Fulfilling deeply held longings

My sense is that, in Toronto, we are transitioning away from meaning and becoming more in touch with our core values.  

First I want to explore the effects and conditions of this transition to soulfulness as individuals.  Then I want to look at how to adjust socially to a new mood that’s rising up in the city.

We can identify our unique values by what we do on a Saturday afternoon - family, community, or hobbies.  Though we may have a sense of what our values are, we don’t necessarily give them the importance they deserve as indicating what we have to contribute to society.

However, fewer of us are willing to live based on meaning alone – like getting a salary, getting ahead of coworkers, or waiting for our boss’ job.  Meaning was an important motivator from the ‘60’s – ‘90’s.  Now we want work activity that fulfills our deeply held values and longings.  

People in the arts and self-expression are in touch with, and must express their values each and every day.  We express our values when we decide what is important, gracious, lovely and essential to a course of action.  

We attempt to glimpse the wholeness in situations.  Our values are what indicate the way forward after taking any number of factors into account.  

Decisions made based on values, wholeness and inclusion are not logical or about taste.  They are decisions made based on love and a higher pragmatism.  Pragmatism beats what’s achieved with logic and thinking about a limited number of things we’re able to measure.  Pragmatic action is based on a realistic big picture.

Our values are our means to the things that we live for.  Our values are like gas in the tank, and a map.  We need a course of action or some idea of a destination that will fulfill an inner longing. But values and a course of action without engaging in community limit what we can achieve to express love. 

We know there is strength in numbers. Working in organizations goes further.  It is powerful.  In fact corporations and the military are incredibly powerful.  They’ve become the most powerful things on the planet.  

However we leave many of your values at the door or in the office lobby before starting work each day.  We limit the number of factors we consider.  We think in polarizing, competitive and disheartening ways.  We can be working to pull the social fabric apart.  We must adopt policies and an agenda set by someone else.

My second point is about society and our complete empowerment as individuals.  Complete empowerment comes when we combine our values and our direction on a map with the resources for moving forward.  We readily find help and resources to use in an organization.

However, once you are in touch with your core values the last thing that you want is someone else telling you what to do or setting a course for you.  That is why so many of us who have gone inwards and found our souls stayed away from corporations and group activities.  We want to be proactive in response to inner promptings and be free to do our own thing.

What’s been missing is a form of organizing that allows us to respond to whatever values we have registered in our souls.  That is partly why the Markham Street MuSE is very significant to you at this time.  It’s a form of organizing able to support the new mood in the city.  

A muse is defined as ‘the function of deciding among ourselves through ongoing distributed decision-making across a network of developing or emerging connections’.  

Compared to what’s produced when people get together and assume power after politicking among themselves, a muse leads soulful people to full empowerment with shared roles that make things more fluid and practical.

The function of a muse in organizing does not consider only one location.  It is meant as a source of inspiration for organizing across neighbourhoods and organizing in any local area, no matter how small.  I recommend that you check it out and look at the degree to which we are free to do what we want once we’re connected with our values.  

It allows for all our multiple, diverse visions.  These are the courses we chose individually on a map of a creative era.  

If you are in touch with your core values and aim for full empowerment, then you don’t have to wait for society to change completely.  Find out more about how to use a muse to get from where society is now to where you want to be.

Meeting with City Councillor, Mike Layton

Here is a quick update on the development of collaborative villages.  Hope you find it inspiring for what you are up to in your neighbourhood.  Let me know if you and your neighbourhood would like to collaborate with the Bathurst and Bloor area of Toronto.

Councillor Mike Layton and I met January 6, 2014, regarding the Markham Street MuSE for living in a more creative Toronto.  It is also a community-led innovation and social response to today’s creative and learning economies.  We noted the fact that the Canadian economy is now less reliant on manufacturing, and that the City of Toronto wants to encourage citizen's to be leaders in today’s economies.

Mutual Support Enterprises are proactive member-owned associations that develop and advance a neighbourhood vision of urban living, or a ‘hyper-local’ vision for a street.  A MuSE is an association and hybrid of a social agency and a business.  It makes money to reinvest in social and economic development.

