Category Archives: ProxThink Growth Model

Networks Plus the ProxThink Growth Model

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Before networks, markets were a way for people to relate to proximities. But now, networks can allow us to more directly know about and relate to proximities. Especially networks such as the Internet.

But we need updated ideas, tools, models and standards for relating to proximities via networks. ProxThink provides these. Especially the ProxThink growth model.

Given what we’re facing, such as the effects of global economic linkages, the limits of markets, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and other challenges which relate to proximities, we need to begin putting the ProxThink growth model to use in combination with networks. This Sustainable Proximities proposal is a guide for doing so.

See also Networks, Nature and New Possibilities.

Proxri Deal: As you find our relationship rewarding, proxri with the proximity in mind.

What I’d Really Like to Do

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Although there are many Ways to Use the ProxThink Innovations, and I’ve made a list of the Top Ten Things ProxThink Makes Possible, in my opinion the biggest innovation is the process of Combining the ProxThink Growth Model and the Internet, which leads to what I’d really like to do. If things we can do in the Top Ten list with this big innovation related to climate change, sustainability, downloadable content or fresh art don’t get your attention, perhaps our current financial turmoil might cause you to keep reading.

Markets solve some problems, but it’s clear there are limits to markets. There are limits to pretty much any element. There are also limits to what governments and nonprofits and churches and other groups can do to solve problems in the proximity. I’ve developed a new process for coordinating, managing resources and collaborating, which can complement and enhance markets, governments and other processes. I believe it makes better use of the Internet in our networked, sped up, decentralized, overlapping and participatory world.

This new process combines the Internet with the ProxThink growth model. It helps focus attention on the proximity, which is needed, since our focus is often on elements such as ourselves, our businesses, organizations, regions and countries. Clearly, with challenges like climate change, terrorism, financial turmoil, international conflicts, poverty, health threats and other tough challenges, we need sets of ideas and processes which serve our efforts to relate to the proximity of such situations.

Given what we’ve learned about the benefits of sustainability, we need ideas and processes that encourage and support sustainable proximities, which is what combining the Internet and the ProxThink growth model can do. I believe, with this approach, we can also have more variety in our lives if we want it. We owe it to ourselves to try it, experiment with it and improve it. That’s what I want to collaborate with others to do — to start building more sustainable proximities by combining the Internet with the ProxThink growth model. This is in addition to the sustainable proximity projects I’ve already started, which include ProxThink, artdown, downloadable content standards and proxEarth.

I’m also encouraging others to adopt and adapt the ProxThink growth model, and can collaborate with them as well.

Proxri Deal: As you find our relationship rewarding, proxri with the proximity in mind.

Financial Turmoil is Avoidable

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NOTE TO READERS: This is another press release I’m working on.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Financial Turmoil is Avoidable:
Combining Internet with ProxThink Growth Model can Create Sustainable Proximities

Los Angeles, CA, November 24, 2008, 3:30 PM – “You know, we don’t have to live with financial turmoil and the extreme variability of markets. If we focused more on the proximity, and used the Internet in combination with a new growth model I’ve developed, we could create many sustainable proximities,” says ProxThink creator David Loughry. “It would be a shame if we knew of better ways to coordinate, manage resources and collaborate, and didn’t start trying them. We shouldn’t be so helpless in the face of all this economic mayhem. We have other options.”

Loughry thinks we’re still in the horseless carriage stage of using the Internet. Before we really learned how to design cars, they were just motorized carriages without the horses. We hadn’t yet discovered the unique properties of cars and new opportunities they presented. In a similar way, we’re not yet taking advantage of some opportunities the Internet presents. With the connections and proximity awareness the web can provide, we have the potential to relate to some proximities more fully and directly than before the web existed. Taking the proximity as a point of departure, Loughry created: 1) a new thinking structure, called the ProxThink Basics; 2) new patterns and tools for creativity and innovation that leverage the thinking structure, known as the ProxPatterns and ProxThink Hints; and 3) the sustainable new ProxThink growth model, which is built with the structure and patterns just mentioned. The combination of the Internet and related technologies with the ProxThink growth model creates: 4) a fundamentally different way for us to relate to proximities. This approach can help us more sustainably coordinate, collaborate and manage resources in a wide variety of situations ranging from the serious to the fun, and in the short and long term.

