Presentation at International School for Digital Transformation, July 20, 2009. Porto, Portugal. Discusses the concept of civic intelligence and the Liberating Voices pattern language project as an example of civic intelligence.

1. What Type of Digital Transformation? Reinventing Social Thought and Action with Civic Intelligence Douglas Schuler International School on Digital Transformation Porto, Portugal — July 20, 2009

3. Confession: I believe that an activist approach to research (and related work) is absolutely essential. Assertion: We’re doomed without it.

5. Part 1. Civic Intelligence as an appropriate paradigm

6. In philosophy, what is important is not so much the answers that are given, but rather the questions that are asked. - Bertram Russell

7. Will we be smart enough,soon enough? question:

9. Problems seem to be growing a lot faster than solutions.

10. Will implies an orientation towards the future Will we be smart enough, soon enough ? implies that there is time criticality implies that we aren’t certain about the answer implies that we aren’t certain about the answer Will we implies a collective actor and collective effort Will we be smart implies a cognitive orientation; reasoning with information and communication Will we be smart enough, soon enough ? implies that we aren’t certain about the answer Incremental Inspection of the Question Will we be smart enough implies that a certain level of knowledge exists and the potential to act effectively and responsibly on that information exists

12. The concept I came up with was civic intelligence

13. Some Definitions Informally, civic intelligence refers to how smart collectivities are in relation to their problems. C ivic intelligence is a form of collective intelligence that focuses on shared problems. Although we know that civic intelligence exists, this fact is not explicitly acknowledged and hence not something that we can readily examine or improve.

15. Some Assertions Today more than ever, civic intelligence is needed to address the problems we now face. C ivic intelligence is distributed throughout society — not just among elites. Also, it is clear that elites can’t (won’t?) solve these problems by themselves. Although we know that civic intelligence exists, the capacity that exists may not be adequate for our pressing needs. Civic intelligence — its understanding and development — could serve as a paradigm for the DT community

17. Friends of Nature, Beijing Creating maps of environmentally interesting locations builds citizenship skills

18. EcoMoms

19. Sustainable Seattle

21. New Tactics for Human Rights http://www.newtactics.org

22. An open source repository for leaked documents supports transparency and open policy analysis

23. Worldwide Protests Against Invasion of Iraq “ The February 15, 2003 anti-war protest was a coordinated day of protests across the world against the imminent invasion of Iraq. Millions of people protested in approximately 800 cities around the world. According to BBC News, between six and ten million people took part in protests in up to sixty countries over the weekend of the 15th and 16th; other estimates range from eight million to thirty million.” (Wikipedia)

26. Neo-liberalism & competitiveness Power relations & “realism” Class struggle Post-modernism & academicism Optimism & pessimism Fundamentalism Emergentism & New Age-ism Nationalism and extreme localism Scientism & “objectivity” Technological determinism Technocracy and the cult of the “expert” Other Isms (Implicit and Explicit Paradigms)

32. Part 2. Some of my civic intelligence work (with a focus on Liberating Voices)

34. Liberating Voices A participatory project started in 2001 to catalog issues and actions that promote positive social change. The online “pool” contains over 400 “patterns.” The book contains 136 patterns (also online) contributed by 85 authors. A Civic Intelligence Project

35. Project Focus Construction of alternative versions to the official version of information and communication systems at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Creation of a radical orientation in which ordinary people assert their rights, and their responsibilities, as citizens of the world. Cultivation of the collective intelligence of the world’s citizens, built on values, creativity, and courage.

37. http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/ Each pattern is a seed for positive social intervention from a grassroots perspective. Each pattern contains three main parts: problem / context / solution. A pattern language is an ordered collection of patterns. (The concepts are from Christopher Alexander et al, A Pattern Language, 1977) We are developing a set of cards that we have started to use in workshops. We are currently transforming our web site to help support use and further development of the patterns. We are still seeking patterns. Please consider it!

39. Patterns aren’t recipes They don’t provide precise instructions... They are more like seeds that have different results when planted in different soil. The use of a pattern is intended to change the flow of what would have happened in its absence.

42. Community Networks Communities often lack the information and communication infrastructure needed to: a) support and sustain the social networks of clubs, organisations, associations, groups, agencies, families and individual citizens that constitute the structures, organisation and activities of community life; and b) enable effective organisation, planning and enactment of local campaigns when threatened from outside. The potential scope for ICT to support, enhance and sustain community communications is immense but effective community networks can only be built through meaningful and mutual partnerships of knowledge exchange. If community networks are to emerge as significant components of modern community life, external partners must understand this in context and content. Only then can they contribute in a meaningful way. Written by Peter Day

43. Meaningful Maps Like many patterns, this “works” several ways — developing the maps educates the developers; using the maps educates the users. Written by Andy Dearden and Scot Fletcher

