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.