It encourages fulfillment of each person’s preferred roles, values, and vision for their life.  As member-owners we become more of who we are, both individually and collectively.  We develop further understanding, creativity, and increased capacity for health, vitality and well-being.

A MuSE is also uniquely positioned to be first-in-the-marketplace for helping corporations look at the wholeness in situations so as to benefit their return on investment.

There is an opportunity for the City of Toronto to supply arts groups with reusable material such as wood, metal, ceramics, fabric, etc., that would otherwise be sold or put in landfill.  The councillor is currently looking at options, say, when contracts with existing service suppliers are up for renewal.
We live in an urban forest.  Neighbours could use felled local trees to make structures, such as gazebos and arbors, that could be sold for beautification of local gardens and parks.  This kind of logging would be more enterprising and locally advantageous compared to the noisy practice of reducing trees to wood chips.

The future of society depends to great extent on encouraging our entrepreneurs.  We had a conversation about establishing creative economy hubs, and the need for neighbours to support entrepreneurial start-ups.  Practices of supplying office space and services to entrepreneurs that support neighbourhoods (‘social innovators’) remain part of the solution.

The councillor is a board member of Artscape YOUNGplace which is an example of a new, multi-tenant arts & cultural centre in the ward – at 180 Shaw Street, just west of Trinity-Bellwoods park.

We also touched on how Waterfront renewal as an opportunity to demonstrate the advancement of larger scale creative and learning economy hubs.  Exhibition Place has always tried to showcase innovations, such as wind turbine technology.  Councillor Layton pointed out how governments are now limited in what they can responsibly invest in, in terms of supplying basic services such as sewage and drinking water, when there is no immediate return on taxpayer investment.

We discussed the possibility of making Waterfront development ‘more organic’, more responsive to community needs, more economically sustainable, and less reliant on investment through financial institutions.

China is building 1,000 new universities over ten years (source: Roger Martin, past dean of the Rotman School of Management, U of Toronto,) as a strategy for adapting to the learning economy.  However, ‘developed countries’ in North America and Europe are making little or no investment in new learning institutions.

This led to a discussion of our proposal for neighbourhood campuses and the possibility of using underutilized local spaces.  Ideas for gathering and streamlining existing learning opportunities into curriculum streams that develop new skill-sets necessary for today’s economies could have been discussed further.  However, we had talked for over an hour and it was time to adjourn.

Our appreciation goes to the councillor and his staff for their kind cooperation.

Andrew Owens.

Something new and exciting for neighbourhoods

Fall 2012 is here and it’s time to learn something new, meet some new friends – and you will be able do it all either in your building, or in your neighbourhood, if you live within the area of the Yonge-Wellesley Neighbourhood Campus in downtown Toronto.

It's not a grade school or a university.  It’s more like a vocational school that includes an enterprise for the production of goods and services in a local economy. 

Together we will increase our imaginations, collaboration, self-awareness, and use of on-line tools.  And at our free public sessions we are looking to see what each of us wants to contribute.

We aim to make the neighbourhood more resilient during times of economic uncertainty.  We’re building the strength and resources needed so that it’s easier for participants to be fulfilled in whatever they choose to do. 

Each month we will be offering a range of practical and exciting paid courses designed to expand people's choices and horizons starting with arts-based career options.  We will award educational credits in return for work to bring about positive social change.

We’re also the go-to place to find suppliers or other entrepreneurs to collaborate with. We’ll save participants money on purchasing supplies and decrease their time on commuting and business travel.  

And there will be inspirational and engaging events that enrich life in the neighbourhood. 

Have you noticed that no-one in your neighbourhood seems to know what other entrepreneurs and organizations are doing?  Well, maybe a magazine could help address that.  

We’re already using the Social Creator blog to give updates and information on local organizing.  Our marketing department will use the magazine to promote the campus.  The magazine will also provide campus participants with a means of expression and connection.  

Our school enterprise organizes amongst neighbourhoods based on film and TV production departments - catering, acting, singing, script writing, props design, set design, cinematography, sound engineering, video editing, marketing, promotions, events logistics – you name it!  To keep up to date on developments the magazine will feature columns by each department head.  

We will be asking local retailers how they would like to see our neighbourhoods promoted – this will lead to growth of the client-base services that participants will offer citywide.

