Economic systems thinking (About the New Economy)

A Presentation by Chris Cook, Glasgow

Economic systems thinking_23_07_10

View more presentations from ChrisJCook.

Clay Shirky - Hierarchy & Leadership

"Many of the relative advantages of hierarchy are now reduced." 

The informational advantage of hierarchies is reduced. 

Institutions have lost their monopoly on tight management of information and thigh coordination of action. Now large distributed groups can share information and coordinate through social networking. 

This increases individual power and group power! This is the Multitude social movement!

By AllOfUs

Clay Shirky: Institutions vs. collaboration

Important concept

• coordination costs. 
• power law distribution, 80-20 curve, or long-tail distribution. 

The classic answer to getting a group to do something was the institution (centralized organization based on power relations). Today, the costs of communication, which is fundamental for coordination, has fallen. It is now possible to put the coordination into the infrastructure and to reduce the need for planning.  

The institution asks for:

• explicit goals 
• management, 
• enforcement of goals (carrots and sticks) 
• structure (economic, legal, physical, etc) 
• exclusion (cannot higher anyone) --> professional class 

Collaboration infrastructure: moving the problem to the people instead of moving the people to the problem, shedding institutional costs, adding flexibility. Decentralization, openness, inclusiveness. 

Tension between the institution as an enabler and institution as an obstacle. "Many of the relative advantages of hierarchy are now reduced."

It's all abut value! Open collaborative networks are mostly value-based organizations, and are increasingly replacing institutions (power-based organizations) on different arenas. 

By AllOfUs

New Tactics in Human Rights

The Multitude answer to tyranny!

Visit the Balance of Power

By AllOfUs

What is Ushahidi?

The Multitude answer to crisis management

Visit the Balance of Power

By AllOfUs

Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption

The Multitude Social Movement seen from the consumption point of view.

Visit Economical Alternatives

By AllOfUs

Production & distribution of agricultural products

Source of this photo

At the core of a healthy economical system resides the relationship between producers and consumers. In a large economy deprived of efficient communication systems a third entity appears between the producer and the consumer, the distributor. In this context, the producer is disconnected from the beneficiaries of its products, and the distributor bridges this gap, not only by establishing a distribution channel, offering producers access to a market, to a group of consumers, but also by giving feedback to producers about market demands. History shows that in almost all such systems the power of the distributor increases in excessive proportions, to become a nuisance for the overall economy.


The distributor controls the flow of goods for a profit. There are different ways to increase profits:

• Increasing efficiency
• Increase the flow by
• inciting consumers to buy more
• increasing the market by adding more consumers
• diversification
• etc. 
• Force the producer to sell at lower costs

The best example is the Wal-Mart network, which is rightfully criticized for chocking producers and for spreading consumerism.

In a healthy economy the financier and the distributor have secondary roles. They are service providers between producers and consumers, they MUST NOT control/rule the economy. Economy is about production and exchange of value. If too much power is granted to distributors and financiers they will inevitably suffocate production forces and reduce society to agents of consumption. Evidence of the second effect lies within official reports that talk about consumers and tax-payers instead of citizens.

The multitude movement restores the role of the producer. This is a natural process as the new technology becomes ubiquitous. It is possible now for the producer to maintain direct relations with the consumers. The role of the distributor within the exchange mechanism is greatly reduced. We are heading toward a more healthy economy!

Visit Economical Alternatives See The Food Basket

By AllOfUs

Dark forces trying to use the new technology to increase their grip on society

 I was 14 years old when I left Romania in the spring of 1990, right after the collapse of Ceausescu's regime. I have vivid memories of my life under the tyranny. Some things that are part of your normal life were considered illegal or were forbidden, like owning a small business, criticizing the government or government officials, or even killing your own home-grown cow to feed your family. We lived in constant fear of being reported to the "securitate" for transgressing ridiculous norms, including openly questioning our own condition. The government was collecting information about the population through different technological means, recording phone conversations, opening letters, bugging workplaces and public places, and also by using a vast network of informants. I heard somewhere that in America the government had no right to spy on its own population. At the age of 14, not knowing what freedom means, I thought that this was an aberration. I simply could not comprehend it.

source of this cartoon

20 years later, established in Canada, I am witnessing a gradual transition towards the same situation and climate in North America. It is now out in the open that the US government is indiscriminately spying on its entire population. Data is gathered by monitoring all forms of electronic communication between individuals and from corporate databases. You cell phone is a bug that you carry with you, it can be remotely activated to listen to whatever happens in your soundings, without any obvious warning.

Recently, Citizen Concepts, a US government tool, launched the Patriot App.

"...the world's first iPhone application that empowers citizens to assist government agencies in creating safer, cleaner, and more efficient communities via social networking and mobile technology. This app was founded on the belief that citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other malicious behavior.

Key Features:

• Integrated into Federal Agencies points of contactsFBI
• EPA
• GAO
• CDC
• Custom integration with user employers
• Fully integrated with Social Media (Facebook, Twitter)
• Multiple menus and data fields
• View FBI Most Wanted
• Simple graphical user interface"    source

Here it is if you are so degenerate to participate is this massive snitching operation.

Here is their problem though. WE also have the same tools!
You see, the new technology flattens the play-field, it introduces symmetry in technological means and potential between governments and citizens. What stops us from building a mobile+web application and to incite the population (the TRUE patriots) to log every movement of government officials, financiers and corporate managers ? What stops us from recording and analyzing all their actions with input data from the entire population? In a sense this is what the Internet is doing in a more informal way... Well, let's do it in a more coherent and organized way then! 


And here's something else. What stops you from participating but only to increase the noise level in their data, by reporting FALSE, but credible information. Haha, this sounds like fun to me... They must have some mechanism to sort out credible and non-credible sources. So if you send photos of dirty toilets you will most probably be tagged as a non-credible source, and your effect on the system will be minimized. So keep it serious and credible, as much as possible.

Visit The Balance of Power

Written by t!b!
By AllOfUs

Yochai Benkler: Open-source economics

This is why the multitude is taking over the economy...

Visit Multitude Innovation, read about the Discovery Network

By AllOfUs

Template CCC infrastructre released by Multitude Project

Click to go to page

A new template CCC infrastructure was released today. This Communication, Collaboration and Coordination infrastructure was tailored to support massive and dynamic social movements. It is entirely free (0$), modular, scalable, and can be deployed within hours. It enables groups rallying behind a social cause to plan and execute very complex actions.

This CCC infrastructure connects action groups on the ground with strategic and coordinating centers scattered across the planet. It also offers to the movement tools to connect with the population at large in order to build broad support and draw in various resources.

Contact the Multitude Project for assistance. We are pleased to volunteer our time for a just cause!

By AllOfUs