Why the World Need Hackers Now: The Link Between Open Source Development & Cultural Evolution

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I’ve been brushing up on the work of Eric S. Raymond, an open source software advocate and author of ‘The Cathedral and the Bazaar,’ in preparation for meeting and interviewing him at next week’s Culture Conference in Philly and Boston.

Raymond has written extensively about the attitudes and ethos of hackers, the mechanisms of open-source development, and the relationship between motivation and reputation in a gift economy.

As I read his stuff, I see a strong parallel between how hacker culture can apply to culture hacking, and functionally accelerate personal and social evolution at scale. Continue reading

Emerging Leader Labs wrap-up

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The 6-week seed project for the Emerging Leader Labs has now come to a close.

Above is the final video in a series produced by participant Ben Brownell, providing a glimpse into the happenings on Open House day, where the local community in Chatham was invited to ELL to find out what the initiative is all about and to meet the makers.

It’s been fun for me to bring a bit of attention to this worthy initiative during its early stages, and to have had the chance to spend time with the source team and participants who worked hard to get this vision grounded into reality. I’ll be moving on now to some exciting new projects for the fall, but will keep an eye out for what happens next at the ELL!

Below are a few links to the participant projects, in case you’d like to follow their development.

Gameshifting – Kyle Sykes

Culture Craft – Connor Turland

theMAKE – Pritha RaySircar

Beauty Mirror – Rubén Alvarado

COMMON StoryWorks – Benjamin Brownell

Reality Sandwich blog – Emory Mort

check out previous videos in the series:

EBD TV: Intro to Emerging Leader Labs

Video: Unfolding the Story of the Emerging Leader Labs

CultureCon Contest: What Culture Hacks are Transforming Your Workplace?

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With only a week until the Culture Conference in Boston, I want to offer up two free tickets to those with inspiring stories about how they are shifting the dynamics of their workplace.

The theme for CultureCon this year is “Freedom at Work.”

It’s based on the notion that we are transitioning into a world of work that values autonomy, flexibility, agility, creativity, and collaborative play.

At the event, we’ll be learning various concepts, tools and techniques (read: culture hacks) that are designed to upgrade company culture into an environment that nurtures happiness and well-being, raises engagement, generates innovation, and develops more productivity and freedom at work.

If you’ve been busy hacking the culture of your organization and want to share your results, submit your story to emergentbydesign at gmail dot com.

We’ll pick the winners by this Friday, September 7, get you a complimentary ticket to the Boston event, and post your story here on EBD next week.

Looking forward to hearing how the changemakers on the ground are liberating the workplace!

For more information about the speakers and format of the event, click here.

If you can’t make it to the Boston event Sept 14, consider coming to the one in Philadelphia on Sept 12!

31 Lessons I’ve Learned So Far

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yours truly!

What an auspicious day! I’m 31 years old on the 31st, with a blue moon shining tonight.

In my quest for self-discovery and self-creation, I’m always scribbling pieces of advice to myself in the margins of notebooks and on sticky notes in my office.  I try to integrate these learnings and apply them in my life as best I can. (though I seem to forget them and then rediscover them often.)

As a birthday reflection, here’s a roundup of 31 little nuggets of insight I’ve received along the way.

Hope you enjoy!


1. Life is an epic adventure.

2. At the end, we all die.

3. Have courage to tell the truth.

4. Observe with wonder and curiosity.

5. Ask for help.

6. You can only love others as much as you love yourself.

7. Pursue activities on a daily basis that make you feel alive.

8. ‘No’ is a perfectly acceptable answer.

9. Be clear about what you want, and communicate it well to others.

10. Listen to your body and the rhythms of your energy.

11. Honor your needs for intimacy and passion.

12. Check in daily with your thoughts and feelings.

13. Don’t feel guilty to put yourself first.

14. Accept what is.

15. Be bold about determining what’s worth saving, and what to scrap.

16. Avoid toxic people and drama.

17. Transform ‘work’ into creative play.

18. Control is an illusion. Let go.

19. Contribute to signal. Reduce noise.

20. Boundaries are important.

21. Without structure, creativity devolves to chaos.

22. Vulnerability is power.

23. Trust yourself.

24. Much of the world can be healed through dialogue.

25. Your tribe is out there waiting for you.

26. Share your gifts often.

27. Anchor in your purpose.

28. Face your demons.

29. The meaning of life is determined by us.

30. The past and future are beautiful, yet dangerous rabbitholes. Be present.

31. I know less than I used to. This seems to keep happening.

Culture Hacking & Workplace Innovation

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Here’s an interview with Jim and Michele McCarthy, authors of the book Software for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision.