I am looking forward to collaborating, learning, and having fun in the neighbourhood, and wishing you were here too.

Leadership for Innovation in Society

For the first time in a Social Creator network event the discussion focused mostly on developments in neighbourhoods, on June 12, 2012.

The Toronto neighbourhood of Roncesvalles has become a great example of, "If the grassroots leads, then organizations will follow." 

A simple thing, like dealing with cigarette butts left on the sidewalk outside of bars, can be too controversial for a local business organization to handle. 

Perhaps it is the diverse membership of organizations that makes directors more conservative, not wanting to do things that may conceivably upset the membership.  Sometimes directors have to get member consensus.  

Hence we see little in the way of innovation coming from organizations.

The subject of this post is not ciggy butts.  It's about organizations holding up innovation.  It's also about no-one's vision being too big or too small to be taken into account and acted on.

Don't think that big visions are all that count in this world. 

If one person has a vision of a butt-free neighbourhood, then let's support them in that.
A grassroots group put in place a solution for the cigarette butts situation in Roncesvalles. Next they will be conducting a questionnaire about the solution, listening to the business owners in the area, anticipating a positive response.  This grassroots action will 'make it safe' for the local business organizations in the area to act, without 'ruffling feathers'.

Check out: Butting in to butt out

Often business owners do not live in the neighbourhoods where their stores are located.  They worry about anything that may interfere with sales during the times when their stores are open.  Once the store closes for the evening the owners can be in another part of town or another part of the world.

Local business organizations tend to focus on their main street.  There is much less interest in residential side streets, or the rest of the neighbourhood.

We really need innovation in society.  We need to respond to huge changes in the economy.  I believe it probably won't come from existing institutions.  It usually comes as a result of collaboration at the grassroots, and coordination with existing organizations.

As we look after the smaller changes, the bigger changes will also eventually come about.

Communing with a Brazilian Music Legend

The Salon21 series yesterday evening was terrific.  See Soundstreams.ca.  Renown Brazilian musician, Egberto Gismonti is in town and he engaged us in a communal feeling with his words, and did things with his guitar that were unheard of before.  

He was born in Beirut to an Italian mother who was steeped in what he called the "aristocratic, piano-based tradition of Europe."

He said that when he was 21 and living in Brazil in 1973 a leading actor picked him to write the score for a movie.  This took him to Montreal and other cultural centres where he sat, talked and played with some of jazz's musical greats.  

Back in Brazil he was invited to join groups of musicians that encouraged him in his art.  Based on his talent he was invited to stay at the homes of one master musician after another, for periods of two weeks or more.  

So he drank up all that was offered and that he could learn about music and life from his elders.  Gradually he felt encouraged to go further than he ever imagined.  

Eventually he went to stay in the rainforest for forty days with a tribe of some of the two-million indigenous people of what is now called Brazil.  He felt excluded initially because there was the problem of not having a shared language.  

But each night the villagers gathered around an 8 foot bonfire, partly to keep insects away and partly to talk and play flute music.  He stood outside the circle.  

After a few nights he talked about his family and where he was from.  Even though no-one had the means to understand what he was saying the local people opened the circle and welcomed him in.

Towards the end of the SoundStream session an audience member asked Gismonti how he would characterize the importance of Brazilian composers, Los Lobos.  His answer intrigued me. 

Gismonti explained that Los Lobos obviously were not creating in a vacuum.  Everyone was part of a collaboration of musicians that stretches across Brazil.  Half of Brazilians are dancers, and half of Brazilians play guitar (because guitars are cheap to buy) unless you are indigenous in which case you play flute.  This is the social and cultural ecology.

Gismonti said that a researcher and musicologist gave Los Lobos a compilation of the music theory of many forms of indigenous music.  This body of knowledge informed everything that Los Lobos achieved after that.  It influenced the writing, and the connection the music made to the soul of the land.  Los Lobos became extremely popular and a very significant influence on others.

Now Gismonti is 64 and tours around the world.  When he talks with students in Brazil, Gismonti encourages them to devote their lives to music.  "Music will be good to you."  

He has become an elder who talks from experience.  Imagine the social, cultural, and even economic benefits of learning, teaching and playing music in such a musical country.

