Tag Archives: Internet

Technology Plus New Processes Mean Better Collaboration for Dealing with Major Challenges

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If we want to deal better with this recession/depression and with climate change, just for starters, we need to collaborate better.

Networks, such as the Internet, provide the technology. I believe the ProxThink growth model, used in a Sustainable Proximities approach, can provide new processes for using the technology of networks. Together, networks and the growth model can allow better collaboration.

As things are now, we’re acting a lot like helpless victims. We’re humans, and we have the power to change. We need to be experimenting with a number of new approaches.

Want another opinion on the need to experiment with different approaches? Check out this great article by Thomas Homer-Dixon, and don’t miss the last paragraph.

Let’s do it!

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

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.

Networks, Nature and New Possibilities

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Natural capital systems like ecosystem services haven’t fallen off a cliff, while our markets have. Shouldn’t we be more embarrassed that we can’t do better? I think we can.

Ecosystem services are things like drinking water, air to breathe, and decomposition of wastes. The earth keeps providing these for us without a break.

We have a highly developed market economy. Yet it can’t seem to function in a smoothly continuous manner. Not only do individual economies suffer ups and downs, but now it’s happening on a global scale.

Networks change the game. We live in an increasingly networked, participatory and transparent world, and that presents both positive and negative possibilities. ProxThink provides ways to think about, relate to, and make more of this new reality. The ProxThink growth model in particular, and the open standards it proposes, provides opportunities when combined with networks.

It often takes a generation to adapt to new technology. So we may not have really figured out how to best use the Internet and networks yet. It is also well known that we have trouble recognizing large, slow changes. This could account for our use of networks to often do old things in new ways, rather than new things that networks make possible.

Networks shift some of the focus from elements, such as objects, people, businesses and governments, to proximities. The ProxThink growth model was designed with networks and proximities in mind. The growth model presents opportunities for greater stability as well as greater variety and vitality, leading at the same time to greater sustainability.

The ProxThink growth model allows for the growth of proximities and people by allowing more direct relationships between individuals and proximities, a strategy used successfully by democracy, markets, and other processes. In essence, the idea is that proximities become things people can have relationships with by means of democracy and markets. The growth model provides new more sustainable and integrated, yet flexible, processes by which proximities become things people can have relationships with. These growth model processes are greatly enhanced by networks.

Specifically, by combining the Internet (and related technologies) with the ProxThink growth model, we can create more sustainable proximities. By shifting the focus to proximities, we could collaborate and work together better. There could be a bit less competition, and a bit more fun and variety. These sustainable proximities could then support diverse people and situations. I think it would result in less turbulence such as recessions and booms, which each seem to feed on themselves and exaggerate the ups and downs. The sustainable proximities we created might become more like the relatively stable ecosystem services we depend on and enjoy.

Again, for more, please see combining the Internet with the ProxThink growth model, and sustainable proximities. You also might also like this financial turmoil post.

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.

Top Ten Things ProxThink Makes Possible

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Here are the top ten things ProxThink makes possible, with links to explore.

1) FOR HUMANITY – NEW WAYS TO USE THE INTERNET TO SOLVE MAJOR PROBLEMS, COLLABORATE AND HAVE MORE FUN
Would you be curious about new ways humanity could use the Internet that not only apply to major problems and help us better coordinate, manage resources and collaborate, but also allow us to have more fun and variety?
See Upside of Combining the ProxThink Growth Model and the Internet and Networks, Nature and New Possibilities


2) CLIMATE CHANGE – BETTER COLLABORATION
Do you care about climate change? Want to do something about it, either alone or in coordination and collaboration with others locally, regionally or globally?
See proxEarth – What You Can Do

3) BOOST TO INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY
Do you want to increase creativity, innovation and problem-solving abilities for yourself, your group or your organization?
See Innovation, Problem-Solving, Creativity

4) MORE WIDESPREAD SUSTAINABILITY
Do you care about sustainability? Want to find out how we can have more sustainability in more ways?
See Sustainability and ProxThink

5) NEW BUSINESS AND GROWTH MODELS
Are you interested in business or growth models, including models for websites and blogs? Interested in a new one that is more sustainable, flexible, healthy, fun and efficient?
See Introduction – ProxThink Growth Model

6) LESS FINANCIAL TURMOIL
Are you concerned about our economy and financial turmoil? Interested in some better options?
See Networks, Nature and New Possibilities and
Financial Turmoil is Avoidable and Financial Turmoil

7) NEW STRUCTURE FOR THINKING
Do you like having ways to structure your thinking, actions and relationships for clarity, creativity and decision-making? Want to see an integrated new structure?
See Structure for Thinking

8) BETTER DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT SYSTEM
Do you download, legally or illegally, music, movies, video, art, photography, books, software or other content on the web? Would you like to know how we could solve some of the legal, financial and logistical problems of downloadable content?
See A New Approach to Downloadable Content

9) LIFE – MORE VARIETY AND BALANCE IN LIFE
Like variety? Do you wish your life had more variety and balance?
See Life Balance and Variety

10) ART – FRESH ART
Do you like, make or buy art? Interested in something which could change art, the art world, and how we share and view art?
See the artdown site

If any of the above interest you, please see Dear Visitor for needed actions, people and money, to give these ideas and practices the best chance to survive and thrive. Thanks!

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