Dynamic Media Reformulation: Part Two

Preliminary conceptual chart (click for larger image).

As always we should view this in the context of all previous posts and diagrams. It all really does connect and work together at different levels.

If I could put it all in one post that made sense, believe me, I would.

On a base level, think of the LI Citizen Media projects as the  Wikinews  and Mediawiki phenomenon combined with very sophisticated meta-analysis and distribution tools. Dependent, of course on public participation, but not as dependent on "individual editing" and the incorrect results that may occur.

More in Part Three.

Dynamic Media Reformulation: Part One

OK, so there is this huge amount of information out there on a particular subject (or series of related subjects) and we want to gather it, vet it, analyze it, outline it, read it in brief, read it in detail, share it and promote it. How do we do accomplish this task?

Clearly there are search engines and software programs available today which do a pretty good job of getting most of this accomplished, but how easy is it to use? How effective? How available? 

What we're proposing within the overarching context of Long Island 3.o is a Citizen Media Network (and related integrated Citizen Alert Network) which will not only allow all citizens of Long Island to access information, but to create, in effect, their own manner of understanding the subject matter and maybe more importantly, how others are perceiving the same subject matter and to share and organize along those lines.

For example say the subject is energy which we've discussed in previous posts. How does anyone ascertain what the reliable information and facts are on the subject? Do we rely on the energy suppliers? Do we depend on the regulators? Do we depend on the media? Or ... do we depend on ourselves and our neighbors?

What if we can draw information from any sector and, among other actions, analyze it based on established protocols and algorithms (with the ability for those more advanced users to develop their own and share it with the rest of us mere mortals) and "reformulate it" to answer the questions we pose in a simple and flexible manner? Impossible?

Not impossible even with today's technology with more powerful products designed every day.

We must realize however that, with this new way of communicating someone's "ox is going to be gored." Even as "mega media" goliaths are being formed and re-formed, information has a need to become "unshackled." Traditional media is already struggling to compete with the new information dynamics. To be sure, good journalism and good journalists will always be in demand. But good journalism will not necessarily always be a profitable business. And good journalists may be found everywhere, not just in traditional media outlets.

What we propose as part of our Long Island 3.0 project is to create an outlet for this new media and information dynamic here on Long Island with the Citizens Media Network and Citizens Alert Network under the premise that more accurate information is better and more public participation is better still.

More in Part Two.

Essential reading ...

Just back from England and Wales. Read The World is Flat (Version 3.0) by Friedman along the way. 

100% on point. Essential reading for our Long Island 3.0 project.

A critique of Friedman's thesis and also worth reading, is 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.

Excellent Idea, a few suggestions ...

Suffolk County Executive Levy has an excellent idea with his proposal to pool municipal resources for greater investment power and inter-municipal cooperation. Some Long Island municipalities have been utilizing the MBIA for a similar program for some time now.

But do we really want the New York State Comptroller managing Long Island's money? We may like and trust the current comptroller, but will it remain that way in the future? We believe Long Island must maintain some level of independence.

Perhaps a reasonable alternative to consider is to, through the MBIA or another entity, create a financial organization that keeps control of Long Island's money on Long Island and, among other ideas, allows each political sub-division to be a voting "officer" in the organization (Long Island Municipal Cooperative Investment Group [LIMCIG)?), and encourages investment on Long Island and in companies and organizations that benefit Long Island in some manner.

Keeping the money on Long Island opens the door for a wide array of possibilities, including investment in "workforce housing," purchase of open space and development of recreational facilities and job creation by assisting appropriate business development on Long Island. Perhaps we even have financial institutions here on Long Island who would like to participate in this project. The list of possibilities is only limited by our collective imagination.

Obviously, investment of municipal money must be in a safe place. However, we do ourselves a disservice by not controlling our own destiny as best we can.

A LIMCIG type organization fits very well into our Long Island Congress/Long Island 3.0 proposal as one type of "economic engine" that propels Long Island forward.

We must continue to create "economies of scale" within the various disciplines here on Long Island, but we must also ensure that all of these "concept clusters" work together as a harmonious whole.

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.

The case for "verifiable vendor-neutrality"

"Open standards are clearly a good thing. Hurrah for open standards, etc. Nail my hat to the ceiling! But anyone who has been involved in community and consortium committees where there are commercial rivalries engaged knows that the thing that kills or corrupts a standard is when the spirit of mutual accommodation is overtaken by the spirit of competition. When I look over the standards that I have been to one extent involved with, at ISO, W3C and tangentially at IETF and OASIS, the golden rule is that the standards that come out of a nasty process have problems. The rancour during the Open XML debates does not auger well either for ODF and Open XML, in this respect, but I am an optimist."