I could not help but think of how we are counseled in North America.  Can putting so much emphasis on being a rugged individualist and self-made man or woman really be a hangover from the frontier days?  Maybe not.  

How could you survive in the long harsh winters without coming together and cooperating to put up a house, replace a barn, or generally get anything done? 

I believe the ideas we are taught about individualism are a product of the values someone else thought they should be instilling into younger generations.  As a society that sees itself as an economic engine, why would we need music and dance and creative collaboration?  

We are currently the output and product of institutionalized schooling.  We are still taught to become good cogs ready and able to fit in the workings of the wheels of industry. 

As a society of people that advertisers have relentlessly conditioned to long for retirement, which literally means shutting ourselves away from the day-to-day goings-on, why would we open up our homes to young people to soak up all they can from us?  

We have actively deprived society of it's elders if we relied on state-hired teachers to deliver the standardized curriculum on which we base all that there is to know.  And if we feel dry, alienated, and out of place, wrapped up in our layers of conformity, we won;t feel like we have much to offer future generations.  If we believe 'the state' is the authority on education, what can the next generations soak up from us?

I believe that as North Americans we can end the denial and connect deeply with the abundance that exists, and the soul of the land.  Has progress been about what we are taught it is about?  Does progress really depend on what we are taught, and what we are teaching?

I remember Gismonti saying, "In Brazilian music we value the question, not the answer."  

A question becomes a point of departure from which all kinds of possibilities can arise.  

There are things about life, and our lives in today's society, that we do not have the means to understand.  Yet we can see the circle is open and we are welcome in.

BRICS countries changing Traditional Power in World

A massive shift in economic, political and financial power is underway.  You will see the beginnings if you look at the following video report, on the heads of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) meeting in New Delhi this week.  They talked about UN reform, and an alternative to Western institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. 

The BRICS countries are reputedly experiencing an average of 7% growth each year whereas the economies of the `developed world` (US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) are in the toilet.  Today marked the first day in a series of massive changes.  So if you felt a cataclysmic shift in our world, from what you will read in the media, these will appear to be mostly national, economic, political and financial.

Note that the BRICS meetings were completely ignored by PBS in the US and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, never mind the corporately owned news outlets.  This was also the case with Occupy Wall Street which the mainstream media ignored for almost two weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vg9qvYwQHg

There were signs leading up to this.  Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF went cap-in-hand to talk with Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev asking if he could spare some cash to put in her fund.  She also announced, in effect, that the IMF will no longer engage in money laundering.  

Another sign was the outrage that has grown since 2008.  No one is in jail, or even in court, for bringing about the global economic meltdown.  People in government and Wall Street are too chummy for doing anything about that. So the US was the reckless relative most countries wanted to watch.

This series of BRICS announcements means is that it will be much more difficult for the US and Israel to cook up a war with Iran.  If the BRICS countries disagree with western news outlets that President Assad in Syria is as bad a guy as he`s been made out to be, the UN may change their recent resolution.  

The rise of the BRICS means that the dollar will no longer be the currency of choice for international deals.  We could see a new currency announced at the BRICS summit in South Africa in 2013.  Perhaps we`ll see the US military miss a few pay check deadlines for it`s employees... as many things seem possible now.  Stay tuned for this developing global story. 

But let`s pull back and discuss what you won`t read about anywhere else... what these newly emerging realities mean for neighbourhoods internationally, and personal internal changes.  

As we see more centralization of decision-making in the world (One world order, or world polarization, East-West, developed and developing nations) decisions and resulting plans will become ever more removed and less relevant to what needs to happen locally in our communities.  Ever increasing centralization initially leads to unsustainable results.  To maintain balance in the world, obviously there will be a spontaneous increase in the importance we give to the ‘hyper-local’, i.e. neighbourhoods. 

Perspectives of `East and West` and ‘good and bad situations’ are creating the necessary tension for society to move to functioning in higher ways.  People will increasingly move to creativity and higher values, such as compassion, initially either out of fear, or out of the desire for inclusion and unification.  (Remember the western developed countries will be the `have-not` countries, and inclusion will come to the fore-front of western people`s minds). 

