[MG] Coming to grips with success - communities and lateral extension

[Michael Allan]

Here are some rough formalizations in the pollwiki of communities:
http://zelea.com/w?title=Special%3APrefixIndex&namespace=300
I think the most direct path to success is:

  1. Identify the communities.
  2. Spread to them.

We can start today.  The result would be immediate success or failure.
If it were failure (very likely), then we'd only need to identify the
problem, solve it, and try again - eventually we'd succeed.  There
might be other paths to success, but none so immediate as this one; it
comes to grips with the problematic of success itself, which is one of
lateral extension. [1]

That would place the initiative squarely on the social side.  The
leaders would be those who commit to action and stand out ahead of the
technology.  There is no other way forward at this stage.  Can anyone
see a fault in this logic?  Or some other way forward?


(technical stuff) I've identified some nuts and bolts that can safely
be developed in advance: [2]

  a) Message harvesters for the different types of online community.
     Harvesters are the workhorses of crossforum theatre, and they'll
     be providing the metrics that feed the visualizations of lateral
     spread on which success depends.

  b) Communities are composed of people, ofc.  We'll be visualizing
     this graphically.  All we have ATM is a rough UI for data input:
     http://www.zelea.com/w/Property:Community

  c) C says content is King.  We can formalize thematic content and
     use it to visually interrelate:

        * People
        * Communities
        * Polls (issues)

     A folksonomy is probably the most flexible approach to start
     with.  Again we already have a rough UI for the necessary data
     entry: http://www.zelea.com/w/Property:Topic

     Rudimentary queries, too:
     http://www.zelea.com/w/Special:SearchByProperty/Topic/-20politics
     http://www.zelea.com/w/Special:SearchByProperty/Topic/-20Metagovernment


Notes:

 [1] Success depends on positioning the toolset (means) in the context
     of a desireable and feasible end.  Our current lack of such a
     context is why we have no dedicated users (short of Thomas and I)
     to help in identifying the inevitable development problems.
     Whatever the *content* of the end, it must take the form of a
     lateral spread across many online communities.  Other possible
     forms are either undesireable (no communities) or infeasible (one
     or a few).

     The tools (means) cannot be developed further without the close
     collaboration of at least 2 dedicated and skilled users.  We need
     people who are both motivated and intelligent, which again calls
     for ends that are both desireable and feasible.

 [2] Some ideas here.  I'm not sure it's necessary to read any of
     this, but for some reason I found it necessary to write:
     http://metagovernment.org/wiki/User:Michael_Allan/Seeding_an_inter-community_network

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/



Originally posted to the mailing list of the Metagovernment Project:
http://metagovernment.org/mailman/listinfo/start_metagovernment.org