Category: InfoOps (IO)

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Journal: GroupOn’s Potential Part II

Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Corporations, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, microfinancing, Mobile, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Strategy, Technologies, Waste (materials, food, etc)

Not many know that GroupOn, Andrew Mason‘s initiative funded by Eric Lefkofsky, started as Policy Tree “Taking People Out of Politics”.  Citizens were not interested in Policy Tree back then for two reasons: the outrage at mortgage fraud, Wall Street derivatives fraud, and Federal Reserve fraud had not peaked yet, and the power of GroupOn to move markets and nations had not been demonstrated.  Now that GroupOn has turned down Google's offer of six billion, there is no doubt.

Put simply, GroupOn now has more power than George Soros, to take one example.  GroupOn can:

1)  Publish true costs for any product or service that is seriously harmful to all of us, and kill it.

2)  Publicize a product or service that is good for the community, and make it a standard.

3)  Organize micro-giving across an entire nation (e.g. Haiti) using a Global Range of Nano-Needs Table.

4)  Organize citizens to do participatory legislation and participatory policy and participatory budgeting and participatory regulatory and propriety oversight in relation to specific issue areas, zip codes, countries, or states, and empower them as a group that cannot be ignored.

GroupOn has done what all others have failed to do: harnessed citizens in the aggregate.  They have just begun.  When combined with the emergence of digital natives as a political force whose outrage is now maturing (see Jon Lebkowsky's “The Kids Are All Right“), GroupOn is the game changer–not MoveOn.org, not No Labels, not Americans Elect, not IndependentVoting.org–all “old” models dominated by apparatchicks and not at all open to the collective.  GroupOn.  As in Group ON, dude!

See Also:

Journal: GroupOn’s Potential Part I

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Could Rovio or CCP kill Microsoft or Google?

Analysis, Augmented Reality, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Key Players, Methods & Process, Mobile, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools
Ric Merrifield

When you think about who might topple a software giant like a Microsoft or a Google, you might be inclined to think of Goliaths like, well Google and Microsoft.  The same is true of any industry, you probably think of a company of similar size or larger as being the type of company that would win a battle, or a war.

Actual battles and wars end up being an interesting analogy.  If you think if big battles like World War I and World War II, that’s exactly what happened – giants fighting giants from big, knowable centralized points of command.  But there are some other wars that have been fought where the little guy won (or hasn’t lost in the case of one ongoing war) and there’s a common element in all of them.  No centralized physical location to “take out” to win.  When everything is dispersed and there isn’t any one thing to take out, it’s hard to really know how big or how small opposing force is, and they can be substantially more agile.  In this situation, an organization of any size can pose a major threat to an enormous organization.  The war on terror is an ongoing war that fits this profile – it’s virtually impossible to know how big or small the opposition is, or where they are at any given time, so it’s very hard to be ready for an attack from them.  Viet Nam was a tough one for the US to really stand a chance in because it was in unfamiliar territory and there was no central location to take out to declare victory.  One could even make the same argument (at a high level) for why the British lost the American revolution.

So if you don’t know who Rovio or CCP are, I have already made significant progress on the path of making my point.

Continue reading “Could Rovio or CCP kill Microsoft or Google?”

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Reference: Engaging Emergence in 824 Words

Augmented Reality, Blog Wisdom, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Open Government, Policies, Strategy, Threats
Image by David Kessler

My book, Engaging Emergence, in 824 words

Posted on December 12, 2010 by PeggyHolman

I did a guest post for Pegasus Communications last week, providing an appetizer for my book.  Below is a slightly longer version — with examples restored.  If you’re looking for a taste of what it’s about, read on.

What would it mean if we knew how to face challenging situations with a high likelihood of achieving breakthrough outcomes?

EXTRACT:  Since the early nineties, I’ve sought to understand how we turn difficult, often conflicted issues into transformative leaps of renewed commitment and achievement.  I’ve used whole system change practices — methods that engage the diverse people of a system in creating innovative and lasting shifts in effectiveness.  I’ve co-convened conferences around ambitious societal questions like: What does it mean to do journalism that matters for our communities and democracy?  And I’ve delved into the science of complexity, chaos, and emergence – in which order arises out of chaos – to better understand human systems.  In the process, I have noticed some useful patterns, practices, and principles for engaging the natural forces of emergent change.  Here are a few highlights:

All change begins with disruption.

Engaging disruption creatively helps us discover differences that make a difference.

Wise, resilient systems coalesce when the needs of individuals and the whole are served.

EXTRACT:  The practice of collective reflection helps surface what matters to individuals and the whole.  It can generate unexpected breakthroughs containing what is vital to each and all of us.

EXTRACT:   Joel de Rosnay, author of The Symbiotic Man, introduced the notion of “the macroscope”. Just as microscopes help us to see the infinitely small and telescopes help us to see the infinitely large, macroscopes help us to see the infinitely complex.

Read all 824 words (strongly recommended)….

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Journal: Cyber-Idiocy Wipes Out Productivity

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Cyberscams, malware, spam, InfoOps (IO), Military, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy, Standards, Technologies
Chuck Spinney Recommends....