In the last 25 years we`ve seen increased ecological ways of thinking which require the functioning of both halves of the brain.  But that`s just the beginning.

Believe me, people will start to be more aware of the organizing role of a non-localized, or quantum ‘shared Self’.  This way of thinking requires functioning of the brain`s frontal lobes.  To be exact, the front 2-pounds of an adult brain.  Recognition of a ‘shared Self’ and what we can think of as It`s actions will also probably develop though the functioning of the fore-brain.  We will soon recognize that the world is indeed one organism.  

Scientists and linguists at the university in St. Petersburg during the early 1990`s already found that some of what Western scientists refer to as ‘junk DNA’ actually is the means by which individuals link individual actions into the overall actions within the ‘shared Self’.

So big changes are here -

• Attention to individual needs rather than government policies and one-size-fits-all approaches,
• Brain functioning in more complex ways requiring education for the creative economy, 
• Coordination through seeing how a neighbourhood, and a person, fits into the larger whole,
• New coordinated ways to get things done locally and internationally over the Internet.
• Perhaps bake sales to raise funds for the military. (Only kidding).

Have you Organized as a Collaborative Village yet?

Today I attended the first in a new round of meetings about noise in our neighbourhood.  We live in a relatively quiet residential neighbourhood and found it alarming that an office space leasing business that encourages collaborations among companies with a 'social mission' would be so noisy.  Everything looked good when we heard that they were all about turning everyday challenges into opportunities to improve our communities and our planet.

However, business is business, and no doubt part of the plan was making money by renting out the main floor for parties.  Hey why not loud parties, as they can be more fun?  And what if these go on until 2 a.m.?  What about cars parked in the lane-way in-front of neighbour's garage doors?

Special occasion permits and liquor licenses are secured from the City.  And it's 'Party on!' with scant regard for people trying to get some shut eye.  It's all about that bottom line, improving communities, staying alive, and being socially innovative.   

At today's meeting we recognized this was no-longer about explaining our concerns to the new business in our midst.  This was going to be about ensuring they were denied permits.  We simply want to shut those noisy parties down.

It was not until schmoozing around the cheese platters after the meeting that I realized we could have been creative.   

Doh!  We could have been proactive!  

Why be constantly reactive, on the defensive or offensive for whenever a new crisis arises?  In addition to gearing up for another confrontation, we could also be looking to partner with this, and other businesses in the neighbourhood.

They need us on their side.  And in a transition to a creative economy, maybe we need them to be on our side too.  Maybe not the retirees in the group, but the kids, youth and self-employed people could benefit from help in becoming arts-based professionals.  (See previous blog for more on how economies evolve.)

  

The challenge for a group of neighbours to partner with businesses is that we need a creative and aspirational vision for the area.  (What could the neighbourhood be like with more beauty, enrichment and convenience at our doorsteps?  How do we attract more grace into our lives?)

Out of the vision comes a mission, or how to we make the vision real.  Tumbling out of the mission will come a series of major objectives, or the main aspects of how we are going to be pro-active in helping ourselves and others.

Businesses are clear on what they are working to achieve.  Ask the company chiefs what their objectives are and they will have an up-to-date list of reasons why all their people came together and get paid each month. 

So in preparing to partner, we address the challenges of coming up with a neighbourhood vision.  We would not be the first neighbourhood around here to do such a thing.  In fact you could say we have been lagging behind.  See http://glenmurray.onmpp.ca/pages.aspx?id=community_planning 

A new way to get things done

Either before or after our little rumble with the new business in the area, I will propose a Collaborative Village model of organizing.  This generates income and support for people willing to contribute to improving society.  In fact, I'm blogging right now, so why don't I suggest it here, and email a few of the neighbours?

A Collaborative Village secures suitable, under-utilized space for various aspects of a neighbourhood campus.  This is for education that prepares youth and entrepreneurs for the transition to a creative economy.  Studies will be within areas like creativity, community, compassion, and entrepreneurship.

And there's a big role for semi-retired elders to play.  They can help younger people start initiatives, becoming more practical and realistic.  And neighbourhood elders stand to learn a lot from today's youth.