Why does this approach have potential? The ProxThink growth model shares the emergent nature, and synergistic and sustainable qualities, of the ProxPatterns upon which it is built. The growth model has a proximity focus, and includes processes for connecting with people (RelatePoints), proximity awareness (ProxMonitors), sustainable agreements (Vadi Agreements) and rewards which relate elements in the proximity (proxri). All four of these processes work well with the web, and boost coordination, resource management and collaboration. The growth model, especially when used in combination with the Internet, has the potential to be sustainable, flexible, healthy, fun and efficient. On the ProxThink website, the Sustainable Proximities page provides more details, and links to early-stage examples and implementations of the approach. One of the initiatives considers in more detail how ProxThink ideas and the growth model relate to markets and financial turmoil. The others include implementations of the growth model for websites and blogs (see Proxri Deal and Proxri-Based Membership); a proposal for downloadable digital content content such as music, movies, video, art, books and software that can solve some legal, financial and logistical problems; and a climate change project called proxEarth, which includes things you can do right now if you have a website, blog, or use social software sites. Not every proximity may be appropriate for this approach. But for those which are, it may be a win/win strategy for people involved, allowing a fuller range of voluntary engagement, while meeting needs at the same time.

With reference to markets, Loughry believes there are many opportunities to combine the ProxThink growth model and the Internet to complement and enhance markets. Further, the approach can perhaps replace markets in some proximities, as well as serve some proximities which markets can’t serve. For proximities in which it is appropriate, the growth model and web combination may be more stable over time than markets, and also more dynamic, since diversity, complexity, sustainability and liveliness are enhanced and encouraged by the ProxThink growth model. Given the way ProxThink and the growth model relate to proximities, even transitions to using the growth model with the web can be engaging and lively.

The growth model and web combination benefits from network effects, so the more people who know about it and use it, the more sustainable proximities can become. Loughry wants to start implementing the approach in proximities, and seeks users, partners, funders, contributors and collaborators. He also encourages others to adopt and adapt the growth model. For more, visit ProxThink.com (http://proxthink.com).

Proxri Deal: As you find our relationship rewarding, proxri with the proximity in mind.

Upside of Combining the ProxThink Growth Model and the Internet

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ProxThink makes possible more sustainable proximities.

It feels to me like we’re still in the horseless carriage stage of using the Internet. Before we really learned how to design cars, they were just motorized carriages without the horses. We hadn’t yet discovered the unique properties of cars and new opportunities they presented. In a similar way, we’re not yet taking advantage of some opportunities the Internet presents.

With the connections and proximity awareness the web can provide, we have the potential to relate to some proximities more fully and directly than before the web existed. The proximity is a useful concept since the meaning of proximity includes nearness in relationship, allowing consideration of any elements related to a situation (more about proximity here). Taking the proximity as a point of departure, I have created: 1) a new thinking structure, called the ProxThink Basics; 2) new patterns and tools for creativity and innovation that leverage the thinking structure, known as the ProxPatterns and ProxThink Hints; and 3) the sustainable new ProxThink growth model, which is built with the structure and patterns just mentioned. The combination of the Internet and related technologies with the ProxThink growth model creates: 4) a fundamentally different way for us to relate to proximities. This approach can help us more sustainably coordinate, collaborate and manage resources in a wide variety of situations ranging from the serious to the fun, and in the short and long term.

