second wave

having missed the opportunity of catching the first wave
a serendipitous hiatus has caused me to rethink the unemployment situation
and a new formulation has come to mind

the current social security system tries to treat everyone the same
however in reality
there are at least two tiers:
the standard substandard menu which awaits you when you sign on every two weeks
and for those incapable for whatever reason
incapacity benefit

i believe these two levels of provision are good
and in fact i praise the government's attempt to get a little tighter with the second tier
however
the system is still depressing and overly strict

so
here's a potential solution:
three tiers:
alpha beta gama

gama
where those individuals have serious issues that prevent them from being capable
alcohol addiction depression etc
in which case special care and treatment must be offered
integrated with health service
so help the individual overcome their condition

beta
which is the system that is now
where individuals are helped with cv's and trying to get work
and getting the occasional poke to wake them up
and preventing them from slumping into apathy and depression

alpha
for those individuals who are proactive self-determined learners
who have all the equipment and contacts and energy
to create opportunities of employment

that is
i believe we can create the conditions for the alpha tier
with minimal involvement by the government body
aligning ourselves through the free social media services already out there


i've started talking to people about it
and i hope to make a preliminary meeting with local job centre
again along the methodological principles outlined earlier in this blog and elswhere

went to the social innovation camp last night
and 2 of the chosen 7 ideas related to unemployment
and i believe one of the ideas at the next socincamp will be to produce this system
the trick is
let's not just implement it top-down
PLEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASE
since this will not work as well as a genuine and respectful bottom up growth!

the last week

As predicted, the last week went without much of a murmer of progress. I was not active, and simply awaited any after effects. I received a few emails from MP teams, telling me I was not a member of their constituency, that kind of thing.

I didn't get an email from Jon Cruddas, which is a shame. He seemed direct and genuine. But then again, I was just a lone guy at the end of the conference speaking to him for ten minutes. The difference between being a lone agent or a pair is huge. It probably slipped his mind.

On a positive note, Dougald is making a move with his version of trying to catch The Wave. He held a meeting on thursday which was attended by mamading, vinay, colin, kristine, and myself. It seems some important people are interested in his synthesis. He is playing at the organisational level, with NGO's government departments and the like. Colin showed us a provisional platform for a site, using the open source social utility called dolphin, and vinay revealed his model of organisational change which was very interesting. The three of them seem to be making a committed move. There was not much space for giving feedback because they are demonstrating one of the principles of confluence, simultaneous processes: they are not waiting for agreement, chatting about things before doing anything, they are simultaneously producing something while formulating strategy, while putting the word out. This is good. I did not want to carry my thoughts in my head, so I mind-dumped my response to dougald afterwards. He says he is interested in hearing what I have to say, however I believe I have to await the time when I am asked. This is something which doesn't quite sit well with me, since I suspect I may only be asked after the fact rather in the formation of it. Oh well, we shall have to wait and see. I hope I can be of best service to them, and I believe I shall have to play the part of an observer... from afar. I shall check out their progress in a month when I return from edinburgh.

So, as far as I can understand it, the opportunity to catch this wave at the most important time, has passed. There will be other opportunities no doubt, like dougald's and I hope that meets with more success, and indeed it shall because he is better placed and he is using a more traditional and thus accepted methodology. He is also assembling a strong team around him. There is also a small chance, through possibly minute, that someone else has attempted to catch The Wave in a similar way as decribed here and they may be manifesting change as this is written. If it is working, we will see something emerge during february. I can only wish them, if there is a them, the best of luck. I will be able to spot it if it is happening and contribute all my efforts to assisting its full realisation.

I am realistic, however. The recession is just beginning. The waves of consequence as spreading through the psycho-social sea and constructive and destructive interference, the feedback loops, the disturbances will be many. I think a major opportunity has passed. As things get messier, the visibility for clear action will cloud. Realistically, the solutions people will be coming up with will only deal with partial problems, and the interference of competing solutions will, sadly, contribute to further confusion. I suspect another two years may have to pass before the clouds part for a moment and we get a glimmer of a solution that might shift paradigm of our daily practice. Until that time, I shall keep myself open as much as possible, though concern myself with smaller goals, with helping individuals achieve their ideals at a smaller scale.

what a weekend!

