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February 08, 2005
Incomplete Manifesto
Via Creative Computing: An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth.
The peops over at CC reference this manifesto as an "example of the sorts of things that network literacy also needs to be able to think about."
I like these sorts of neat lists; especially when they encourage me to "drift," "begin anywhere," and "don't be cool." And applying some of these to network literacy is fun.
I'm operating on a half-baked idea from Duncan Watts's Six Degrees, which I know I'm reading early (but I got my copy in the mail yesterday and I couldn't wait) about the relationship between networks and individuals. This half-baked idea is that individual behavior is somewhat predictable. But when many individuals connect, the end result (network) behaves in quite unpredictable ways. I assume that individuals operating within a network also behave unpredictably as the network influences and shapes the individual as much as the individual shapes the network. In other (hopefully clearer) words, once an individual is part of a network, a recursive, iterative dynamic-thing occurs between the two, changing each. And to try to find causality (which came first?) or relationality (what connects and changes what) is nearly impossible.
Network *literacy*, then, might find some of its components in Bruce Mau's manifesto on growth. To boil some of what he's got down:
- Action moves multi-directionally, and sometimes without apparent agent; this can be generative. Here, action might be scholarship, social change, capital.
- Working outside the comfort zone (ie, out of control) can be generative.
- Engagement with the means is by far more important than getting to an end. A network is not a static entity; an "end" does not really exist anyway.
- "Explore adjacencies." Look around to see what's connected. And connections might not exist for an apparent, or for what appears to be an obvious, reason. Look to see where you've been.
- Improvise; enact praxis; reflect-in-action a la Donald Schoen; have fun.
Network literacies might be the ability to apply such tenets to the relationship of individual-to-network.
To bring it 'round to the real world: as a blogger, my ability to embrace and enact such approaches to work and scholarship (and to everyday life) determines my access to success.
Awright then. Hack away. :)
Posted by mryonker at February 8, 2005 09:28 PM