Excellent analysis of how we should approach the "open standards" or "verifiable vendor neutrality" issue.

100% on point for our Long Island 3.0/Long Island Congress project.

Thanks to the Information Innovation Exchange ...

... at Long Island University for adding the Long Island Idea Factory to their blogroll.

Nice people doing excellent work.

Thanks again.

Also, a good idea here in  Suffolk County. Sounds like it has the potential to be a great program.  The MBIA has been providing a similar service for some time now.

Its called the "Shared Services Initiative" and part of its mission is to share information technology. Again, we repeat. Please make sure this integrates with other initiatives on Long Island.

 It will be a perfect component of the Long Island 3.0/Long Island Congress concept if designed properly.

"Gary Bixhorn, chief operating officer of Eastern Suffolk BOCES, said Levy's initiative, which he welcomes, is "more a functional consolidation, rather than an organizational consoldiation."

Now we're on the right track.

Long Island 3.0 Problem Solving: Part One

The above chart (click for larger image) is an initial conceptual diagram of how Long Island 3.0 might be used to arrive at a rational decision on a particular issue.

"Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the three factors which motivate action; the senses, the work and the doer comprise the threefold basis of action." - Bhagavad Gita (400BC) Sanskrit Poem incorporated into the Mahabharata

Change for the sake of change?

How does "change for the sake of change" affect the long term health of Long Island?

We define "change for the sake of change" as those acts which have as their primary motive the appearance of facilitating a substantive change for the public good. 

The initiators of these acts, whether government officials, members of the media or others, may do so for a variety of reasons. 

Some feel the only way to get any change at all is to get some change, no matter what it is. This is done primarily out of frustration, legitimate or not, as to the pace of the change they feel is important. 

Is the change important for their future or circulation or legitimately important for Long Island's future? Sometimes the legitimate and self-aggrandizement/financial elements suit a common purpose. More often they do not.

The danger in this type of change is that sometimes it causes more damage than the problem it purports to fix. 

The public perceives the minor change which got so much attention and required so much effort as a major change. The natural reaction to a major change is then to call for a "rest period" before any other change may take place.

Ultimately this start and stop routine results in little if any substantive progress and generally causes individuals and organizations to grow further apart.

We must be able to think and act on multiple levels simultaneously.

What we propose in out Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 concepts is a "perpetual process" in the best sense of the term. Not a "perpetual process" which doesn't lead to solutions, but the type of "perpetual process" which comes to solutions but makes sure those solutions are constantly "recycled" into the process to ensure their continued viability.

Think, communicate, act. Repeat.

Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.     Wislawa Szymborska 

"Smart" Radios

"Mobile-gadget makers are starting to take advantage of software-defined radio, a new technology allowing a single device to receive signals from multiple sources, including television stations and cell phone networks."

Good article on an "open source" approach to mobile communication here. It explains the pros and cons with a helpful chart. 

As we've explained in multiple previous posts, secure open architecture is a vital component to the Long Island 3.0 (and New York 3.0) concept. With great institutions like Stony Brook leading the way in wireless communications, Long Island is poised to be a world leader in this field.

Moreover Long Island is poised to be a world leader in demonstrating how this technology and compatible technologies can lead to a regional renaissance.

Good work on Long Island

Some good thinking at the United Way of Long Island. 

Yes, we should learn how to be more efficient within our own sphere of expertise. But we need more. We need a multi-disciplinary approach for Long Island as proposed in Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0. 

It is good that the United Way is getting the process started in their field, but it will only be a part of the solution unless coordinated with other elements of Long Island society. The same can be said for other efforts underway aimed at "consolidation." 

As we have stated before, one may "consolidate" in different ways. Consolidating functions and organizations may be a part of the solution if it makes sense after an unbiased empirical analysis. But "consolidating" how one approaches problems and arrives at solutions into a "unified theory of regional coordination" will have a longer and more positive effect on Long Island. 

No form of consolidation will eliminate the desire for people and organizations to express their ideas and try to do a better job, nor should it. Consolidation, in any form, should not stifle creativity and original thought.

The consolidation we are speaking about in our "unified theory"  is a process. We are giving people and organizations the tools they need to cooperative voluntarily, while enabling original thought and growth. "Give a man a fish, and you've given him a meal. Teach him to fish, and he'll have food for a lifetime."

Some other good work being done here at  Long Island biz2biz.com  and 411 Karma.com (in fact I would encourage the United Way to look into this concept as a part of its mission).

