Five Things I Saw at Contactcon

Host Doug Rushkoff on the stage at Contactcon (via Flick user Steven Brewer)

On October 20 I had the luck to join a group of some of the brightest and most creative people from every part of the tech spectrum at Contactcon. Held at the beautiful Angel Orensaz Foundation Center (see above), the conference was a flurry of energy and excitement, never lingering on one point of focus too long. As befits the format, below are five events or situations that caught my attention at Contactcon:

1. Unendorsed sharing. Wifi was provided in the center by KeyWifi, which had set up eight or so networks and handed out pieces of paper with passwords to one of the hotspots. They hoped to evenly distribute them among participants to keep all the networks running. When I went to the table to get my password, it was clear that wasn't working: "Just please don't tell anyone the passcode!" a poor Key employee asked me. People were giving out their codes and overloading the access points. I guess you couldn't stop them from sharing with those in need.
    
2. Unattempted procedures. The structure of the conference -- though I'm sure a lot of participants would object to that word -- was based on a series of short provacations and then a series of project meetings established on the spot. I'm always skeptical that people come to events like Contactcon ready to work and think outside their comfort zone, but the attendees really were. The board quickly filled with great ideas, from an alternative currency for Occupy Wall Street to new ways to dodge internet censorship. People grouped with whatever proposal they liked and got started. Judging from the list-serv I'm on, they're very much still at work.
    
3. Unparalled hosting. In addition to being one of the most original minds working on questions of technology and society, as well as one of the most radical thinkers to crack the mainstream media, Doug Rushkoff is incredibly good at keeping people on track. With an open format and people suggesting different workshops, Rushkoff kept things moving by making sure anything too vague or self-serving got passed by, with a good sense of what the group did or did not support. Plus, you could hear the bile dripping from his voice when he had to announce the Pepsi sponsorship. The man is a dynamo.
    
4. Unexpected radicals. Occupy Everything and Occupy Wall Street in particular had a big impact on participants' thinking. I was surprised to see a group project on getting people to pledge collectively not to pay their student debts attract wide support at the conference level. Some of the participants who would have been in a small tech bubble a couple years ago are now actively looking to use their talents and ideas to support global social movements. There was a big focus on technologies that used international networks to overcome parochial restrctions to access. And a few of these tech-minded folks have better political imaginations than I've seen in policy circles. Contactcon showed me that their are not just people, but communities out there waiting to meet each other.
    
5. Unlikely bedfellows. I've heard Contactcon described as a meeting of the top pro-human technologists, and that turned about to be the case. A campaign based around food justice was one of the most popular projects at the conference, and all the participants anchored their thoughts and projects in very human problems. That is, except for the Makerbot printing out plastic shells for homeless hermit crabs. Apparently people like collecting shells they use as housings, and now crab populations are in need of some man-made assistance. 3D printing isn't exactly made for problems like this one, but it could have been. And maybe the next generation of tech solutions will be.

Occupy Wall Street demonstrators at Zuccotti Park in downtown New York City this week.

The occupiers are actually forging a robust micro-society of working groups, each one developing new approaches -- or reviving old approaches -- to long-running problems. In just one example, Occupy's General Assembly is a new, highly flexible approach to group discussion and consensus building. Unlike parliamentary rules that promote debate, difference and decision, the General Assembly forges consensus by "stacking" ideas and objections much in the fashion that computer programmers "stack" features. The whole thing is orchestrated through simple hand gestures (think commodities exchange). Elements in the stack are prioritized, and everyone gets a chance to speak. Even after votes, exceptions and objections are incorporated as amendments.

This is just one reason why occupiers seem incompatible with current ideas about policy demands or right vs. left. They are not interested in debate (or what Enlightenment philosophers called "dialectic") but consensus. They are working to upgrade that binary, winner-takes-all, 13th century political operating system. And like any software developer, they are learning to "release early and release often."

It's the new style.
It's no revolution.
It's 'learning by doing'.

Funded primarily by the personal savings of group members and a grant from the National Science Foundation, residents of Jalalabad have built the FabFi network: an open-source system that uses common building materials and off-the-shelf electronics to transmit wireless ethernet signals across distances of up to several miles.

Jalalabad's longest link is currently 2.41 miles, between the FabLab and the water tower at the public hospital in Jalalabad, transmitting with a real throughput of 11.5Mbps (compared to 22Mbps ideal-case for a standards compliant off-the-shelf 802.11g router transitting at a distance of only a few feet). The system works consistently through heavy rain, smog and a couple of good sized trees.

With FabFi, communities can build their own wireless networks to gain high-speed internet connectivity---thus enabling them to access online educational, medical, and other resources.

In FabLabs, technology brings people and ideas together. FabFi embraces this same principle. The public hospital, which houses the endpoint of FabFi Afghanistan's longest link, has become a shared community resource, providing downlinks to a growing number of locations in the city center.