It started on friday. I went to tuttle which enabled me to meet mark, vinay and dougald again. I was directed to speak to a chap called ollie, who speaks to ministers on a regular basis. The best part of the experience was speaking with lloyd who set up tuttle, the social artist. I failed in my conversation with ollie, something about my manner. I was tempted and indeed encouraged to talk about the wave notion with its thresholds, but it did not fall on receptive ears. My fault, since I could tell the energies involved, although lovely people, there is a certain brittleness that means a distinction between word and thought, between action and intention. I should have honoured this sense and been more playful and light in my presentation such that on another day, we could properly discuss it.

The engagement threw me for a while, and I berated myself a little. However, I left and went wandering. I found anna turley deputy director of nlgn, new local government network. I walked into their offices and asked the receptionist if I could talk to her. She happened to be free, and we talked for some 15 mins. The conversation went well, and I felt that I had redeemed my confidence in my ability to communicate. It was much nicer and lighter. Although she could not see a way for her to move forward on it, she wants to be in contact. If anything does happen, she will be an important player, and I would like her to be in any prospective meeting with a VIP change-maker.

Then off for a meeting with vinay. We ended up doing a recording in the lobby of a hotel in mayfair. It was meant to be a direct confrontation of our realities, but when we got together that evening, we followed dougald's interest of capturing a conversation on video. Don't think i wrote about dougald. Dougald is one of the founders of school of everything. Went to a talk of his at the temporary school of thought on wednesday; very impressive. Spectacular character, eloquent and genuine in his integration of his experience, and flowed really well when improvising. So, his desire to record something about the wave took precidence, and we ended up recording a dialogue between vinay and myself. The vid has not been put up on youtube yet. We then went to the school to hear vinay talk about an interesting, and I would say accurate and useful, understanding of magic. His manner of presentation was also very powerful.

On saturday, I went to progressive london. I met a chap called pierre and had lunch with him and joy johnson, who chaired on the first meeting I attended which was to do with barrack obama and what "we" can learn from his campaign. Very interesting discussion, since it revealed the completely different realities that either party are not aware of, even though they were in the same room and apparently talking about the same thing. Pierre is an intelligent young man, who is making his decisions as he goes along combined with an open-minded attitude, and is looking to study political relations. Joy has been a politico most of her life, worked with ken livingston, and has seen plenty of changes in the system and politics too and is not afraid of speaking her mind. I was privilege to share lunch with them, and I was a little foolish in suggesting to them that there was an opportunity for us to gather our respective perspectives and experience in such a way that it benefits us all.

The format of the progressive london was still far too archaic. People behind tables, on stages, with a minute or two's contribution from people on the floor. A bit of shouting, disjointed discussion. It is mostly used for information transference! Weird. Ken and the speakers in the last section of the day were very impressive, inspiring and genuine, and I decided to hang around at the end of the conference to speak to jon cruddas since mamading had recommended I speak to him. His attention to people seemed genuine too, and so I outlined the wave notion to him and how it embodied a lot of what the speakers had said, but it was all about practical action now, and not just talk about it. He gave me his email, and I hope he creates the opportunity for us to meet this week. Even if I think it might be too late to catch the wave, it might be a useful experience to hear the kind of ideas and practice and networks that I am an example of.

Sunday began with a discussion with mamading and his meeting with vinay and dougald the previous night. He seemed enthused with the notion of playing a stone, my term, of making a node of the Jisc Developers Happiness meet up in early february. Interesting possibilities. Sunday also meant a visit to the temporary school of thought where tony had booked a session called "What Can We Do By Tomorrow?". Only mamading, tony and I started it, and we gave ourselves half an hour to come to consensus. We tried a technique of only saying one sentence at a time, ensuring we were inviting others to continue. We didn't manage to conclude, and that was mostly because we invited a few kids in, one called omar, and another called james. We passed the time-window, and we ended up talking. James revealed that he has dreams of being at the Olympics 2012, and I believe his dream is the kind of vector that can align a community. If we put our self-organising sense and skills into practice, we might be able to field some superb atheletes for 2012. Champions who are living proof of the operationality of self-organisation. We exchanged emails, and I hope to remain in contact with him see if he is interested, with omar too. Dougald and vinay turned up too, and there was a little interview which I shall put a link to when I find out when it comes out.

Ended the night with a deep vibe. I read some of my XQ solution booklet to tav and sofia -- and it works! It actually makes some sense. I have some reservations about discussing it. Sofia and tav have different notions, perspective, systems and processes of ideas, and by sharing them it appears we end up falling into the illusion that we are discussing something, when of course the maths is reflective of our processes. The trick is noticing the similarities.

