An ecosystem approach to digital networks

1. greenMan marketing leighhimel.blogspot.com All rights reserved yada yada part I

2. The introduction of any new medium has always had a profound effect on the way we communicate

3. “ Allow events to change you” - Bruce Mau "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth"

4. To strategize and plan within the digitally empowered world, we need to start with the underlying dynamics

5. That’s where mother nature comes in

6. To understand digital , and the new ecology of networks, you have to first get ecosystems

7. Because networks are ecosystems

8. Ecosystem: a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment* *dictionary.com

9. Ecosystems have 5 key characteristics

10. 1. Ecosystems are the consequences of relationships

11. 2. Ecosystems are open to energy and material flow

12. 3. Ecosystems have no boundaries

13. 4. In an ecosystem, everything is linked to everything else

14. 5. Ecosystems are intractable (not easily manipulated or managed)

15. Ecosystems are complex systems

16. Where relationships are not prescribed but rather ‘emerge’

17. Relationships in ecosystems: Implicit& Inferred Cumulative vs. Individual Close & Weak ties

18. Ecosystems are self-organizing

19. Self organizing behaviour increases the complexity of the system over time without being guided or managed by an outside source…….and the system starts to display emergent properties that you couldn’t have predicted before you started

20. “ The opposite of an imposed structure is not chaos …the opposite of an imposed structure is an emergent structure , one that forms over time based on the interactions of a lot of people” Andrew Mcafee, HBS

21. How does this mesh with traditional business thinking ?

22. It doesn’t ;)

23. “ Ecosystem are not only more complex than we think, ecosystems are more complex than we can think” - FB Golley, 1993

24. Lessons From: Environmental Theory & Management

25. Environmentalists used to manage the environment the same way that many businesses manage their customers, employees and brands today

26. Early approaches to environmental management Clear cut forest in Algonquin Park

27. Knowledge as a tool for domination Model of masters and servants Top-down system of control Belief that internal borders matter Belief that ecosystems are static ‘ Command & Control’

28. Early approaches to digital environmental management America Online Closed Community

29. Later approaches to environmental management Cane toad introduction in Australia

30. We are outside of the ecosystem Model of parent and child Belief the system can be engineered Belief that changes can be predetermined and have desirous effects Belief that ecosystems are linear ‘ Resource Management’

31. Later approaches to digital environmental management Microsoft’s What We Think is Best For You Approach

32. A new school of thought has emerged with its roots based in the philosophy of ecosystem thinking

33. ‘ The Ecosystem Approach’

34. The ecosystem approach believes that we are not outside of the system we are part of it

35. That ecosystems cannot be controlled or managed

36. That healthy ecosystems are open

37. And that ecosystems are alive, organic and constantly evolving

38. Finally, the ecosystem approach understands that as the system changes, so do we

39. The Ecosystems Approach Google’s open and distributed approach James Lovelock’s Gaia Theory

40. How will this effect how we do business day today ? I’ll discuss that in Part II coming soon….but for now…

41. Remember to think networks, ecosystems

42. From old world hierarchies

43. To a new world order - self-organizing and emergent

44. Until then :) leighhimel.blogspot.com