The Impossible Thing That Would Really Help
by Ron on Feb.26, 2010, under Group Think
IdeaTree Philosophy: The Impossible Thing That Would Really Help
Namely, to feel like you’re being heard. To do that, the Other has to see from your perspective. And to do THAT, you have to hear the Other first. Hmmm…so…what if the relationships between our respective positions could be seen? And what if – intrinsic to the process we use to communicate – others were naturally required to know our thoughts before they could place their own in the proper position, and vs.?
The Computer As Servant
Given the right conditions, people are great filters of the unnecessary. They are great at intuiting relationships and knowing the one website, the one idea that is most important right now. Humans have natural talents in this area, while computers are lousy at it.
But computers can read fast, are great at helping us remember by storing things, and allow us to work at a distance, on our own time, when the inspiration hits. So let’s combine the best of both worlds in an efficient system that helps us innovate while staying out of the way.
IdeaTree’s goal is to be that synthesis and to remove limitations by being dirt-simple to use.
Latent Knowledge
IdeaTree does not predefine how to get to a solution. It gathers ideas as compost and allows latent knowledge to reveal itself as an emergent property once the relevant knowledge is assembled and interrelationships are clearly seen.
This is sharing data, but it goes further. We’re also collaborating in a way that goes after latent knowledge that doesn’t exist on any computer but lies in the experience of group members.
© 2010 by Ron Newman. All Rights Reserved.
The answer – all answers – come not from efforting but from being connected. – Ken Bentall
…it is the interaction between data that causes change. The fundamental mechanism of innovation is the way things come together and connect.[4]
Systems that are based totally on mechanical principles, Newtonian thinking, tend to be very brittle. If something is slightly the wrong dimension, it tends to break. Biological systems tend to have different properties… – Bill Joy, co-founder of the Sun corporation
…there is no thought of attempting to force a static and uniform order upon the world. The universal language facilitates the perception of relationships but does not fix them, and is founded upon a “musical” conception of the world in which order is as dynamic and changing as the patterns of sound in a fugue.[5]
There has been too much attention in recent years to utilizing computer technology to replace humans and far too little effort devoted to the potential for directly improving the performance of human groups.[1]
…the primary barrier to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge and expertise. Discoverers see more clearly what can be done because they have less knowledge about the way things are supposed to work and are not trapped by the limits of their times.[2]
We view hypertext and conceptual maps as a way to create and integrate knowledge, not just to retrieve it. We also feel it is the group, collectively, that must be able to tailor and evolve the conceptual map being used…[3]
…There has been little work to date to develop models of the group problem solving process that are based upon parallel and asynchronous activities by the individuals within the group. There is need for a model which integrates the individual problem solving process with the group process…the view that we believe is the most promising is an objective for "Collaborative Expert Systems," where the experts are provided a knowledge structure…that allows them to dynamically contribute their knowledge to the system and to modify and evolve the system, over time.[1]
Quote References
1Turoff and Hiltz, Computer Based Delphi Processes, invited chapter in Gazing Into the Oracle: The Delphi Method and Its Application to Social Policy and Public Health, Michael Adler and Erio Ziglio, editors, London, Kingsley Publishers
2
Michael Useem paraphrasing Daniel Boorstin’s book The Discoverers (Random House, 1985) in Upward Bound: Nine Original Accounts of How Business Leaders Reached Their Summits. Edited by Michael Useem, Jerry Useem, and Paul Asel, published by Crown Publishing Group (2003).
3Turoff, Hiltz, Bieber, Rana, Collaborative Discourse Structures in Computer Mediated Group Communications, published at http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol4/issue4/turoff.html
4James BurkeThe Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible-and Other Journeys through Knowledge
5Hermann Hesse, Magister Ludi, as described by Alan Watts in The Joyous Cosmology, Vintage, 1962:
