You havent lived if you havent tried open space - a way of organisiing meetings so that everyone produces however many people turn up. Good news is open space is proven for 9 year olds up-(like any core human process there may be grades of experience though like the net this is one of those ways to action learn that peeks in youth not in elder age. Collaboration Cafe http://collaborationcafe.tv  is the simplest 1 hour version of open space - rsvp if you are a facilitator and want to know what we cut out of a process that is most fun when people come from around the world to share an annual 3 day networking reunion or to innovate a solution in a people summit that world leaders cant from ordinary meeting processes
In a place (youth or adult) where you have a 1 hour break - cc is easy peasy at the invitation process stage. So teachers can just let children use a notceboard (or a screen saver and internal email ) to announce this circular discussion topic will happen- please come only if the topic interests you; kids who already do something on this topic will provide examples, then everyone can joyfully question how to join in. Best circles have no teachers in them though what you can do in large spaces in a school is runj many circle discussions at the same time place - and teachers could just be there to observe much like they might in a crowded playground
if you are going to use CC's to mobilise a capital century to join in sme extraordinary opportunity like doubling knowledge every year on how to nhelp nmake this African century - the part that becoems difficult is the invitation - below's an example if how I ntry and invite washingtin Dc to join up - of course I am delighted to get advice opn how to improve such an invite (or indeed join a school lunch hour of collaboration cafes so that young folk including my early-teen daughter www.isabellawm.com can show me how much better they are at this than I am)

Hi Nii -if only we could linkin mutual friends  AN EK GA HG JR JT KJ LHT LW MG NM PP SV TR

 

AC - DC

 

How about starting series of http://collaborationcafe.tv in DC ..   to energise optimistic connecting people as knowledge-action  workers who want to be collaboration entrepreneurs (a species my dad http://www.worldeconomist.net/  diarised over 40 years at The Economist.   Back in 1984 as first journalists of the internet, dad and I mapped how exciting 2010s can be as worldentrepreneur networks double focused knowledge-sharing annually around life-shaping goals

 

I am a system researcher and designer which means I am not a practice expert in any of the most vital human goals (whose determination by 2020 can make 2010s netgens "most exciting decade"  Yunus 2050 person bookclub ) Here are a few ideas (and people) in case some of these are a best first focus for a coffee debate (love to start with what you want to do, but these are new year action contexts my mind is mapping and which $300000 of social business loans from my father's  estate has started to structure with some advice fro muhammad yunus and microcreditsummit and social business summit leaders and http://www.the-hub.net/

 

0 Leadership Quests : eg by writing cheeky letters round DC to whomever I hear to have new funds (eg shareout of G20's half billion fund) to social (busieness ) entrpreneurs :  ask to partner in sharing open knowledge with deep practice networks my friends or I have inspected on the ground 

 

1 Are you an Editorial Guides to African Century

I would like to see a sub-editorial board  "African Century" of the new journal of social business (more in footnote) my dad's estate has started with a social busiess loan under the expert stewardship of muhammad yunus 3 partners in scotland - 2 univesrities and the centre for development scotland a charity that a 30 year long frind and compatriot of dr yunus started about 15 years ago. My last full year in Lodon was 2005 where I was delegated to atend the main make poverty history meetings and the African commission report was one of the main suposed contexts. I discovered to my chagrin that this was a movement dominated by top-down NGOs and that they were part of the problem. Ever since I have been trying to invest in bottom-up connections and open spaces. For example I made loans to 24 weeks of open space in london summer 2007 where I thought africa networks would linkin. Instead I learnt from Lesley Williams that grassroots African networks wanted to make a fresh start and would not trust people like me directly. Net-Net:  the 2 people who are already invited to form the African Century sub-board are Lesley Williams and Ingrid Munro. I suggest they might also choose someone from

  •  http://www.microloanfoundation.org/  - mainly a malawi-leading microcredit funded as a SB out of london but with links into MIT, and which has sent delegates both to my dad's life remebrance partsy at The Economist and yunus 69th borthdyday wishes dialogue.
  • The montfort plan - a trilogy of books of a Georgetown-Spaniard whose serach began with 100 interview of microfinance economists on ideas to move part of the world bank's headquarters to sub-saharan africa.

If 1 interests you its mainly a case of checking that what you want to connect with african century has enough win-wins with Lesley and more widely her connections with other hub leaders of which the two I know are: wordlwide founder Jonathan and DC mobiliser Alex

 

2 PUBLISHER OF CONSIDER BANGLADESH, KENYA AND ...

A pattern i want to explore is what the net generation can learn from the first 40 years of the grassroots economics nation of Bangladesh - see consider bangladesh attached; and what African world in particular can learn from Kenya. To advance this pattern I wish to invest in publication of a Consider Kenya leaflet similar to the consider Bangaldesh one ; and then twin leaflets between any other african country and kenya. Ultimately I will try to get out of teh way of such a publication series (so that it is led out of africa with eg Leseyian values) but I do want to hit certain magic moments when these consider african century elaflets can be viralised

 

2A when yunus testifies to us congress as genius economist - something (as announced in consider bangladesh) that will happen in 2011 peobaly late spring ; 2b microcreditsummmit nov 2011 with queen sofia continuing her africa and s.hemisphere focus on knowledge-doubling annually (dare britain join in summer 2012 as swansong to our dear queen of commonwealth.. )

 

2B its my belief that the best thing out of usa for the world : when post-presidency obama turns worldwide presidential summit of entrepreneurship to something much more grassrooted than the clinton global initiative; demonstrate kenya as a grassroots partners laboratory to everything hi-tech partners can mobilise the same way yunus is forming sustainability world trades with bangladesh-  I am interested in connecting below the radar any networks that might empower obama towards such a future; and see the publishing genre of Consider African nations racing to join in African Century as a catalytic mecahnism integrated by the-hub and sub-networks and emerging partners in peoples tv  

 Nearly Done : I am old enough to remember the marketing profession when the prime duty of te marketer was to throw up several concepts that entrepreneurs could test small and see which one many different constituencies grabbed at the same time as a multi-win way of progressing the biggest goals we could dream of realising with all tye urgency that individual lifetime missions can focus

 

chris

 

PS two spaces where I multiply more collaboration entrepreneur projects  are :

http://jamiibora.ning.com/

http://www.africanidol.tv/   (eg how can we start connecting what monica yunus artist peace corps http://www.singforhope.org/  with partnerships out of africa)

x certificate web emerging as new year present from dad's entrepreneurial revolution: http://www.futureofbbc.com/

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