Collective Intelligence Convergence

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN CHOICE

An Online Invitational Convergence to
Define and Advance the Field of Collective Intelligence
15 January 2007

Our times are challenging and filled with possibility --
and we who are working with collective intelligence
could have a profound impact on what happens next.

Collective intelligence has given humanity unprecedented power --
and the narrow applications of that power have brought us
great suffering and the prospect of planetary catastrophe.
But now that very threat is arousing commitment worldwide,
unprecedented in its scope and intensity, to turn ourselves around,
to redesign our systems, and to reclaim the wisest of our traditions.
With this and with new tools, the urgency of these times might yet bring forth
radically better forms of civilization, both humane and sustainable.
These times also bring the gift of diversity,
with creative responses from all fields of practice, walks of life, and corners of the earth,
converging on the space of a livable future.
We seek to do our part.

This January gathering online seeks to convene diverse approaches to collective intelligence to catalyze their powerful synergies. It will tap the visions, research, innovations, and practices engaging collective intelligence (CI) on many fronts:

* scientific research
* group and community well-being and development
* business and social innovation
* computer software and networking
* the open source movement
* intelligent social systems
* dialogue and deliberation
* next stage democracy
* conscious evolution
* global security
* virtual communities and social media
* multi-sectoral projects
* regional and "global brain" intelligence

This will be an invitational gathering, not open to the public. We are specifically inviting you to join us for a day of collective thought with several dozen other respected practitioners, innovators, and thought leaders from a diversity of fields and perspectives. This gathering is explicitly intended for leaders in CI who wish to foster greater coherence in Collective Intelligence as a field of study and practice, and to expand its role in human affairs. We want to explore each other's perspectives on collective intelligence -- and see how we may each be enhanced thereby -- and seek breakthroughs and synergies that can help meet global challenges.

This day-long meeting is a working session, a real-time phase of a longer process. We invite all participants to join us in optional online and teleconference explorations before and after this intensive real-time virtual gathering, to clarify the field and this effort to convene it. We will offer at least one post-conference collective public announcement describing our efforts and framing the field in more coherent form. This will enable the world and the field, itself, to apprehend the field of Collective Intelligence more clearly.

Before, during, and after the January online conference, we intend to make significant progress on such inquiries as the following, according to the interests and energy of the participants:

LANGUAGING - What cross-disciplinary vocabularies and integral perspectives can help us work better together and communicate about the field of CI as a whole?
MAPPING - What are the varieties of collective intelligence and what fields, ideas, professions, etc., are relevant to CI -- even if they don't speak of themselves in those terms? How do these all relate to each other?
DEFINING - How can we best define the phrase "collective intelligence", so that it expresses both the essence of our individual approaches and the broad extent of the field as a whole?
VALUING - What value would be added if CI became more coherent and visible, both as a capacity and as a field of study and practice? How do we articulate its benefits to the world?
RESEARCHING - What research questions, if pursued well, would make the most difference in furthering the field and capacity of CI in the world?
STRATEGIZING - What initiatives and mutual learning partnerships might we co-create or catalyze, that would advance the field and its ability to address collective problems, including major global challenges like climate change, resource depletion, terrorism, extreme wealth disparities, emerging "superbugs", and other major challenges?

To build an interdisciplinary learning community on this subject, we encourage (but do not require) a commitment of three or more hours per week from acceptance through March 2007, at which point we will collectively re-evaluate this initiative and our individual participation in it.

For those interested and able to make time in their schedule, we will also create opportunities for organized one-on-one conversations to learn more about each other's work and to get to know one another.

Papers written for and following the conference will be edited into a book, to be published in 2007.

The costs associated with this conference have been kept to a functional minimum. To help fund the software for our work, you are asked to contribute $30, although no invitee will be turned away for lack of funds.

Please look over the invitation list below and our working document "Convening the CI Field" and let us know soon if you will be able to join us for our January virtual gathering and/or would like to participate in discussions before or after it.

We would value your comments on our working document. We intend it as a starting point for the co-creation of an inclusive, evolving "source document" that can guide our collective realization of this field. Tell us what you think is wrong or missing in it. With your help, we hope to have a much better version by the end of our session in January.

If you have ideas or resources to improve the collective intelligence of this undertaking, itself, please share them with us.

Feel free to contact us for further information or to share your views and resources.

