"One Long Island" Metachart: 11.5.08

A brief intermission ...

Sorry about the lack of posts recently.

I'm actually engaged in attempting to put some of the "One Long Island" theories into practice.

I should have a few updates soon.

Change ...

With all the talk about "change" in this presidential election, I thought I would republish this post as I think it has some relevance to the current debate.

Long Island Podcast Network ....

The Long Island Podcast Network fills an important role in the Long Island communications "matrix" and are to be commended for their ambitious agenda and success thus far. The more independent voices we have the better.

As with all new ventures they could use your support. They have an anniversary party on February 9th.

I think they are a project that is well worth your support. As you can see, "One Long Island" has already become a sponsor.

By the way, if you don't have a podcast yet, you should really add it to your "arsenal" of communication tools.

"One Long Island" Metachart 1.7.08

(Click on the image for a larger view)

We made another blogroll ...

American Solutions for Winning the Future has added the Long Island Idea Factory to its "BlogRolls (see right hand column of the graphic)."

"We recently launched American Solutions for Winning the Future, a unique non-partisan organization designed to rise above traditional gridlocked partisanship, to provide real, significant solutions to the most important issues facing our country.
The breakthrough impact of this organization is driven by its powerful approach:
Broad scale engagement of elected officials and candidates of both parties at all levels of government, interested citizens, private sectors leaders, reporters, scholars and students.
Development of big, real, breakthrough solutions to the most important issues facing this country - education, energy, more effective homeland and national security, a new model of retirement savings, a renewed sense of American civilization and citizenship, creating efficient, information age government and more.
A process to educate, ignite collaboration and implement these solutions across all levels of government with widespread ..."

Thanks to the New York Times ...

Our Towns

On the Web With Big Concepts for a Fragmented Long Island

By PETER APPLEBOME

Published: November 15, 2007

OYSTER BAY, N.Y.

Those whose first thoughts about Long Island usually don’t begin with high-concept, big-think, high-tech regional planning analysis might be surprised by some of the vapors emanating from there these days.

There’s the Long Island Plasma Converter Project, the Long Island Innovation Council and the Long Island 3.0 Open Code Library, which is not to be confused with the Long Island Internet Public Library or the Long Island Info Grid. There’s the Long Island Idea Bank, the Long Island School of Meta Interdisciplinary Studies, the One Long Island Virtual Constitution and {hellip}well, you get the idea. There’s a lot more.

Of course, to be technical, none of it actually exists outside the brain and Web site of Louis G. Savinetti, an unpretentious Long Island native with gray hair and glasses, and family roots in Sea Cliff, Locust Valley, Glen Head and Glen Cove, who is a former member of the Oyster Bay Town Council and now serves as the town’s human resources commissioner.

But sitting at Taby’s Burger House, with its antique map of the Long Island that was — “Large Estates Here,” “Good Swordfishing Here” — you quickly realize that there’s much to be learned about Mr. Savinetti, about Long Island, and about the political potential of the wired world in his somewhat quixotic Long Island Idea Factory Web site, longislandideafactory.blogspot.com.

Mr. Savinetti, 52, came out of C. W. Post College thinking he wanted to teach and compose music, but soon ditched that and later got degrees in public administration and law. Along the way, he picked up the habit of scribbling down ideas in notebooks, which piled up in the basement of his house. About a year ago, he decided to do something with them online as an abstract intellectual exercise — “sort of the way other people do crossword puzzles” — and as something with public policy potential.

And so, in March the Long Island Idea Factory was introduced as a way to throw ideas out into the public sphere and to offer online avenues for people and institutions to share information, data and ideas about Long Island, a place sorely lacking in unifying structures. Its catchphrase is “One Long Island,” and it reads like half eccentric fantasy baseball for tech-savvy policy wonks and half serious virtual forum for tech-savvy policy wonks.

Asked to sum up on his blog what it’s about, he wrote: “Simply stated, ‘One Long Island’ is a series of interrelated projects designed to foster productive collaboration on Long Island through the utilization of common technology, interdisciplinary education, public participation and a shared Long Island philosophy. In short it is a way to change the way we solve problems on Long Island in a sustainable manner.”

He figured he needed a reality check before he went too far. “I’m out there writing this stuff, and maybe I’m insane. You don’t know,” he said. So he sent it off to some serious people, who took it seriously.

John Murcott, a successful Long Island software entrepreneur, whose current project, 411Karma.com, is a social networking site for the nonprofit world, and Yacov Shamash, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University, both said the site filled a void and reflected a logical intersection of technology and public policy.