If you’d like to meet the McCarthys and learn how to hack workplace culture, join us at the Culture Conference in Philly or Boston this September.

For more on the CultureCon event, click here. <Enter the discount code CULTUREHACKING to receive $10 bucks off when you register.>

See you there!

Video: Unfolding the Story of the Emerging Leader Labs

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Last week we posted an Intro to the Emerging Leader Labs, an initiative in upstate New York to demonstrate that worldchanging projects can get incubated and launched while being supported by a gift economy instead of typical startup capital.

This week, a video has been prepared by Ben Brownell, one of the participants in the current seed project of the Labs, giving a taste of what the experience has been about for him.

It’s quite inspiring!

Ben’s intention is to support the launch of the ELL (and similar eco-social venture projects) through media production and storytelling. The hope is to attract the resources needed, via sponsorship or gifting, so that he can continue developing his projects.

Current projects include:

Common Storyworks: “Leverage web video storytelling to garner support for early-stage social ventures in the conversion of their documented “common good” achievements into tangible assets and diverse liquid capital for the global transition expedition.”

BrowsEarth: “an open web protocol for aggregating, rating and navigating multimedia content from the Great Transition”

His current requests include:

– digital equipment
– artist’s residency
– food & fuel stipend
– aligned contract work
– patronage gift flow

Offers include:

– media design
– crowdfunding campaign mgmt
– physical site design and build
– community / project organizing and development
– innovation, strategy, coherence consulting

He’s interested in getting involved with projects at the ground level that are focused on sustainable and regenerative living models, like ecovillage design and permaculture. For examples, check out One Community Ranch, AppleSeed Permaculture, Avalon Springs, and Neshobe Farm.

If you’d like to get in contact with Ben, he can be reached at commonstoryworks [at] gmail [dot] com, on twitter @v17us, updates on g+, and you can watch the Vermont video series and VEDA Collective projects he created while working at Neshobe Farm earlier this year.

Stay tuned for a final update about the Emerging Leader Labs seed project coming in the next few weeks!

How to Design Culture: 16 Patterns to Build Adaptive Learning Organizations

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How do we form learning cultures in times of accelerating change?

What tools and practices can self-organizing structures implement to become more agile and adaptive?

I just received a copy of a new book by Dan Mezick called The Culture Game, which is all about answering the above inquiry. It touts itself as “the reference manual and toolbox for management “culture hackers,” those innovators and change-makers who are focused on creating a culture of learning inside their team…and the wider organization.”

I’ve known Dan now for the better part of this year, and he’s been feeding me these tips, which are totally changing the ways I approach my own personal growth and development, as well as how I’m interacting with others.

For me, the culture hacking movement really gets to the essence of how to build/become a learning organization and transform the future of work.

Below are the 16 learning practices outlined in the book, and a brief description of each. Continue reading

7 Visions Video & Future of Facebook Project Wrapup

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How long will Facebook be around? Is Facebook prepared to defend against clever new startups? Can Facebook successfully transition to mobile? How will Facebook cope with Augmented Reality?

Open Foresight and The Future of Facebook team are pleased to announce the completion of the Future of Facebook interview and video series featuring the likes of David Kirkpatrick (author The Facebook Effect), Kevin Kelly (author What Technology Wants, co-founder Wired), and science journalist Rita J King. The Kickstarter- and patron-funded project, launched in early 2011, has generated a volume of open source Future of Facebook content including 6 Expert Focus Videos, 150 Vision Clips and hundreds of user-generated predictions on Quora. All the material has been made available to academics, students, businesses and other organizations via the Creative Commons Share-Alike 3.0 license. Continue reading