Went off to tango. Had some seriously nice dances with fiona, an interesting challenge when dancing with the teacher claire, two disasterous times where I could not find my partners which made me feel like I couldn't dance, but then had a delightful dance with... with... I can not remember her name. We didn't really talk after the dance, which means there were no words exchanged and hence any label like a name just gets lost in the ether. Got home, did some jaxing, which I shall post up a link to when I get them finished, and a video for the kids who I taught last year.

What a weekend!

last couple of strokes

When trying to catch a wave, one has to first spot it, start paddling, then take three big strokes to try to meet the speed of the wave, and then you are being lifted by the wave. Then the job is to try to pop onto the board and ride it to shore.

The wave, as far as I understanding, is a consequence to the financial shock that hit the banks and economic core sometime autumn 2008. One of the biggest waves is flooding through the markets now, with eg 800k+ people in the uk expected to be unemployed this jan/feb. So, the wave is definitely here. Perhaps it is already too late. Certainly, I think we are being lifted by the wave, and my guess is, we needed to catch it by the end of this month, which means initial engagement with the powers that be needed to be done this week.

Because it is so late in the day when I got involved, as it were, I have had to develop a methodology that is in alignment with buddhist fundamentals. That is, from deep stuff within the self, to mindfulness and listening to one another in meetings, to awareness of what is without having to write endless reports about it, and to create simple and light opportunities for us to self-organise and manifest social movement. Most people are still under the delusion that they must create the movement. The principle learned is that there is movement, and this is obvious to us. The trick is to respond to it appropriately, collectively. That is, not creating another group or network or flag or whatever. That is, not writing a constitution or any documentation. That is, be fresh, be light, and connect with those who are already aware of the situation, already got their solutions and aware of the problems they are trying to solve.

The offering is simple, to avoid the problems. To work out the solutions as they occur. After all, we have so many skills, even to the point we are overskilled. We are over-informed. We have over-theorised. The time is ripe for action. The time is now, to catch this wave, concurrently.

So, given that I am not to use the phone here in the office because it is mainly an internal line, I am encouraged to go and visit the buildings where the decisions makers work. Of course, this approach is doomed to failure. There is no way I can just walk in and end up speaking to a VIP. However, I shall make it clear that I do not have the resources to phone, and the whole writing-up is self-defeating, and so I am in the rather innocent position of walking into their offices and asking to speak... to the queen, as it were.

What is my best approach? I am a maths teacher. I have learned about self-organising systems. And I have a solution to the nightmare that is the effect of the credit-crunch. It is not just a solution, it actually turns this social wave from a recession or depression into a social boon. And the way of manifesting it is simple. The opportunity will pass tomorrow, so it is up to someone there to listen and pass it up through the system.

These are my last few strokes, and I need to put into practice with absolute self-discipline the principles of action. No writing, no group, no proof. Engage people honestly, aware of who they are and the constraints of their post in the institution they are in. Point at what is, offer threshold 1, offer challenge to achieve trust for threshold 2, and idealise threshold 3. Honour the executive power of each person. Keep light, since the opportunity is nothing to mourn, it is something to respond to, this wave, which will lead to so much suffering unless this wave is caught, and perhaps in this manner. It is, after all, merely an offering.

email response

So, I decided to respond to MIT open-course, and then responded to the requests for more information from lulu, liftshare and mybnk. I took time writing personal responses, outlining the idea. Quite useful for me, but if I had to do this with thousands, it would not be possible, and I would end up having to write generic mail. Again, I think this conforms to a principle which is to not extend beyond a small network. We should not be playing the one-to-many game which is demonstrated by TV and radio. This path leads to competition, as we can see in eg youtube, as if we are competing for the same market. The shift in consciousness is better exemplified by those who are personal, who have a few friends, and invest in them. The trick then, is to trust one another to connect up our friendship groups to manifest social collectives for particular purposes. Even the azaaz thing, is the wrong direction, or rather a direction that meets with some limited success.

Essentially, the people I spoke to on the phone yesterday, are the executives. Once we comprehend this, the entire system will be different. We are approaching this state, the trick is, will we manage it before things fall apart...?

