http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9386720.stm

http://www.fastcompany.com/1710342/the-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-smart-city

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/02/14/110214crat_atlarge_gopnik?printable=true&currentPage=all#ixzz1DTviRr1a

Great piece of journalism that must stimulate some debate!

http://tee-dp.com/Sites/filechute/Snapshot%202011-02-03%2011-46-53.tiff

So it was last week that two ThinkLAB’s in Plymouth and Exeter met to discuss the implications, the impacts, the difficulties and the benefits. First though, what is a sefl organising system? Johnson states “they are complex adaptive systems that display emergent behaviour.” Others centre on them being ‘emergent systems generated by the interaction of global and local influences.’

IT, mobile, aviation and telecommunications companies have been using varying natural self organisation systems and swarm intelligence methods for years. Cory Doctorow in “Human Readable” which is based in the future, where ant based routing is widely used for traffic and communications. A river is a self organising system.

Self organising systems acquire new structure without specific interference from the outside. They create new patterns sometimes without instruction and very often spontaneously. These changes shift, ebb and flow and are bound together by a strong set of relationships amongst connencted participants. Indeed John Lewis offered that “If you give a self organising system rules, then it is no longer self organising.”

Both groups agreed that a self organising system did need a common purpose, a motivation and shared values in order to work. Boundaries rather than rules and certainly not command and control. They evolve. Fabian King and Nathan Davies stated that they are organic, they need feeding and stimulating by the people taking part. They need nurturing.

We are already beginning to see self organisation systems achieve remarkable things in networking, software development and in community based brands eg: istockphoto. The role of some business is changing. One of the advantages of a self organising system is its ability to understand random acts that occur and being able to respond positively to those fluctuations. A necessary skill in tomorrow’s fast paced, changing and dynamic world.

One of the reasons, organisations are failing is because they are too structured, rigid and descriptive about how it operates. Both groups agreed that, in the future, organisations are going to need to act as living systems as people become the differentiating factor. Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers (1996) say “The tension of our times is that we want our organisations to behave as living systems, but we only know how to treat them as machines.” All organisations are living, they are, after all, made up of human beings. Living systems will operate more effectively and innovatively if they self organise.

Rob Glover commented “The future is about enabling self organisaing systems to form around your brand.” However, we will need to change the culture, shape and business models we have all been used to being organised in. Simon Gough believed a self organising system was a “free for all.” What it does mean is business leaders unlearning lots!

However, there was some concern over the chaos that could ensue within self organising systems and that the impact of the group would be limited by the ability of the members and participants. There were no illusions, facilitating a self organisation system would be challenging but both groups agreed that the potential advantages of creativity, freedom, nimbleness and the innovative nature of such a group could only support a brand in being able to respond to the future of a business world that needs to reinvent itself.

Speaking of the year, on behalf of everyone at ThinkLAB, Happy New Year and best wishes for 2011!

Truro – 1st December – 2pm – 4pm – The Power of the Crowd?

Bristol – 3rd December – 2pm – 4pm – The Changing Face of Connection

Truro and Bristol Thinkonions expect some emails!

Initial developments and ideas that have come forward are these:

1. ThinkLAB meetings will move to every other month. Feedback has suggested that every three months is too long. Meetings will still be held in cafes but in sectioned off areas so noise is kept to a minimum.

2. ThinkDRINK is the ‘social’ element of ThinkLAB and we will be organising drinks events across the main sites to bring ThinkOnions from different areas together to converse and meet informally.

3. We will be introducing on the first Tuesday of each month 8pm – 9pm a ThinkCHAT event on Twitter where we will pose three questions throughout the hours session for people to contribute and debate. Hopefully again this helps ThinkOnions from differing areas connect online.

4. We will run up to four ThinkCAMP’s. These will be two day events (this is just draft thoughts at the moment) where ThinkOnions will run a workshop on a particular topic around their area of expertise. We will charge people for these workshops. Fees yet to be decided.

5. We will also run a ThinkCONF too sometime late next year. This will be a day event and be chargeable too, although we will strive to keep the fees as low as possible with sponsorship deals etc. Details of this will be finalised next year.

6. Some ThinkOnions will also start to facilitate the sessions, contribute guest blogs and share content on this site too.

7. The final point is that we will need to start monetising ThinkLAB next year. At present it is being funded via Ann Holman Company Ltd and Ann Holman herself. Our initial thoughts are around £100 plus vat per year or £10 plus vat per month for 10 months. We feel this offers great value and will allow us to develop the website and run ThinkLAB efficiently as it grows.

Obviously, these are just ideas and thoughts at present. It would be great to get some of your feedback on whether we are on the right lines or not! Please comment ThinkOnions, we want to get this right.