Thank you for the contributions you are already making to the deepening and realignment of our collective intelligence and for considering joining us in this process. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
The Collective Intelligence Convergence Coordination Team

Tom Atlee <cii(at)igc.org>
George Por <george.por(at)gmail.com>
Susan Cannon <susan(at)pacificintegral.com>
Sheri Herndon <sheri(at)speakeasy.net>
Nancy Glock-Grueneich <nglock(at)higheredge.org>

INVITED PARTICIPANTS

John Abbe - Process Arts, Center for Group Learning
http://www.ourpla.net
Verna Allee - Value Net Works, The Future of Knowledge
http://vernaallee.com
Tom Atlee - Co-Intelligence Institute, The Tao of Democracy
http://www.co-intelligence.org
Mark Beam - Collective Intelligence
http://www.collectiveintelligence.net/aboutUs.php
Sherrin Bennett - Interactive Learning Systems, "Mindshift: Strategic Dialogue for Breakthrough Thinking"
http://www.theworldcafe.com/Mindshift.pdf
Howard Bloom - The Global Brain
http://www.howardbloom.net
Juanita Brown - The World Cafe
http://www.theworldcafe.com
Susan Cannon - Pacific Integral
http://www.thegreatstory.org/ev-salon3.html#cannon
Doug Engelbart - Bootstrap Institute
http://www.bootstrap.org
Sheryl Erickson - Collective Wisdom Initiative
http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org
Betty Sue Flowers - Presence, LBJ Presidential Library and Museum
http://www.presence.net/authors.html#flowers
Joel Garreau - Radical Evolution
http://www.garreau.com
Jerome C. Glenn - American Council for United Nations University, 2006 State of the Future
http://www.acunu.org
Nancy Glock-Grueneich - HIGHER EDge
http://www.higheredge.org
Craig Hamilton - What is Enlightenment? magazine (past editor)
http://www.wie.org/j25/collective.asp
Carol Hegedus - "Inner Image and the Collective Experience"
http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/hegedus_inner.htm
Sheri Herndon - Independent Media Center
http://www.thegreatstory.org/ev-salon3.html#herndon
Francis Heylighen - Free University of Brussels, Principia Cybernetica Project
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
Peggy Holman - Open Circle Company; The Change Handbook
http://www.opencirclecompany.com
Keith Hopper - Hopper Analytical
http://www.hopperanalytical.com/blog
Robert Horn - Knowledge Mapping, Visual Language
http://www.stanford.edu/~rhorn
Tom Hurley - TJH Associates, "Archetypal Practices for Collective Wisdom"
http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/hurley_archetypal.htm
William Isaacs - Dialogos, Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together
http://www.dialogos.com/aboutus/bill.html
Jason Jay - MIT Center for CI
http://www.jasonjay.com/jason_jesurum_jay_CV.html
Norman Johnson - Los Alamos National Laboratory, "The Science of Social Diversity"
http://ishi.lanl.gov/diversity/diversity.htm
Steven Johnson - Emergence
http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com
Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz - Co-Futures, Groupware
http://www.johnson-lenz.com
Kevin Kelly - Out of Control
http://www.kk.org
Eugene Kim - Blue Oxen Associates
http://www.eekim.com/blog
Lisa Kimball - Group Jazz
http://www.groupjazz.com/html/gj-lisa-bio.html
Lion Kimbro - HiveMind
http://www.communitywiki.org/en/HiveMind
Bruce LaDuke - Instant Innovation
http://www.hyperadvance.com/bio.htm
Jaron Lanier - Virtual Reality, "The Frontier Between Us"
http://www.jaronlanier.com/general.html
Pierre Levy - Collective Intelligence, University of Ottawa
http://www.ieml.org
Jason "JZ" Liszkiewicz - Re-configure.org, Citizens' Intelligence Network
http://www.re-configure.org
Martin Ludvigsen - Meaningful Visions for Life
http://www.mvl.dk
Thomas W. Malone - MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
http://cci.mit.edu
Jean-François Noubel - The Transitioner
http://www.thetransitioner.org
Dave Pollard - How to Save the World
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/
George Por - Community Intelligence
http://www.community-intelligence.com/blogs/public
Mitchel Resnick - MIT, Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams
http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres
Howard Rheingold - Smart Mobs
http://www.rheingold.com
Marko Rodriguez - Center for Evolution Complexity and Cognition
http://cdms.lanl.gov
Andrea Saverii - Institute for the Future, The Cooperation Project
http://www.iftf.org/research/technology_cooperation.html
Otto Scharmer - Presence, Theory U
http://www.ottoscharmer.com/menu2.htm
Doug Schuler - Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility's Public Sphere Project, New Community Networks
http://www.scn.org/commnet/doug.html
Carole and David Schwinn - CommUnity Transformation Project, Berkana Institute
http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/ls3_schwinn.htm
Nova Spivack - EarthWeb, Lucid Ventures, "Collective Intelligence 2.0"
http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2006/01/lets_build_the_.html
Robert David Steele - OSS.Net, The New Craft of Intelligence
http://www.oss.net
James Surowiecki - The Wisdom of Crowds
http://leighbureau.com/speaker.asp?id=285
Finn Voldtofte - World Cafe, Moving the Edge
http://www.worldcafe.dk
Etienne Wenger - Cultivating Communities of Practice
http://www.ewenger.com
Nancy White - Full Circle Associates
http://www.fullcirc.com
Robert Wright - Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
http://nonzero.org
Olivier Zara - Managing Collective Intelligence
http://www.axiopole.com/en/olivier_zara.html