The shared infrastructure facilitates communication between FabFi users all over the city as they collaboratively grow and maintain the network. The FabFi user group is learning valuable skills that will soon allow them to generate revenue for themselves and the Lab by building, installing and maintaining FabFi links as part of a "FabFi Club" at the FabLab.

Fast Company reports that residents can build a FabFi node out of approximately $60 worth of everyday items such as boards, wires, plastic tubs, and cans that will serve a whole community at once. While it sounds like science fiction, FabFi could have important ramifications for entire swaths of the world (including rural America) that lack conventional broadband.

Although the Netherlands recently became the first country in the EU to pass a comprehensive Net Neutrality law, the United States and other Western countries are dragging their feet. But why wait?

If they create their own internet in a war torn country, what's our excuse? 

The first summit, to be held October 20, 2011 as a MeetupEverywhere and centered at the historic Angel Orensanz Center in New York City, will be a participatory festival for ideas and action, consisting primarily of meetings convened by attendees. Featured participants will deliver brief "provocations" on stage, sharing the greatest challenges they are facing in their particular fields. But their primary contribution to the day will be to join in the meetings convened by other participants, sharing their experience, insight, and even connections to help bring these ideas into reality.

If it’s not the only thing of its kind in the world, so much the better. Let’s connect, conceive, and conspire. Contact isn’t a way of competing with those efforts, but supporting them.

Topics I’m opening for discussion include:

TECHNOLOGY

• Can we build an alternative Internet that can't be turned off?
• Alternatives to top-down registries and corporate-controlled access

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

• New net-based currencies and transaction networks
• Net-enabled Local Activism and Job Creation

CULTURE

• Arts networking initiatives
• Decentralized social networking platforms

GOVERNMENT

• Proxy voting to expert friends
• open source democracy
• "Filter Bubbles" and how to prevent them

MEANING

• What Factors Facilitate Collective Intelligence?
• The Reclamation of Public Space

But please feel invited to bring your own. I may be initiating this thing, but I am by no means in charge.

What's Good for Collaboration is Also Good for Innovation

The great thing is that all these methods to aid collaboration also build a company's effectiveness at innovation. Why? Because:

* Innovation comes from putting ideas and perspectives that have never been combined before. Good collaboration makes this happen more efficiently.

* Innovation involves risk-taking, and that doesn't happen if there's no trust that others will cover you when there is the inevitable stumble. The methods for building trust for collaboration help people more readily take risks as a result.

* Most innovations can't be accomplished by individuals toiling away, or even by single organizations working in isolation. We need people around us to fill in the skills and knowledge gaps, and to tell us when we're full of crap. Collaboration is a critical skill for any organization wanting to do actually bring innovations to market.

Adam Richardson, Assistant VP of Strategy and Marketing at global innovation firm frog design, is the author of Innovation X: Why a Company's Toughest Problems are its Greatest Advantage. He can be found on Twitter at @Richardsona.

Internet montre la voie en matière de codesign

Internet ne s'est construit ni en techno-push, ni en market-pull. Aucune étude de marché n'aurait pu prédire Facebook, Youtube, eBay, Second Life, Amazon, etc. Internet s'est construit dans un mode de codesign entre des entreprises et des communautés de passionnés, dans une boucle constante passant par des éléments de technologie transformés en usages, lesquels sont, en retour, retraduits dans la technologie.

Cette méthode de codesign, pour être bien menée, nécessite la présence d'un certain nombre d'éléments.

• Une communauté qui fonctionne correctement, c'est-à-dire que les échanges sont producteurs de valeur, et que la communauté adopte un vrai mode coopératif. Les forums de discussion où les trolls sont trop nombreux ne sont pas intéressants.
• Une  communauté composée de personnalités différentes, avec une forme légère de gouvernance: des administrateurs, des modérateurs, des passionnés.
• Des outils pour que l'information au sein de la communauté passe efficacement. Un forum, un wiki, une boîte à idées, un monde virtuel, ou plus généralement tous les outils qu'apporte le modèle internet.
• Un travail en bonne intelligence de l'entreprise avec ces communautés, dans un vrai partage d'informations. La communauté n'est pas un lieu de marketing, c'est un lieu d'entraide.
• Une intégration dans les produits ou services de l'entreprise des remarques venant de la communauté.

Le codesign se décline de plusieurs manières.

• Il peut exister en dehors de l'entreprise, qui nie parfois les résultats obtenus. Lorsque les premières photos de la Logan ont été publiées par Renault, des versions améliorées, comme la Logan Break ou la Logan Gordini, ont été publiées sur des forums de discussion, en utilisant le principe du Tuning Photoshop, sans que la marque s'en soucie.
• Une étude de marché n'est pas du codesign, puisque les propositions sont unilatérales. Une enquête en ligne non plus, puisque les répondants ne peuvent pas discuter entre eux.
• Le Crowdsourcing peut, dans certains cas, être considéré comme du codesign. L'entreprise peut créer une plate-forme d'idées, à l'instar de MyStartbucks, ou de Dell Ideastorm, où plusieurs de dizaines de milliers d'idées ont été générées.