Dr. Shamash, in fact, is meeting with Mr. Savinetti to forge a partnership with Stony Brook that would build a Long Island virtual think tank with more technological sophistication than Mr. Savinetti’s homemade one. “There are great ideas here, but the question is, what kind of controls are you going to put on, and what kind of structure and organization do you put up around it?” Dr. Shamash said.

With its label clouds and meta-charts and other buzzy features, Mr. Savinetti’s site might not be for everyone. He’s quick to say the site doesn’t reinvent the wheel and instead uses many ideas from other sources. But he likes to think that in its own way it still gets at something intrinsic to Long Island, with its hundreds of towns, villages, special districts, school districts and very little that ties them all together.

“When I was growing up, Long Island was open space, a clean environment, small communities,” he said. “Now it has an identity issue. What do you think of when you see Long Island in the news? I don’t know. Joey Buttafuoco. The Hamptons. Now maybe illegal immigrants, the license issue.

“It doesn’t seem like Long Island is something or a series of somethings that add up to one thing. I guess that’s why no one ever used One Long Island before.”

And, whether or not the site creates a useful virtual Long Island, he figures maybe it will help him at home in the real one.

“I thought it would be nice for my son to see I wasn’t a complete idiot and that I had an idea every once in a while,” he said. “You know how kids are.”

(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/nyregion/15towns.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin)

E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com

Now for something a little different ...

I was cleaning out the house a few months ago when I came across boxes and boxes of old tapes and sheet music I had, quite frankly, forgotten about.

This was the byproduct of a portion of my youth when I was determined to write the next great American Symphony, or Jazz Standard or Rock Classic or ... well suffice it to say there is tons of stuff all recorded or written the old fashioned way. A real chore.

I started to look around at what was available to the new composers and musicians out there and was pretty impressed. So I purchased some software (Acoustica) and am in the process of going through hours of old stuff and practicing a little to get my "chops" back so I can record or re-record half finished or never recorded projects.

Here is a "study" for a symphony that real life has prevented me from completing.

There's a Podcast Player in sidebar of the Long Island Idea Factory with some other demos (some complete, some not) of stuff I was working on 25 to 30 years ago or more. They just happened to be the first things my hands touched through the dust ... I'll post more as time permits. There's so much it could be a full time job.

Maybe when I retire ...

Thanks to the Long Island Press for the kind words ...

Citizen Journalists

Long Island Blogs Tackle Topics From Politics To Sports To Rude Behavior In The Hamptons...And Beyond

By Long Island Press Staff

"It's 2 a.m., and that pepperoni pizza isn't nearly as enjoyable as it was four hours ago. You click on your ungodly expensive cable/satellite TV system, and despite hundreds of channels, there is nothing to watch.
That mode of leisure exhausted, you boot up your computer, because billions of websites can't deny you enjoyment, can they? But even then, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees, as you might scan hundreds of uninspired and/or un-updated pages that make you wish you had settled for the salad.
Fear not. The citizen journalist has your back. From our own acid-tongued Chick Dubinsky to LI master maven Lou Savinetti (http://longislandideafactory.blogspot.com), they bring thoughts and news the mainstream press never could."

Read the entire article here:

http://longislandpress.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=13617&TM=83529.21

How far into the future can we reasonably plan?

"Language, actually, was developed in response to these tools--writing, too. My point is that the key technology that runs through all of this is communications. Humans, in essence, are a communicating organism. We started as a very dispersed species, became more organized in cities, and then came mass communications. The invention of the printing press brought books to large populations. Then, in this century, radio and television completely changed the psychology and social setting of most of the world's people."

Creating a "Virtual" Long Island Constitution: Part Two

We should view the "Virtual" Long Island Constitution as a hybrid creation. Part legal, part ethical, part technical: organic, dynamic, reality based.

How do we start? 

We could, of course utilize existing "constitution" models out there. I would prefer to create from the ground up (although this one, while not directly on point, isn't too bad).

Let's start with some sort of Long Island Constitution "WIKI" or other easy to use collaborative model. This, I think, will generate the most diverse and creative beginning.

Remember this is a collaborative effort. It will encourage us to think out of our "own silos" and to concentrate on "global" Long Island issues and how our piece of the puzzle fits into the overall scheme. 

More in Part Three.

Creating a "Virtual" Long Island Constitution: Part One

Great ideas, for the most part, transcend the forces which try to hold them back. It may take awhile, but the ideas generally  prevail.

Great ideas need, however a structure which allows them to be heard, develop and, ultimately, become reality. This is the genius of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. It allows for ideas not contemplated at the time of the creation and modification of those documents to eventually find a voice and have the opportunity to succeed. Long Island requires its own type of  constitution;  a "Virtual Long Island Constitution."

