[p2p-research] [p2pf] Scenius, Innovation and Epicenters

[Michel Bauwens]

Thanks Kev, some comments on the article below here at
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/networked-scenius-private-patronage-and-the-partner-state/2008/06/29

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 7:44 AM, simul8 <kev.flanagan at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sent to you by simul8 via Google Reader:
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> Scenius, Innovation and Epicenters<http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/worldchanging_fulltext/%7E3/320770992/008160.html>
> via WorldChanging <http://www.worldchanging.com/> by Alex Steffen on
> 6/26/08
>
>  Ally Kevin Kelly has a terrific piece up about Brian Eno's concept of
> scenius<http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/06/scenius_or_comm.php>
> :
>
> *Brian Eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that
> groups, places or "scenes" can occasionally generate. His actual definition
> is: "Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole
> cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius."
>
> Individuals immersed in a productive scenius will blossom and produce their
> best work. When buoyed by scenius, you act like genius. Your like-minded
> peers, and the entire environment inspire you.
>
> The geography of scenius is nurtured by several factors:
>
> • Mutual appreciation -- Risky moves are applauded by the group, subtlety
> is appreciated, and friendly competition goads the shy. Scenius can be
> thought of as the best of peer pressure.
> • Rapid exchange of tools and techniques -- As soon as something is
> invented, it is flaunted and then shared. Ideas flow quickly because they
> are flowing inside a common language and sensibility.
> • Network effects of success -- When a record is broken, a hit happens, or
> breakthrough erupts, the success is claimed by the entire scene. This
> empowers the scene to further success.
> • Local tolerance for the novelties -- The local "outside" does not push
> back too hard against the transgressions of the scene. The renegades and
> mavericks are protected by this buffer zone.
>
> Scenius can erupt almost anywhere, and at different scales: in a corner of
> a company, in a neighborhood, or in an entire region.
> *
>
> I've been lucky enough to be involved (at least peripherally) in a few
> really vibrant scenes of communal innovation, and in my experience, the one
> thing they all have in common is what I've called an epicenter<http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//002067.html>
> :
>
> *[E]very community needs the space where people who do innovative,
> creative, risky, noble, worldchanging things get together and fuel each
> other's ardor. Meeting your allies -- shaking hands, sitting down and eating
> together, talking, laughing, getting to look one another in the eye, getting
> to know someone in all the rich, primate non-verbal ways which can only
> happen in actual physical proximity -- is powerful. Epicenters are tools.*
>
> Kevin quite rightly points out that scenius is difficult, if not
> impossible, to create on demand, and the same is true of its epicenters. You
> can't just open a bar and expect collective genius to erupt. Artists can
> tell you that the same thing is true of any form of human creativity -- it
> just doesn't turn on like a tap. But artists can also tell you that while
> you can't command creativity and innovation, you can create a welcoming
> space for it and increase the likelihood that it will show up. It can't be
> commanded, but it can be courted.
>
> The art of courting genius is one that people hoping to solve the world's
> big problems would do well to learn, because truly worldchanging solutions
> don't arrive steadily or predictably on schedules as deliverables for
> rational investment. No, truly worldchanging solutions tend to arrive in
> unruly clumps, in great non-linear spills of changed thinking.
>
> This reality vexes today's philanthropists and social investors. For the
> past two decades, the trend in the practice of giving money intelligently in
> an effort to do good has been all about measurable outcomes and predictable
> returns on giving. This approach has had some benefit, driving social
> enterprises to leaner operations; but mostly it's been an abject failure.
> Indeed, as I wrote last summer, many social investors are finding that in
> trying to bring predictability to their work, they've become incredibly
> averse to risk, and that this fear of risky giving has left them almost
> completely incapable of finding and funding efforts that would create the
> conditions for the emergence of the kinds of innovation we most need<http://www.worldchanging.com/archives//006796.html>
> .
>
> (Worse yet is the trend towards half-assed citizen media and social
> networking approaches, projects based on the insane assumption that all
> that's needed to court collaborative creativity is a website and a good
> advertising campaign. This tendency to think that innovative collaboration
> comes free of cost, bubbling up out the Internet like spring water, betrays
> a poor understanding of the actual workings of either online collaboration
> or quality thinking. Most often, when these open/ citizen-media/
> online-collaborative approaches work, it's because a core group in the
> project provides most of the important input, and usually curates most of
> the other participants' input into useful forms. So, frequently, funders'
> hopes that they can create transformation on the cheap actually just create
> a system that appears cheap because it externalizes the cost of expert
> participation onto the shoulders of others... and when their enthusiasm lags
> (or they need to get day jobs), the project falters or dies. The examples of
> failed peer-based social innovation efforts outnumber the successful cases
> by orders of magnitude.)
>
> I suspect what we need is an exploding number of epicenters, independent
> and creative people and groups, and well-designed networks to support them
> -- things that set the conditions for a planetary explosion of new thinking.
> We need to prepare lots of welcoming spaces where genius can take roost.
> That's going to take some risk-oblivious, keenly perceptive, imaginative
> money.
>
> But even more, I suspect it's going to take worldchangers understanding how
> valuable networked scenius is, and joining efforts to welcome it into their
> own lives and communities.
>
>
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