44. Experimental School Schools with unchanging assumptions are unlikely to meet society's changing needs. This is unfortunate at a time when the need for public problem-solving is the most acute. If schools aren't innovative and if people don't seriously think about how education can play new roles in new ways, it's unlikely that the society will be innovative in cultural, technical, scientific, or civic thought or action. An experimental school attempts to accomplish positive aims while adopting experimentation as a guiding orientation. It will work towards its goals through careful and ongoing evaluation of the approaches that the school is trying. The concepts of an Experimental School can be useful to anybody who is involved in or interested in education. The key concepts are respect for learning, reflection, and a faith in the importance of reasoning and, especially, reasoning together. School according to John Dewey should be an experiment in collective action and it should break down walls between academia and practical work. Adopting an "experimental" orientation reflects a belief in meliorism — that things can improve through directed effort — and an acknowledgment that nothing is perfect; the need for adjustment is an unavoidable and normal fact of life. Written by Douglas Schuler, Steve Schapp and Thad Curtz

45. Community Animators Development professionals often find it difficult to adequately assess the broad spectrum of problems a community faces, as well as grasp and utilize the various assets the community has to work with. The lack of grassroots knowledge has proven problematic in that development schemes are often mismatched in scale and relevance to the community’s needs, abilities and liabilities. Thus the conceived solutions for encouraging community capacities and livelihoods fall short of their objectives. The community animator can act as a critical link between the community and any NGO Collaborator. It should be noted that by those in the field for social change that local citizens and activists can often better activate a community’s sentiments and bring about awareness for the possibility to realize change than an outsider who may be perceived to have little understanding of the real issues at stake. Beyond the processes of concientization that a community animator can bring to the process; NGOs can also assist these community members in training for information gathering and needs assessments to help refine the basic kinds of projects and programs that might be of benefit to a community. Written by Justin Smith

46. Indicators Citizens are often bystanders in their own lives. Research, even that which is putatively conducted in their behalf, is often irrelevant or even damaging to the livelihoods of "ordinary" people and marginalized groups alike. Since it is intended to promote academic aims, such as publication in an academic journal, rather than community goals the idea of actual benefit based on the results of the research often takes a back seat. This lack of genuine community involvement or connection helps lead to the self-perpetuating cycle of citizen disempowerment. Citizens need to construct community and civic indicators, publish them, discuss them, measure them, publicize them and develop policy and projects that address them. Indicator projects seems to be best coordinated through organizations and groups. Written by Douglas Schuler

47. Civic Capabilities Peoples can often find the path to social and economic empowerment blocked to them due to any number of circumstances whether they be lack of literacy and information, limited access to health care, a low-level of durable assets, political marginalization and so forth. Ultimately, the idea of engaging capabilities is a critical component to almost any pattern language we might wish to construct. Therefore, when constructing a pattern language that is meant to address development in anyway it is necessary to consider the ways in which these projects will utilize the individual as well as collective capabilities of a community (and associated development partners) and how they will be utilized to support and encourage the further realization of these freedoms in peoples lives. Written by Justin Smith

48. Power Research Research power — what it is, how is it organized and applied, who has it. Although it is important to make the findings freely available. It is at least as important to disseminate the ideas and techniques that help people initiate their own power research projects. This pattern particularly applies to government and corporations but other people, institutions, and groups (such as hate groups, militias or organized crime families) need to be thoroughly investigated as well. Written by Douglas Schuler

49. Strategic Capacity Occasionally in the course of human history, a small group with meager resources fighting a powerful foe, actually wins. One of the most famous of those struggles is that of the biblical shepherd David vanquishing the seemingly invincible Goliath. A thousand other struggles, against poverty, against oppression, against environmental degradation, retell the David and Goliath story with equally improbable outcomes. What's the secret to these unlikely successes? Marshall Ganz explains that decisions are expressions of strategy and that strategy is a type of group creative thinking or distributed cognition that is sometimes akin to the "performance of a jazz ensemble." Strategic Capacity uses motivation, access to salient knowledge, and the heuristic processes that organizational leaders use as the key factors behind effective strategic capacity. Written by Douglas Schuler

50. Public Agenda At any given time, there are a few issues that are receiving "public attention." These issues change dramatically from day to day offering the public very little time to actually think about one issue, before another one takes its place. In addition to the manic novelty, the stories offer little real information, especially about alternatives or opportunities for public involvement. Even the "news" is entertainment. It shouldn’t be necessary to break glass.. Who decides what issues are important, what issues are on the public agenda? Written by Douglas Schuler

57. Civic Intelligence Models Naturalistic Model #1 (1) who did what , (2) under what conditions , (3) to produce what , (4) with what degree of competence or efficacy (5) yielding benefit (6) for whom or what .

58. Civic Intelligence Models Naturalistic Model #2 (1) orientation, (2) organization, (3) engagement, (4) intelligence, (5) products and projects, and (6) resources

59. Civic Intelligence Models Functional Model

64. People can be intelligent. They can also be compassionate, creative, enthusiastic, and dedicated. Perhaps societies can too. This community can play an important role. And we may decide to sign on.