So, here's an example of the email I sent off, in this case to cecilia at liftshare:
3
hello
cecilia

you are most kind to reply
and your appreciation of the idea
most appreciated

and i mean that

at this stage
that is all that i have to work with
the trick
as far as i can appreciate
is to find suitably empowered VIPs who are willing to act on hearing a good idea
to create the opportunity for self-organisation to prove itself
and thus we start a cycle of positive change
based on our experience

how can i describe what i am attempting to do?
to bring about social change
without being a group or company or network or any form of membership body

there seem to be plenty of services out there
which yours exemplifies
however
the basic paradigm in which you exist is that of competition
whereas
i believe that the principle upon which you exist is
co-operation

that means
that we need more people to be in this mindset
for your company and others like yours
to thrive...
hence
we need a critical mass of people
and we need them to use the services during a critical period of time
that is
for mindmass to phase
as it were

my contribution is simple:
i am pointing at the figure that economists are estimating
(800k+ people unemployed in the first two months of this year in the uk alone)
and thinking that is a huge potential energy
if it can be harnessed

that is
if that mass of people were directed into self-organising services
not only does it increase your flow-through and potential money-generation
but it creates a current of experientially developed individuals...

i can dream of other steps beyond this
but there is no need to get into detail regarding them
since the time is not right...
involving various self-organising groups like transition towns and life coach meetings etc
and further
manifesting a substantial current of individuals who are all effectively social entrepreneurs...

to come back to a first step
my attempts are to offer a list of self-organising services to local and national government
who in turn offer them to those who are becoming unemployed...
if this manifests as a step-change in member uptake
then we have proved something
and we may then contribute further in more direct co-operation
to manifest even greater levels of co-operation
and again
without actually forming a super-group or network or anything which involves membership

that is
the social manifestation occurs
we are all more aligned
and a positive cycle which we hear so much about in terms of theory
is actually happening...

the other organisations recommended include:
* wikipedia
* firefox
* school of everything
* make movement
* freecycle
* gumtree
* zopa
* mybnk
* zubka
* peopleperhour
* moneysavingexpert
* facebook: not sure if i want to contact these guys...
* tunecore
* tipjoy and twitter
* lulu
* phone co-op
* mit open coursework

this is not a definitive list
of course
and if things get to the point where they are actioned by government bodies in the next two weeks
then i shall be asking for assistance in generating a tighter list...

i hope this puts you in the picture
cecilia
or rather the opportunity which is being attempted
to turn this economic downturn to the benefit of self-organisation and thus as a consequence all of us...


be well!
david

mit open-course

1
i sent a generic email to mit open course
and got this email back
2
Dear David,
Thank you for your interest in MIT OpenCourseWare. We are open to find new ways to extend the reach of our content. Kindly advise me the project you have in mind and which other organizations may be involved.
Regards,
Yvonne
3
for some reason
after the phone issue
i decided to write a response...
which then followed with responses to the other email requests for information

phone limitations

Hmmm.... Just got into the office, and the chap who runs the hive, Mitchell, asks to have a word in private. He tells me that I was using the phone yesterday and this was a problem. He explained that it was effectively an incoming line, and that my constant use of it over two hours yesterday afternoon, my first attempt to contact live people in local and national government, was a problem. He suggested I should look into alternatives.

I am unemployed. I am using this office-space without paying. My computer has been here for some months, while I was in Thailand, for the use of anyone who needed it really, so I think I have some right in being here for a little while and using the services. I wouldn't even mind paying the phone bill... I just eat beans for a month :)

So, I am not sure how to progress. I would like to think there is a positivity and things feedback so that I can take the thing one step further. This does not seem to be the case. I had hoped that I get the support from melanin and the hive, and this is a little problematic. I shall attempt to use skype to conduct the business calls, and we shall see if that works. Mamading is not about, so I am not sure how to align phone with my skype account. Hmmm...

One of the principles I am operating is that I need only go forwards based on a positive conditions. That is, the people whom I spoked to yesterday, even given their position within government, attempted to offer alternative approaches for me such that I can continue with the fulfilment of this idea. They did not block, and though I did not follow the procedure, they came up with a possible avenues for me to progress.

Even Mitchel attempted to assist me to finding an alternative mode of communication. Very kind of him.

Although there is no great supporting energy, I make my lone way, slowly, in the storm, passing from door to door, hoping that my efforts meet with those who might appreciate them, that is, they recognise that I am here to help, and that this proposed solution and manner of implementation is simple and elegant enough to work.