I believe both sites, and the United Way, would benefit from the Long Island Common API(s) idea we offered some time ago (among many other ideas available on this blog and elsewhere we can use to form a common Long Island language).

We need to speak the same language (or at least have competent interpreters!) if we are going to communicate in a positive and productive manner.

Meta-editorialism: Part Five

A logical outgrowth of the Long Island 3.0 concept is a virtual mass communications network.

This would include all of the elements we have previously talked about including LIWIKI, Long Island Metadata Portal, Long Island Alert System(s) and the Long Island Congress (Virtual Community Congress, Long Island Citizen Media Network/Long Island Citizen Alert Network) inclusive) among the major concepts.

What does this mean for the traditional forms of mass communication? As the semantic or knowledge based web advances it obviously allows more choice not only in the type of information available, but how we receive it.

Traditional sources will still maintain a level of respect, but people will expect more from them. As the web 2.0 is beginning to demonstrate, there is an explosion of information and ideas available and the manner in which we interact with one another is becoming more and more sophisticated.

What is needed now is more structure to, what seems to be, chaos. It isn't really chaotic, its just that we have not fully developed the tools or the conceptual approach to use the abundance of information at our disposal in a consistently productive manner.

Long Island 3.0 in all its various current and yet to be developed forms, is an attempt to give some structure to the chaos so that we may use all available information for productive purposes.

Long Island WIKI (LIWIKI): Part Two

We talked some time ago about an advanced Long Island WIKI (LIWIKI) which would be a segment of our Long Island 3.0 concept and pointed to a good initial attempt to create a basic Long Island WIKI already underway.

The New York Times magazine had a good article this past weekend which I encourage you to read. It demonstrates how there is a large, mostly voluntary group of folks who constantly check facts and attempt to block inaccurate information. This, to me anyway, indicates a hunger for the "truth" and the scale of the project demonstrates a dissatisfaction with depending solely on "traditional" sources although they remain a large part of the news gathering effort (especially Google News).

What if we could take the WIKI concept and expand it to essentially create a "universal" information exchange for Long Island? What would we need to do?

As we stated before, multiple open standard data structures are required so that all Long Island data has the opportunity to be included, vetted and analyzed. This does not mean there is only one data method or one main database for the information. As we have stated before, we must make the information exchange flexible and easy to accomplish. I have no doubt we have the brainpower here on Long Island to accomplish this and I know there are models already employed that we may emulate and modify.

If we make the process flexible and easy to accomplish and we get some of the "major" players on Long Island engaged in the process (some of whom have already expressed an interest), we can create the type of synergistic model that will propel Long Island and Long Islanders to create an environment for positive change.

More in part three. Stay tuned.

A different view of change

"Although Mr. Keen's objections to the publishing and distribution tools the Web provides to aspiring artists and writers sound churlish and elitist he calls publish-on-demand services a just cheaper, more accessible versions of vanity presses where the untalented go to purchase the veneer of publications he is eloquent on the fallout that free, user-generated materials is having on traditional media."

Very thought provoking article. I'll most likely read his book before commenting in depth, although I think he is stuck on Web 2.0 and has not looked at the possibilities of a Web 3.0 approach, unless that is in his book somewhere.

Anyway, the genie is out of the bottle and although his observations have a lot of merit, the process which has started will not be reversed.

Perhaps he should look into how how to "professionalize" the "amateurs," since this era of organizational and, perhaps, media Darwinism will not always reward and respect tradition, but will reward instead those who adapt best to their environment.

A Paradigm Shift in Communications

As we further develop our "pan-Long Island-ist" approach to creating a Unified Theory of Regional Cooperation as contained within the Long Island 3.0 and Long Island Congress concepts, it becomes readily apparent that the manner in which we communicate with one another will undergo a paradigm shift of significant proportions.

It is only a matter of time before the established methods of receiving and analyzing data, whether through traditional media or otherwise, is turned on its head.

Imagine for example, organizations and individuals having access to a coordinated Long Island data reservoir from which they will be able to determine through established and "ad hoc" formulae information pertinent to their individual needs. Imagine further, that organizations can filter and reconstruct information and events to determine accuracy and to, in effect, create their own individualized "daily newspaper," advocacy position paper or any of the thousands of other uses for news and information. Furthermore, this individualized information will be available on a multitude of devices already in use and those not yet imagined.

All of the players in the news and information matrix will be held to a higher standard. Facts and information will be more readily available and constantly vetted for accuracy. How this information is interpreted, opined upon and ultimately put into practice is what will test the resolve and challenge Long Islanders.

Old forms will vanish and new ones will form as this "Organizational Darwinism" works its way through this new century and beyond.

