I am a big fan of the Cynefin framework which amongst other things aims to differentiate between "complicated" environments and "complex" ones. The proposed problem resolutions that might arise between the two are quite different, with the complicated regime supporting our natural tendencies to break thing down to analyse things in smaller chunks before combining them back up into a hopefully good solution. On the other hand for complex environments

My mate Geoff Brown blogs his experience running a music festival using improvisation, trust and the gift economy as an operating system: Over the weekend, myself and Marty Maher and a bunch of other volunteers stage the 3rd annual Aireys Inlet Open Mic Music Festival. Apart from being an absolutely outrageous success, it was loads of fun and we designed and staged it all without a Steering Committee (yaaay) … or a detailed strategic plan for that matter!

Here's Streetbank , a site to support lending and sharing at neighbourhood level. All power to their elbows - it's a niche that the local websites haven't been big on, as far as I'm aware, based on the reflection that because we don't know our neighbours so well, we have more stuff than we need and don't lend and share when we might. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, it won't be the first time, but I think while neighbourhood sites encourage

At SXSWi, I was expecting to be sold the shiny digital future, but what I found was something stranger and unsettling, somewhere fragmented, confused. Is the web getting a bit existential? After its angry adolescence, the web is growing up and beginning to realise that its parents possibly aren’t total bellends.

ALl of you looking for an intensive Art of Hosting experience, we are now accepting registration for the June 6-9 event in Edmonton, Alberta .  Please Please join Teresa Posakony, Tennson Woolf, Corrinna Chetley-Irwin, Mary Johnson, Chantal Normand, and I for four days of learning, connecting and practice around hosting nad harvesting conversations that matter for wise action. ...Tags: Tags: Art of Hostin

Photo cred: [link] The sacred cows I mention below have been on my mind for sevral months now, but I was inspired to take action after a community management panel that I attended at SxSWi. My intention with this post is not to suggest that we do away these sacred cows, but to start to be critical of them. I

3 Online Community Misconceptions and how to stop them You don’t own community, the community owns the community Original intention: To stop (mostly brand) community hosts from being overly-controlling of the community Why it is bad: No ownership = no responsibility, and no long term stewardship.