Information has never been so free. Even in authoritarian countries information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable. — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, January 21, 2010

So much for that….

Military Bans Disks, Threatens Courts-Martial to Stop New Leaks

By Noah Shachtman, Wired, December 9, 2010  |  7:02 pm<

It’s too late to stop WikiLeaks from publishing thousands more classified documents, nabbed from the Pentagon’s secret network. But the U.S. military is telling its troops to stop using CDs, DVDs, thumb drives and every other form of removable media — or risk a court martial.

Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, commander of Air Force Network Operations, issued the Dec. 3 “Cyber Control Order” — obtained by Danger Room — which directs airmen to “immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET,” the Defense Department’s secret network. Similar directives have gone out to the military’s other branches.

Read the rest of this sorry tale….

See Also:

Graphic: Cyber-Threat 101

Journal: Army Industrial-Era Network Security + Cyber-Security RECAP (Links to Past Posts)

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Journal: The Open Tri-Fecta–Open Spectrum Next

Earth Intelligence, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Mobile, Policy, Real Time, Reform, Standards, Strategy

As the world shifts to open spectrum

The Economic Times (India), 10 December 2010

The 2G spectrum scam has highlighted the economic and commercial value of spectrum. Mobile services are critical to our shift towards a more knowledge and service-based economy. The increasing mobility of our workforce has created the need for the ability to send and receive data on the go. Competitive pressures have accentuated this need. The decreasing price-performance ratio and the ability to access the internet have further increased the need for mobile wireless services.

The critical input for these services is the electromagnetic spectrum. However, since electromagnetic waves may interfere to effectively manage wireless communications, allocations are often made on an exclusive basis. So, each country has its own institutions and regime to manage it. But with changes in technology, it has become possible to provide for shared usage amongst multiple users in the same band as in Wi-Fi or through cognitive radios. Such changes require a rethink of the existing institutions and instruments for managing wireless.

Read rest of article…

Learn More

See Also:

Graphic: Open Everything

Journal: Open Mobile, Open Spectrum, Open Web

2007 Open Everything: We Won, Let’s Self-Govern

2004 Gill (US) Open Wireless Spectrum and Democracy

Review: Everything Is Miscellaneous–The Power of the New Digital Disorder

Who’s Who in Collective Intelligence: David Weinberger

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Reference: Strategic Analytic Model for Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

About the Idea, Analysis, Blog Wisdom, Budgets & Funding, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), IO Mapping, IO Multinational, IO Sense-Making, Key Players, Methods & Process, Policies, Policy, Politics of Science & Science of Politics, Reform, Standards, Strategy, Threats

Robert David SteeleRobert David Steele

Recovering spy, serial pioneer for open and public intelligence

– – – – – – –

Posted: October 14, 2010 06:40 PM

Strategic Analytic Model for Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

Click on Title to Read at Huffington Post and Make Comments.

EDIT of 10 Dec 10 to add missing links and correct typos, this version only.

A Strategic Analytic Model is the non-negotiable first step in creating Strategic Intelligence, and cascades down to also enable Operational, Tactical, and Technical Intelligence.

Continue reading “Reference: Strategic Analytic Model for Creating a Prosperous World at Peace”

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Journal: Barack Obama, Colin Powell, and National Security

Budgets & Funding, Government, InfoOps (IO), Intelligence (government), Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Policy, Reform, Strategy, Threats
Colin Powell

Will Colin Powell become Barack Obama's next Pentagon chief?

Toby Harnden, The Telegraph UK

4 December 2010

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Obama's most important decision you haven't heard about — Pentagon leaders

Richard H. Kohn, Christian Science Monitor

6 December 2010

Breaking Down Obama's Cabinet Contenders (2008)

Brian Montopoli, CBSNews

6 November 2008

Phi Beta Iota: The most important decision Barack Obama faces is the fundamental one of whether he wants to lead a government that works for all, or continue to be a meaningless placeholder in the theater of the absurd.  Electoral Reform is the only  thing that matters at this point.  Absent Electoral Reform, his mid-term Cabinet appointments will be meaningless–business as usual.  Colin Powell is as good as it gets if he can reframe his sense of loyalty back to the Constitutional Oath and actually down-size the Pentagon program by a third or more, while shifting $200 billion a year to State, where Senator Chuck Hagel would be well qualified to get the place back to evidence-based policies and coherent strategic planning.  Commerce is a big one–Clyde Prestowitz would be our recommendation, along with Joseph Stiglitz to Office of Management and Budget–see our Virtual Cabinet at Huffington Post.  However stellar the appointments, nothing they do will matter absent fundamental Electoral Reform and a restoration of the integrity not only of the US executive policy process, but of the legislative deliberation process as well.  Only Electoral Reform can create an honest representative Congress.  There are many other critical changes to be made at the highest levels, but ONLY in the context of a restoration of the government being Of, By, and For We the People.  Obama is one single piece of paper away from greatness.  We observe with interest.