Global SoL Network
Update (6/16/00)
This is a brief progress report on the birthing of the Global SoL Network. It is not a complete picture, but I will try to capture some of the key processes in motion.
The three Start-up meetings in Atlanta, Bordeaux and London produced a lot of energy, ideas, questions, dilemmas and, most importantly, some clear guidelines on how to continue the birthing process.
We came to the conclusion that for this and next year, the steps have to be organic and emerging. We envision a map of the journey forward:
- Led by our purpose and principles
- By practicing and exploring the territory
- With the preliminary distributive stewardship model guiding us
- With the Stewardship Circle anchoring us, and
- With some working groups helping us to continue to move forward
The areas of action are the communities organized locally and networked globally. SoL should be about relationships rather than memberships. SoL should be about commitment and engagement.
More specifically, we agreed that the Global SoL Community for 2000-2001 would be about:
- Pursuing its purpose according to the preliminary Charter/Manifest (9th draft updated)
- Writing a Letter of Agreement/Understanding with the founding SoL in Cambridge
- Helping new global SoL communities to form
- Practicing and refining our model before building the Constitution
- Establishing separate work groups for:
- The Letter of Agreement with the founding SoL in Cambridge
- Financials and Fundraising
- Developing the stewardship role
- Designing a virtual communication platform to serve the global community
- Organizing cross-fractal activities such as research programs, workshops, capacity building, etc.
- Organizing meetings and events
- Being supported by a Global SoL Service Office
Since the London meeting, many things have happened. First and foremost a lot of activities are reported from the emerging fractals (learning communities). A situation report from each fractal will be prepared and sent to Vicki by June 12, 2000. The reports will be available to everyone on the web at SoLonline.org in July.
We can see a continued interest from around the world to organize new communities - for example, in Australia, Malaysia, Scotland, Finland, etc. but also in functional, global domains such as Asthma, Public Services, etc. There is a global learning consortium under way in "Knowledge and Innovation," and hopefully in "schools and education." There is a European research proposal in progress and several other events are being planned within the community. (See separate cross-border event list.)
The Letter of Agreement with the founding SoL Council is under way. Nick Zeniuk and Dennis Sandow have made a great effort to bridge different expectations and perspectives. This is not an easy process to plan and to have all parties involved, but, as in many other domains in this self-organizing community, we have to trust one another and the process.
I have reworked some of the documents that emerged from the Start-up meetings and I find this useful in communicating about SoL. They are entitled, "SoL is About" and "Distributive Stewardship." (see separate documents).
The IT group (Michael Kelleher, Steinar Brendan, and Anil Paranjpe), in conjunction with a corresponding group in the founding SoL, are designing an IT communication platform for internal and external use. A must if we want to build a global network.
The International Organizing Committee (Göran Carstedt, Rita Cleary, Arie de Geus, Joe Jaworski, Peter Senge, Iva Wilson) will transfer their organizing role to the Stewards' group, keeping a mentoring role and being available to the Stewards. We hope to bridge with the founding SoL in Cambridge by having the chairman of their council join the Stewards' group, by coordinating fundraising and the two finance committees, by co-designing some development projects (like the IT platform), and by having the managing director in Cambridge as a permanent invitee to the Stewards' group. Vicki Tweiten will continue coordinating the Global SoL Service office in Cambridge during this phase (2000-2001).
One of the key challenges will be how to engage as many as possible, primarily at the local levels, but also how to engage, in a self-organizing spirit, a growing and a diverse group of people in facilitating the emergence of the global network. We have to avoid the separation of the Stewards' group from other SoL members. A way to do that is to invite the Stewards to organize and coordinate the working groups needed for the next 12-18 months. Each working group can and should invite people from outside the Stewards group, as well as invite representatives from our founding sponsors.
What working groups we specifically need and how to define their purpose and role will have to emerge, but I can see the following groups as rather obvious:
- A finance committee responsible for developing a financial model for fundraising and for budgeting and control.
- An "Emerging SoL Community" group - serving as SoL ambassadors and helping, specifically, new SoL Communities (fractals) get started. We should not underestimate the support and time needed to help new communities to form.
- A "Stewardship" group defining, practicing and developing the role for the Stewards. What does it mean to be a Steward? How do you become a Steward, etc? We have this next phase (12-18 months) to practice and to learn.
- A "SoL IT/Communications" group to define the need for and to help design a communication platform for information exchange, storing and retrieving, for interactive conversations, etc., within the SoL community. An absolute must for SoL in order to survive and to accomplish its purpose.
- A "Learning Consortium" group defining and facilitating the establishment of "Learning Consortiums" like the one on "Sustainability," "Knowledge and Innovation" and others. What defines a consortium?
Each work group each domain is self-organizing, self-governing, and may be self-financed in accordance with SoL's purpose and principles.
I have also suggested that I would step back as "chief coordinator" and invite someone else from the Stewards' group to take the relay for the next phase. My assignment from the founding SoL Council ends in June this year, and this gives an opportunity for someone else to take the birthing process forward, and I can continue in a role as one steward among others.
We are indeed entering an interesting new phase on this Global SoL birthing journey. This is a fragile birthing process where our aspirations should unite us; where boundaries should be open, inclusive, and permeable, thereby bringing diversity; where we are aiming for an infrastructure enabling and supporting us, not a superstructure organizing and controlling us and where we never make "it" ready.
An emerging organic, self-organizing process like this has, of course, its problems, inconsistencies and its question marks, and those "defects" are easy to identify. However, the quality of a process like this is not in the absence of defects but in the presence of value. Acting in accordance with our SoL principles, we therefore have to trust the process, trust each other and do our best to help each other take our next steps.
Göran Carstedt,
Global SoL Network Coordinator