A Collaborative Village looks at local TV and internet sites for production and support for our neighbourhood campus.  Let's face it.  The various levels of government are not going to be building large numbers of new universities and colleges.  So we can guarantee that people who need the necessary re-education won't get it unless the whole neighbouhood understands how it stands to benefit from working together.

A Collaborative Village sets up local collaborative hubs for self-employed people who can benefit from working together.  And we all need a break from all this commuting that chokes our lungs and stresses the ecology.

So who wants to coordinate a village?  

Self-employed people who are coaches, workshop facilitators, mediators, healing professionals, counselors and agents are always looking for new clients.  And nothing beats 'word-of-mouth' referrals! 

New and affordable opportunities for promoting services provide these kinds of entrepreneurs with real and immediate benefits.  I know I would like a neighbourhood rooting for me because of doing good work for the local community.  Why wouldn't others? 

Is coordinating a village possible?

It was not possible to have all this extra enrichment of our lives before the internet.  There were few options in terms of post-secondary education but to build a new campus.

People needed to publish expensive text books, because we had no way to learn and bring our knowledge together like we can today, using a wiki.  We had no opportunities to publish materials on-line as a neighbourhood - say on websites or blogs.

We didn't have on-line tools for business collaborations which allowed for our individual principles and values, until www.bettermeans.org was freely available to everyone.  And there were few options for local film and TV production and distribution, that is, before phones were manufactured with built-in cameras, and www.YouTube.com came along.

Now, with the Internet and on-line tools, coordination of a collaborative village has become very do-able.

What other models are there to consider?

The business investment area (BIA) model started on Bloor West Village in Toronto and is now in use in over 1,000 cities internationally.  However, people who run BIA's don't always live in the area, and often don't care what goes on in an area after their businesses close for the evening.

A BIA will react if something impacts their business, but they won't necessarily be proactive in terms of enriching the non-commercial areas of a neighbourhood, say residential streets, or other streets off the main street.  

You can also consider a resident's association model, where there is great socializing and occasional coming together around problems and opportunities. But nothing that we could consider as a response to the effects of globalization, and the subsequent economic transition we are going through.  It just seems to me that extreme change on the planet demands more than - the same ol', same ol'.

The residents` association in our area is wonderful, highly effective, and we have an innovative and fully engaged city councillor.  This may not be the case in your area.  Note that education and coordination for working a post-industrial economy is not part of their mission.

Also consider a ‘Friends of the Area’ model of volunteering, open to anyone.  You see this around parks or lane-ways that a city can no longer afford to maintain.  It can be fun in the short-term but it won't continue to bring people together unless there's some financial benefit.

As we move beyond some of the social conditioning on which we were raised, we see how we're all inherently creative.

There are many options that we can research, share and explore.  This is how people have adapted and moved forward throughout history.

When You want Change, what do You Call Yourself?

If you want input on what you are trying to create to bring about a better society, here are some terms that I've tried to define, and some ideas people associate with these terms.

Alliances tend to be formed amongst pre-existent organizations.  It is a term used by the right-wing.  The Alliance Party in Western Canada brought two existing political parties together against the Liberals. 

The left-wing tends to use the term 'coalition'.  You see single issue groups like 'Coalition against Poverty', etc.

I don't know why people use these terms.  It may explain why people hear Alliance in a name and think of it as right-wing.

The term 'movement' suggests person-to-person collaboration and coordination. 

Look in a dictionary to confirm whether what I say about these terms is correct and maybe get back to me if I'm wrong.

Ask whether the word 'movement' captures the essence of what you are doing.  It might serve better than the word 'party'?  People probably have reasons for starting parties, because party sound familiar, political and gets people in the door.  However, when you go global people may find the word 'party' confusing.  It may have slowed down the growth of the Green Party as it expanded out of Germany.

The women's movement was never slowed down by its name.  It grew enormously fast.  It took nine months to go from the kitchen table to a world conference in Japan.

There are two types of movement.  Next decide if you're driven by ideology - in which case you are probably (a single issue movement, like health reform?) a transformational movement big on advocacy.

Now if you say that you want a paradigm shift (towards coordination rather than every individual, group or organization looking out for themselves), you start off as an 'expressive movement'.  This suggests you're bringing people together to take on an array of challenges.  If that's the case I believe you are an 'expressive movement'.