What do we mean by a "Virtual Long Island Constitution?" 

If we view the nature of the universe as one of constant change ("Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal." Arthur Schopenhauer) and with apologies to the "strict constructionists" out there, then we must be prepared for change and have instruments which allow us to negotiate change as simply as possible. Luckily for us we live in an era in which great change is occurring, so the tools are readily available to us.

What will our "virtual" constitution look like and what will it contain? At the outset it should contain some type of reasonable, broad ethical framework which governs the way we interact with one another, individually and organizationally, to promote positive change on Long Island. 

Our "virtual" constitution is a living, dynamic, document. It is easily modifiable to fit the rapid change which will be a constant in our lifetime and beyond. 

We may look at this "virtual constitution" as the third leg of the Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 process. It helps hold the entire process together and allows it to remain stable and secure. It permits us to overcome the "extraneous chatter" and concentrate on the core issues and processes which will help Long Island move forward.

More in part two.

Thinking About Long Island

We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.

We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.

We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.

We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.

What is Long Island? 

A geographic region to be sure.  A series of interconnecting communities or a series of random communities? A place to come from or a destination? 

There are many ways to view Long Island.

But how about Long Island as an idea? Not as a means to an end but an end in and of itself?

We need to think of Long Island comprehensively rather than as a series of issues to be addressed or problems to be solved.  We must think of how one issue influences all relevant issues. 

For example, how can we build affordable housing if we don't know how it affects the traffic, sewage disposal, energy needs, school enrollment among some items and what type of housing and where and how much and for how long  ...

Some might view those types of question as being obstructionist, that we are simply against building. This is not the case. We must have a comprehensive, long term approach to Long Island and the influence our decisions will  have on successive generation. 

In short, we need to use our intelligence and resources to think about and plan for what Long Island is and what it reasonably may become. Not just what we think it should be, but as a practical matter, what are our limitations and how do we overcome those limitations. How do we achieve balance.

We can never know how to achieve a balanced existence on Long Island unless we view Long Island as one entity, as a sort of "dynamic idea accelerator" which may have many moving parts (diversity creates a constant stream of new ideas), yet operates in a cooperative and positive manner.  We should not continue to rely on the "great man (person) theory" to find a solution to our problems. No one individual has all the answers.

We must also encourage our Long Island schools and universities to train our young people in the great possibilities of what Long Island can become. Not in an isolationist sort of way, but in a way that gets them thinking about how all the parts work on Long Island and how they can make them work in a better way. Because if they can do it in their own back yard, they can do it anywhere in the world.

The Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 attempt to offer some initial structure to this concept, to "create a pot" or "build a house"as it were to fill with whatever our imagination and abilities can conjure up and to create a new Long Island we can all be proud of. 

It won't be perfect and it is an ongoing process. But thinking about Long Island is a good first step and continued thinking will keep Long Island alive and well as a region, an idea or both.

Thanks to the LI Biz Blog ...

... for adding the Long Island Idea Factory to its "Must Read Blogs" section.

Insourcing?

Question. What would happen if all Long Island school districts, municipalities and other political subdivisions utilized UPS (or some other company) to "insource" operations?

Among additional questions: Would it save money? If so, how much? How can it benefit Long Island business? Can it be used to promote Long Island as a region to the rest of the world? What elements do we need to do an accurate cost-benefit analysis?

Just one of the many questions the Long Island Congress "think tank" project may help us find a straight answer to.

Baldrige Program: A useful idea for the Long Island Congress?

Baldrige and Local Government: Isn't This a Private Sector Program?

"Although the Baldrige program began as a way for American business to compete more effectively around the world, the framework was developed to promote quality and excellence, not simply to drive profits. The seven criteria form a set of values and core concepts that any organization—public or private—can use to its advantage.

Public school systems, colleges, health care organizations, and numerous service businesses have won Baldrige awards. There is no reason to believe that cities and counties would not benefit from the framework and the rigor associated with the process. In fact, it is probably more accurate to say that local government has a lot of catching up to do if it wishes to be compared with the best Baldrige organizations, regardless of sector.

Baldrige for government can work because the seven criteria are built on a set of interrelated core concepts and values that promote organizational excellence. Here are brief descriptions of the core values and concepts that underpin the Baldrige model.

Visionary leadership. The management team should serve as role models through ethical behavior and personal involvement in coaching and developing future leaders. Both strategy and customer/citizen goals need to be aligned. Commitment and initiative are built throughout the organization.

Customer-driven excellence. Customer- or citizen-driven excellence is a strategic concept. It is devoted to obtaining and retaining citizen support as well as maximizing competitive position. It is critical to understand and develop citizen-focused outcomes.