Why does this approach have potential? The ProxThink growth model shares the emergent nature, and synergistic and sustainable qualities, of the ProxPatterns upon which it is built. The growth model has a proximity focus, and includes processes for connecting with people (RelatePoints), proximity awareness (ProxMonitors), sustainable agreements (Vadi Agreements) and rewards which relate elements in the proximity (proxri). All four of these processes work well with the web, and boost coordination, resource management and collaboration. The growth model, especially when used in combination with the Internet, has the potential to be sustainable, flexible, healthy, fun and efficient. On the ProxThink website, the Sustainable Proximities page provides more details, and links to early-stage examples and implementations of the approach. One of the initiatives considers in more detail how ProxThink ideas and the growth model relate to markets and financial turmoil. The others include implementations of the growth model for websites and blogs (see Proxri Deal and Proxri-Based Membership); a proposal for downloadable digital content content such as music, movies, video, art, books and software that can solve some legal, financial and logistical problems; and a climate change project called proxEarth, which includes things you can do right now if you have a website, blog, or use social software sites. Not every proximity may be appropriate for this approach. But for those which are, it may be a win/win strategy for people involved, allowing a fuller range of voluntary engagement, while meeting needs at the same time.

I want to start implementing the growth model and web combination in some situations and proximities. I hope you or your organization will be interested in being a user, partner, funder, contributor or collaborator. Contact me here.

I also encourage others to adopt and adapt the growth model and web approach. The growth model and web combination benefits from network effects, so the more people who know about it and use it, the more sustainable proximities can become, and the more sustainable proximities we can create.

For more, please see the Sustainable Proximities page. There you will find sections on sustainability, applicability, leveraging technology, a discussion of what this approach might be like (sort of like the give and take of a neighborhood, relationship, friendship or perhaps being a considerate traveler) and other topics.

Proxri Deal: As you find our relationship rewarding, proxri with the proximity in mind.

ProxThink Makes Possible Different Ways of Life

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ProxThink is a general yet also structured way to think about and relate to situations, and can complement network theory, contextual considerations, systems thinking and scenario planning, as well as science, philosophy, creativity, governments, markets and other processes.

ProxThink leverages emerging phenomena such as networked participation and Internet-enabled proximity awareness by using a new growth model. It can complement and enhance existing social structures, such as democracy and capitalism. It applies to major challenges like climate change, the economy, financial turmoil, the need for innovation, and political, social and health conditions, as well as more routine concerns. It is a systemic new way for people to innovate, coordinate, collaborate, and manage resources. It can boost thinking, creativity, growth and sustainability.

Even though this new set of ideas and processes can complement existing social structures, it is a paradigm shift. It is a different way to think and relate. It allows us to think different things and solve problems in different ways. It makes possible new kinds of growth. It makes possible different ways of life that are more stable over the long term, yet also more dynamic, diverse and lively over the short term.

Proxri Deal: As you find our relationship rewarding, proxri with the proximity in mind.

Sustainability and ProxThink

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How does ProxThink support sustainability? This post is a short introduction.

I believe the meaning of sustainability supports the possibility that diversity and complexity can persist, adapt and change as needed. In this sense, you might also think of sustainable as meaning lively. ProxPatterns, and ProxThink Hints built with them, stimulate creativity, innovation and liveliness partly by how they work together and play off each other. Further, much like the way emergence works, individual ProxPatterns are patterns for relatively simple interactions, yet when combined can generate complex behavior and order from a more general viewpoint. This enhances sustainability by supporting diversity and complexity.

The four processes of the ProxThink growth model build on the sustainable qualities of the ProxPatterns, and the processes are proposed standards. The growth model has processes for connecting with people (RelatePoints), proximity awareness (ProxMonitors), sustainable agreements (Vadi Agreements) and rewards which relate elements in the proximity (proxri). By focusing on proximities, the growth model is an integrated way to more sustainably coordinate, collaborate and manage resources for proximities, and supports engaging and lively transitions to the approach.

Also, regarding a strength of proxri, as we worry about avoiding monocultures and ensuring biodiversity for greater sustainability, we should probably also encourage many kinds of rewards related to proximities, such as proxri.

For more on sustainability and ProxThink, see Sustainability and Sustainable Proximities.

Proxri Deal: As you find our relationship rewarding, proxri with the proximity in mind.