A challenge is a problem that has been defined.  It can be defined by individuals or a network. 

Now a movement probably has no structure to begin with.  It's pretty fluid.  To get things done either you adopt a top-down command-and-control model, in which case you become an organization.  This is how the church, monarchies, military and big corporations got things done.

Fast-forward to 21st century ....

We're looking for creative adaptations to the styles of organizing we've used in the past.

These days we're more into distributed decision-making.  This allows us to be global, national or local in outlook yet be flexible enough to take very local situations, and deal with them immediately, i.e. without waiting over a month for the board to meet and tell us what to do next, or ignore suffering because of higher priorities.  When you have hyper-local decision-making an international movement will have taken on the form of a geographical network of hubs or centres.  When that happens, you call yourself a network.

So when you are interested in creativity and participative operational styles, why not start off with the idea of a network reflected in the name?

Funding a network that has no tax base requires an agency that brings money to individuals creating a better world starting in their neighbourhoods.  Otherwise you go to the same bankers that everyone else ends up getting in with.

With an agency in place to generate income for a network, you can go from global thinking, to hyper-local action with compassion, and without compromise.

A network that is working with an agency to handle client needs is the only way I know that we can create a compassionate society where no-one is left behind socially and economically.

Update on Social Creator network in Toronto

We had a Social Creator gathering at the Italian cultural centre in Toronto on Wednesday February 8th, 2012.

As promised we took a look at the income model.  We are redesigning business as a fine art form, called Biz Nouveau.  Using the methodology of 'expressive movements' rather than work with a preconceived agenda, other than the income model we let topics for discussion emerge.

One focus that emerged quickly was on the group supplying physical products and systems for land developers who are putting up condos, theme parks etc. 

A second focus was an agency to represent, or sell the ideas and services of our arts-based professionals. We also saw a market for accreditation of land developers as agreeing to work by certain standards that the agency will develop.  People interested in participating in the agency shared an interest in collaborative villages.  We are witnessing and keeping track of these gradually spreading across various neighbourhoods and coming together as a social ecology. 

Another focus was on services such as theatre productions that put across subtle ideas about the role of the interrelationships and the technology in our lives.  

The agency's income as a percentage of the ideas, services and goods sold will allow us to establish an acting troupe for storytelling, skits and theatre productions.  These events will prepare people for new ideas, our products and services, as well as outright 'selling' to interested prospects.  We also see a promotional role for video production and film.

Knowledge-based Economy?

Strategic notions of a knowledge-based economy in `developed countries` require all levels of government to put in place policies that ensure citizens get paid for their knowledge.  


Realize that when governments ask us to submit ideas free-of-charge we limit the quality of input as well as the possibilities of some kind of economic knowledge recovery.  Then we could spend in our neighbourhoods and strengthen local economies.

Knowledge is embodied in each individual.  Supposedly it's lodged inside each person's neurology and muscle fascia.  But who knows where knowledge extends?  


Officials at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, have been pumping out ideas of a knowledge economy for some time now.  It's an international institution run by unelected officials that use ideas about economics to help governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalized economy.  Ministers of industry and finance subscribe to these ideas and dutifully pay their membership dues each year.  The notions of the OECD result in national strategies that have very real consequences in all of our lives.  www.oecd.org.

I've never heard of economies other than those derived from creating less demand on limited resources, or less need for action.  Who knew we are strategically planning our competitive stance as societies based on economies derived within the accretion and rearrangement of bioplasma in brain cells and electronic impulses in body cells?



If we want to progress through economies of knowledge then would we be well advised to drop ideas of competition and work together internationally, much like how learning progresses through sharing of academic studies and research.


We need to change as individuals so we're able to produce the items and services that contribute to whatever kind of society we want to live in.  The specific nature of your ideal society differs from that of other individuals based on cultural outlooks, values, education, and experiences.


It would be tragic if government talk of competitiveness tended to distract us from making our unique contribution and fulfilling our unique needs and aspirations.  In economic crises are soothing words delaying the need for personal introspection and the prospect of shared  adaptations?  
 

Contribute within TODAY`s Economy

In the USA, Obama's annual State of The Nation address continued the illusion that life in ‘developed nations’ is all about manufacturing.  