Organizational and personal learning. Learning results in a more satisfied and versatile employees who stay with the organization. Bright, innovative employees provide a distinct advantage in meeting the needs of the community.

Valuing employees and partners. An organization’s success depends increasingly on the diverse backgrounds, knowledge, skills, creativity, and motivation of all its employees and partners, including both paid staff and volunteers.

Agility. A capacity for rapid change and flexibility is a key to success. Organizations face ever-shorter cycles for introducing new or improved programs and services as well for meeting expectations to deliver them more rapidly.

Focus on the future. Creating a sustainable organization requires under-standing the short- and long-term factors that affect the organization and its environment. Developing employees and partners along with creating opportunities for innovation are key concerns.

Managing for innovation. Making meaningful change improves your services, programs, processes, and operations to create new value for the organization’s stakeholders. Innovation builds on the accumulated knowledge of your organization and staff.

Management by fact. An effective administrative management system depends on the measurement and analysis of performance. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Selecting key performance measures and indicators is critical.

Social responsibility. An organization'€™s leaders should stress responsibilities to the public, ethical behavior, and the need to foster improved communities. Organizations should not only meet regulatory requirements, but treat those requirements as opportunities for improvement beyond mere compliance.

Focus on results and creating value. An organization’s performance measures need to focus on key results. Results should be used to create and balance value for your key stakeholders—customers, staff, the community, vendors, partners, and the general public.

Systems perspective. The Baldrige criteria provide a systems perspective for managing your organization and its key processes to achieve results in the form of performance excellence. The seven Baldrige categories and the core values form the building blocks and the integrating mechanism for the system. Successful management of overall performance requires organization-specific synthesis, alignment, and integration."

More here ...

Simple statements

I've been asked by some of you if I can summarize the 90 some-odd posts of the Long Island Idea Factory into a couple of simple statements. So here goes ...

Long Island Congress Mission: To establish an effective, flexible methodology and structure so that organizations and the public may work cooperatively and dynamically to promote positive change for Long Island.

Long Island 3.0 Mission: Utilizing web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies, create an environment which will give organizations and the public the ability to meet the Long Island Congress mission.

There it is. For details, please use the search function of this site or look at the "Label Cloud" on the right hand column and click on the subject that interests you.

Thanks for all the kind words, encouragement and commitment thus far. We should be ready to get underway shortly. 

As always, please send me your comments good or bad. 

If you are interested in any of the projects in the Long Island Idea Factory, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Interesting reading ...

A new report on restructuring the New York Empire State Development organization has been issued.  Another "static" report, but helpful nevertheless.

It contains a number of proposals that coordinate with the Long Island Congress/Long Island 3.0 concepts as well as some other positive programs currently proposed or underway on Long Island.

Connect the dots ... use the Long Island Congress.

The case for Long Island 3.0

"If Web 2.0 is about knowing what citizen's know, want and value, and if the Semantic Web is about government knowing more about what it knows (by making otherwise hard-to-find connections), then the future holds incredible promise and the reasonable expectation of a few bumps along the way. Fletcher, Miri and Chopra would likely agree with what O'Reilly recently told BusinessWeek: "Web 2.0 is the messy way that the Semantic Web is actually happening."

Good article on why the Web 3.0 concept (Semantic Web, Knowledge Web) is important (click for entire article) and, by inference, important for Long Island.

Simple.gov is also a persuasive argument for change and would be a useful tool to use in implementing a portion of the Long Island Congress/Long Island 3.0 project.

Thank you, but I can think for myself ...

"But really the biggest myth is that these shifts in media consumtion are all about blogs. Blogs are just one of the little pieces of social software that knit my life together. Flickr, instant messaging and Skype help too. I often say that my network is my filter, and whether it's on friends' blogs, via e-mail or via IM, I'm constantly getting a feed of information that is more relevant to my life than the crap that passes for 'authoratative comment' - as Simon Kelner Editor of The Independent called it. What a load of self-important tosh." 

Interesting article on blogging, news and opinion.

The important point for us and the Long Island 3.0 project, is that even in this "web 2.0" work we live in presently, many people are already creating their own information environments. Some are more sophisticated than others.

The vast majority of young people use social networks of one type or another. Are they likely to settle for  "pre-packaged" traditional media as they get older? I don't think so.

As we morph into the Web 3.0 environment, news and information will become more available and more easily "manipulated" by the end user. Long Island 3.0 (and the Citizen Media Network) anticipates this shift in news and information utilization, and attempts to create a framework in which we may use all existing and emerging technologies for a positive purpose.