In January, Foundation VP Stephen Huddart launched the first installment of his new monthly column in the online journal Open Source Business Review.
Writing broadly about social innovation and open source methodologies, his column will explore how social structures and institutions are evolving to offer the capacity to grapple with managing ourselves and the planet over the long term. An excerpt follows:
Avatar, Open Source and Humanity 2.0
Open source is inclusive, messy and vital. Structurally it reflects the diverse, organic nature of life itself. As an extension of human thought and capability, it opens up new horizons for turning our problems into processes of continuous learning and innovation. We can literally co-create the world we want. So, is the open source world ready to take on the visioning and transitioning process? Will governments support it? Does the community sector recognize the opportunity this presents? Can we afford not to be investing in our capacity to do this work together?
In Canada, open source practitioners are beginning to show the way. David Eaves is helping governments see that opening up their data to a new generation of open source programmers can accelerate service innovation and lower costs; Mark Kuznicki is using open space techniques in ChangeCamps that convene citizens and policy makers around things like transit systems, with breakthrough results. Michael Lewkowitz of ChangeMedium is introducing open source tool builders to social activists, and Peter Deitz is aggregating social actions across the Web at Social Actions.
17 January 2010