At least citizens of the US get a regular pep talk.  In Canada we have no idea where we are heading, either as an economy, or as a society.  You'd think that somebody in government would do something to rectify that.   

When you walk up to the door into a public washroom you notice that someone has been thoughtful enough put a little phrase or graphic on the door.  It’s something that everyone knows indicates a public washroom.  The reason it’s placed there is to indicate what to expect next.  

There needed to be something placed on the door to the future, decades ago.  The word for that little phrase or graphic that everyone understands is a sign.  

We achieve new kinds of society.  It's something we all agree to strive towards.  Together we put our life blood into making it happen.  All we need is a little sign.

Many of us distrust, or simply don’t know what kind of society we’re supposed to be moving towards let alone know what we`re contributing towards achieving.  The last time we heard a politician describe a vision of where we are going as a society was during the 1970’s when John F Kennedy told us we were going to the moon. 

As it turns out it was not a vision for society but a message to calm the military-industrial complexes of the US and USSR.  Kennedy was thoughtful enough to place a sign on the door to the future to indicate what the military and war industries of the two superpowers could expect next.  

Talk about the moon was a sign to indicate to the military-industrial complexes that they had a future in a world that was relatively peaceful.


Maybe that's why people are looking for signs of the times.  The sign we need is TODAY when we look around us.

Maybe that's why people talk about signs of the times.

What does the Omni-dimensional Alliance I'm hearing about refer to?

It refers to working together towards revitalization of society within a place.

Revitalization means more than putting up new buildings or working together to sell new products and services.

To understand revitalization requires learning to work creatively in ways that embrace all aspects of life.

Discovering how DNA works was not the key to understanding life, or revitalization, no matter what you've heard about in documentaries. Life is partly physical - something based on light energy, nerve impulses, and molecules that include DNA. Life also includes places for everyone and everything to grow and mature.

Life is about a shared vitality amongst people, animals, and plants, both locally and throughout the ecology of lands and oceans. Life includes our minds, emotions, the unique individuality of our creative expressions, and the unifying influence of a team spirit.

To revitalize our neighbourhoods requires us to develop and bring forward an omni-dimensional approach that embraces all visible and invisible dimensions within life.

With a mission of international renewal, why focus on revitalization of our neighbourhoods and rural areas?

Large scale renewal is the result of small responses. We respond or adapt how we do things in order to adjust to changes in our surroundings. The neighbourhoods and rural areas that immediately surround us are places where we are most able to respond, encourage learning and creativity, plus enjoy a shared vitality and team spirit.

Commuting to a factory or head office has become less important in what's new and creative about society. Entrepreneurs live, work and collaborate in neighbourhoods. Local collaborations and less commuting becomes important for a clean and healthy ecology.

Who do we partner with if we are to help local entrepreneurs?

The alliance is for people in the learning and creative field, organizations that bring people together in order for us to prosper and become all we can be -

schools, libraries, theatres, galleries,

land and building developers who want to stand out,

movie, television and web content producers who work with neighbourhoods

associations committed to professional development of their members,

hotel and resort operators that need our neighbourhoods and rural areas to thrive and be renewed if visitors are to enjoy greater experiences while working and relaxing.

The alliance is a way for organizations to enter into healthy working relationships with neighbourhoods. There will be one number to call, and one invoice to process, whenever leaders in an organization want to respond to opportunities in their working environment, and adapt how things get done. As neighbours we're partnering with organizations in an easy way so that we all benefit from the brilliance present within our local networks of entrepreneurs.

As neighbours we're facilitating how organizations link together to derive greater benefit from one another.

What's next?

Click at the end of the page to become a friend of this social creator network blog. Contact biznouveau @ gmail.com to enquire about upcoming events. Take some courses in news ways to work more creatively and effectively.

If you're with an organization, association, or a media producer, contact confercentre @ gmail.com, and find out more about alliance membership.

There's more to life and revitalization than we've considered to date. There are better ways to express ideas about vitality, spirit, revitalization, cultural renaissance, health and wellness. We're anchoring these ideas within a place. We've started where we are.

That is what the social creator network is about - starting conversations, having more rewarding collaborations, and introducing smarter ways to get things done.