intense specialization. Graphic Designers come in many shapes and colours, but certainly there are those who wish to see the biggest picture possible, and those who lean more deeply to the smallest point kernable.

This divide between experts and generalists has me scratching my head, wondering which one I am, and to what extent. If there is anything I have learned, it is that nothing is black or white.

With that said, objectives must be. To move in a direction is to see clear opportunity. So which way am I moving. The answer is clear; toward integrated generalized thinking.

Speaking with an industrial designer, has opened up some possibilities. She told me about the Finnish approach which is a bit different. They have a term called world design.

A solution from an industrial design might be an AIDs truck which educates by moving around, a solution from a graphic designer might be a billboard campaign which educates on a mass media scale.

I can appreciate the diplomacy in seeing each type of execution as a good one, but we must account for appropriateness. In most cases mass media is not the solution, but rather an accompaniment to a better idea, a new way of interacting. This is not to say that graphic designers cannot inform that better way. It is to say that in order to find appropriate solutions we must look outside of the tools we are experts in, and understand the landscape of possibilities.

This idea of design as inventory of possibility is much more attractive than designer as skilled artist. It sees the designers role as a visionary who works with many parties to execute an idea which spans many disciplines; the world of work so to speak. Further more, the world in world designer can be expanded from the idea of the world as earth, to the worlds separate and overlapping.

The world of taxis in Toronto is very different from the world of textile designers. Different but integrated. To see these worlds, allow them to facilitate each other, appreciate the difference, and make new ones when appropriate, is the role of the world designer. To design for the world we share, to appreciate the worlds we do not, and to envision new possible worlds we might face in the future.

“What have I done to make the world a better place?” and the 12 Step program to professional rehabilitation of the 8 lost hours most of us endure per day.

This years presentation for FITC employed collaborative thoughts and work from other creative professionals to help demonstrate the power of thinking big and acting small to generate positive change in the world of design. If you want the hookups, you can get involved and learn more by checking out these fine folks at the following websites

• The Long Now Foundation - http://longnow.org
• Timeraiser - http://timeraiser.ca
• Good Magazine - http://www.goodmagazine.com
• KMDI (Knowledge Media Design Institute) - http://kmdi.utoronto.ca
• Toronto Cyclists Union - http://www.bikeunion.to
• Metronauts - http://metronauts.ca
• Toronto Artscape- Creative Convergence - http://torontoartscape.on.ca/creative_convergence_project
• Two Century Farm - http://twocenturyfarm.com
• Hive - http://joinhive.com
• Contemporary Textile Studio Co-op - http://textilestudio.ca
• Viva Dolan Communications and Design - http://vivadolan.com
• We Can Solve it - http://wecansolveit.org
• Wiser Earth - http://wiserearth.org
• Designer’s Accord - http://designersaccord.org
• Spread the Word - http://superpower.ning.com
• The Little Things - http://today.themovement.info

Or download the presentation as a PDF!

Recently, we threw a party trying to ask the question: “What if work was a party?” Could a bunch of people who are united for a short time produce something more than empty beer bottles? There were some pretty amazing insights, so here’s a look at the rules we set up and some of the observations and principles we can see in the results.

Our Approach:
Create zones for people to work on different parts of a process.
Give them methodologies to get them going.
Reward them for work with our own currency, which buys booze and money.

Get Buy in:
So first thing you do when you come in is sign a big giant contract with everybody else’s name on it, committing yourself to working for the evening under a set of friendly rules. This is important because it helps people understand it’s serious, and that other people are committed as well.

Now, as trainee, you see a map of how this work actually takes place, and a simple 3 step guide to their new “job”, as well as a “company org chart” showing all pieces and parts for details.

Establish Leadership & Contact point for help

Since nobody reads, we made sure that we had a hilarious “Office Manager” to greet you and show you around the different zones, and get you started with a few “The Movement” for a drink.

Incentive’s

Most important to keep everything moving forward, is the fake currency system. People do work and report to the Office Manager, get paid, and get a drink. You gotta keep working to keep drinking, so the cycle is complete. The “Office Cantine” hands the money back over to the Office Manager, and he pays more “employees” as they continue to drink and work!

So what is the actual work? We started the party by prompting a few problems that needed to be solved: Local produce being too expensive and our of reach, Political apathy & confusion, and too many messages bombarding us.

