The “wood bud moment” of organizing

The "wood bud moment" of organizing

The “wood bud moment” of human organizing is when the meme of a generative & transformative initiative jumps from one mind to another, where it is absorbed by a fertile terrain.
I think of an initiative as generative when it generates more collective energy than it consumes.
The initiative is transformative when the information in its DNA instructs all of its off-springs, over the subsequent generations, to guide the evolution of their consciousness to the next plateau.
In biomimicry-inspired organizing, the “wood bud moment” starts with a hardly perceptible, tiny extrusion on a branch of activity or concept.
It is a moment that gives rise to the propagation of a nested hierarchy of opportunities, most of which is not visible but from hindsight.

(For reference on “biomimicry-inspired organizing” see my note related to “biomimicry-inspired knowledge, social and technical ecosystems to augment collective intelligence in human communities at increasing scale,” here.)

 
A few days ago, we, at Campus Co-Evolve launched the Protopia Learning Expedition . One of its pathfinders (in the language of the outdated models of higher education also known as “students”) suggested that we create a central place for the repository of hyperlinks relevant to our learning journey.
 
That was a small meme that jumped over to my mind. There, it generated off-spings revealing themselves gradually and slowly, in a nested hierarchy of opportunities. I don’t see and don’t want to see where they all lead to. Watching its inherent energy to carry itself forward is more rewarding.
 
The “central repository for hyperlinks” meme activated a neural path to one of my long-standing, cherished dreams, a well-tended and biomimicry-inspired Community Knowledge Garden.
 
Of course, a knowledge garden needs a knowledge gardener. It seems that in our learning community, there’s at least one pathfinder with a knack for energizing such a role. Let’s see what kind of branch will emerge from that idea bud.
 
 
Given my decades-long research into the design options and enabling conditions for creating a biomimicry- and Engelbart-inspired Community Knowledge Garden, given our shared passion for it, and given the thrust of Protopia for prototyping the future with one radical innovation at-a-time, we’re well-poised to love this vision into embodied reality.
Yes, there would be plenty of challenges on our way. Each of them will be to grow/strengthen some capabilities we should activate for overcoming them. The next possibility bud growing out from this branch didn’t make me wait long for it to appear:

 

I’m keenly aware that a working prototype of this knowledge garden, as a transformative initiative, capable to serve the complex and evolving needs and aspirations of a growing learning community, can be created only in a team effort, by a Transformative Community of Practice (TCoP). I wrote about that new development in theory and practice of communities of practice, here.
 
This branch of the tree will probably grow more slowly than the ones that appeared before it. That’s because growing cognitive products based on idea emergence can occur faster than what else is necessary to actually grow a knowledge garden, e.g. securing talents with specialized knowledge and a deliberately developmental personal identity, not the mention the time it takes to cultivate human bonds in the TcoP.
 
The development of the prototype would be particularly slow if we wanted to secure the specialized knowledge required for the project from purely volunteer effort. The knowledge garden will belong to the commons but those who choose to dedicate their creative time to feed the commons, need to feed themselves, too. Contemplating long enough the creative tension dwelling in that bud made its leaves unfold and open a new layer of possibilities.
 
 
If the prototype is proven to be successful, in terms of its contribution to the collective intelligence and impact its users, then its framework, tools, and method will be replicated in the commons.
 
To add velocity to that replication, Campus Co-Evolve, our Community Interest Company, could create design advisory and educational services that would let organizations get greater benefits from the open-source knowledge garden, and get them faster.
 
From the revenues generated by those services, we could feed those who fed the open-source products that our services will further power up.

We’ve come a long way from our initial “wood bud” moment, the recognition of the need for a central place of link repository in the Protopia Learning Expedition. Each of those moments is carrying many more wood buds and innumerable flower buds that, someday, will give rise to a rich harvest of delicious sweet fruits. May the tree of Campus Co-Evolve nourish generations to come. 

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