Give clear Actionable Tasks within a Context

We broke down the problem solving process into 5 parts. Research, Analysis, Synthesis, Explaining, and Spreading. Each part of the process was given a zone, or as we call it, a Department somewhere around the party for people to work on that part of the process. The zones are of course clearly labeled, and have their own instructions.

Then we broke down each step into a set of possible actions and put them on game-cards. (The game card set will become available in a future post.) People would pick up a card, do what it says, put their work back on the filing table, and it would be ready to be pushed to the next phase of the process.

Have fun Workin!

Ok, so about 100 people showed up and actually got to work. Can you believe it? Here’s some of them working when there was enough space to take pictures.

So what did we learn, & what can You use?

People will do what everyone else is doing if it looks fun. Here’s a few things that were critical to the success of the party as we could tell.

1. The office manager driving people to the work, and being very deadpan hilarious about the whole thing.
2. A small critical mass of people starting the work, so that as others arrive, the right course of action is clear. People seem to have no problem trying something new if it looks like other people are having a good time with it.
3. Incentives, its the beer and constant peer affirmation through joking about the money, joking about the drinks, and so on, that were able to drive some serious thinking and conversation.
4. Lots of easy starting points, that were challenging and open to interpretation, that have a high focus on individual opinion and values.
5. Good people.

Dont do…

Coffee break. We decided everybody needed a break a few hours in, and never got the momentum back. You can’t stop people from fraternizing once they start doing it on a mass scale, so be prepared to have your event slip from work mode to party mode at some point and just celebrate it rather than fight it.

Thanks to Eleni Alpous for photo-documenting the early parts of the evening, and check out her flickr for more shots. Open up the Google Doc if you’re interested in seeing some of the ideas and solutions in text-only format, of which our lovely intern Lauren painstakingly transcribed for us.

Good luck holding your own work party or collective action event, and just send an email over to us if you need any help or would like more details from ours.

Question: My business often does socially responsible work, and we lose money. Luckily we make good money elsewhere to support this. Am I doing a good thing?

Well, you’re not alone. All across the world companies do a “good thing”. They charge their good reliable paying clients market prices and turn a profit. Then along comes some great NGO, some genious startup, some altruistic charity, or somebody else who’s about to do something really good and they need the services. Catch is they don’t have the cash. Said company does some social arithmetic and comes to the conclusion that they can do the job at cost or slightly lower, because it will mean good things for society.

It seems like a good thing doesn’t it? Hells yea!!! At least at first…

Think about it like this: The company that feels the urge to be socially responsible is the one who ends up losing money for doing the right thing. Still sound like a good?

Even worse is that it’s often hidden! Disclosing you can get into trouble. Try saying this to a client “Yeah, we did work for these guys for cheap, but we gotta do it for you for full price.”, or ” We judged you, you’re not doing great things for the planet, you’re simply a gravy train for us, cha-ching!”

What is happening here is the silencing of good deeds, which we can probably agree should be celebrated & encouraged instead.
The question comes up: How can we work around this?

Two parts of the Problem:

1. The client doesn’t get a say in where their money goes
2. It’s often pretty fuzzy, and there are few legitimate economics in place.

Answer: The Non-Profit-Margin.

1. Client involvement in choosing where to spend the Non-profits.
2. A fund where X% of a job (the Non-Profit-Margin) is held.

The first can exist in many forms, like a list of general categories the client check off. A list of actual groups you’ve got lined up (a la good magazine), or already donated time & money to. A hotline where the client can refer organizations they think would benefit from your services with a specific dollar amount tied to the referral.

The second, is really not complicated at all. Ask your book-keeper to open a separate account at your bank to funnel the Non-Profits into. Keep a simple spreadsheet with each clients contribution into the fund, and the information collected from the client on where they’d like it to be spent. Then have some discipline when offering discounted services, by consulting the books and sharing them with the group getting the discount.

Lastly, tell everyone. Talk to your friends about it. E-mail your past clients, let organizations you’d like to help with. Tell all the future clients that come in the door, get your sales rep on-board, do whatever you can to let people know what you do is the shit.

With any luck, you and your band of Merry Men/Women will be on your way to invoicing the rich and discounting the poor with no quarrel from either!