Keep constantly in mind in how many things you yourself have witnessed changes already. The universe is change, life is understanding. Marcus Aurelius

Long Island Congress: A Virtual Think Tank

Another way, at least in part, to view the Long Island Congress/Long Island 3.0 concept is as a Long Island "virtual think tank." A think tank that creates a dynamic environment for the accumulation, analysis and implementation of new ideas on  a reasonable timetable and in an inclusive manner.

Where is the "clearing house of ideas" housed on Long Island at present? Nowhere that I've found so far other than the usual "static based-identify the issues type." Not a bad thing and certainly part of the puzzle,  just not enough. There are many locations, with many good ideas, using many different methodologies and technologies, but there is no way to create bridges, both technological and conceptual between them all.

How do we interact with one another today? Intermittently, by happenstance in a static manner for the most part. I believe most organizations and individuals want to work cooperatively, but do not have the tools and opportunity to do so.

Substantive change rarely comes by revolution or in one fell swoop. It generally comes in an organic, incremental manner. More so when there are many established moving parts as we have here on Long Island.

Although it may be to organizational or individual advantage to be seen as the agent of great change in a flash of brilliance, the reality is that great shock or rapid change to an "organism" usually harms the organism more than it helps it. 

So in establishing our dynamic "virtual think tank" for Long Island with the Long Island Congress/ Long Island 3.0 concepts we give ourselves the opportunity to create a strong and coordinated region that is incremental, pragmatic and most important of all, sustainable.

As recent events have illustrated, Long Island can not afford to do otherwise.

New Site for Long Island Citizen Journalists

The Long Island Press has entered the world of "Citizen Journalism" with the launch of its new website.

I suggested a few modifications, like the addition of RSS/XML feeds, but overall I think it will be a very useful addition to the "Long Island conversation."

I encourage everyone with something positive or productive to say to sign up and start blogging. Citizen participation is an essential ingredient in the promotion of the Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 projects.

"As you think, so you act. As you act, so you become."

As we have previously stated, the Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 concepts are as much about a new way of thinking as they are about hard and fast solutions.

It is important to think about solutions for Long Island in a "global" and inclusive manner rather than in the fragmented approach that exists on much of Long Island at present. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

We do ourselves a disservice as a region and subject ourselves to the fickle machinations of Albany and Washington when we keep ourselves in a fragmented and weakened state.

Think inclusively and we will act inclusively and we will become inclusive. The more of our citizens who prosper from a united Long Island, the stronger we will become.

Think in a coordinated manner, and we will act in a coordinated manner and will will become a coordinated and powerful region.

We must fully utilize and develop all aspects of our educational and library systems, business development and accelerator projects, advanced technology centers, community and advocacy organizations, local governments among many others, and weave it into a strong, flexible and unbreakable fabric.

If we depend too greatly upon others for support, we run the risk of allowing others to play one Long Island group off of another, keeping us is a constant state of disarray.

We must think as a Long Island region and be proud of and relentlessly promote and defend Long Island. Too often, I think, some think of Long Island in the abstract; as a place to come from on our way to somewhere else.

We must infuse a sense of urgency and devotion to the Long Island cause, and build upon what we have; and what we have is pretty good already.

We can achieve greatness.

Think regionally, act regionally, become a region.

Viral Organization Building?

"One of the driving forces behind any successful discipline, institution, business, and any organizational structure for that matter, is the constant application of innovative ideas. Without innovation, things stagnate and can never realize their full potential. Advertising, as a creative social science, continually searches for innovative ways to capture audiences'€™ attention in order to communicate a particular message."

Good article on viral marketing. 

What we are attempting to do with  Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 is, in part, to create a form of sophisticated "viral" information sharing containing the "constant application of innovative ideas" for public policy development.

The Long Island Congress/Long Island 3.0 is then, in part, an "organic structure" constantly changing and adapting to meet any challenges that may occur and allowing Long Island to prosper as a region in this era of "Organizational Darwinism."

Two more good signs for Long Island

"In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, metro-area suburbs welcomed dozens of companies looking to relocate, reduce risk and spread out their operations. Called the 9/11 effects€ by real estate brokers, city firms took hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space outside Manhattan, filling buildings in New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester County and on Long Island."

If this trend continues it will be a great opportunity for Long Island to attract more high skill, high paying jobs. Apparently, Long Island is a bargain for the right type of companies. Perhaps there is a way to work with companies relocating to Long Island to address the issues of housing, energy and transportation in a coordinated, comprehensive manner.  The dynamic method we describe in Long Island 3.0 could create the right structure for even greater positive change.

"The energy center is not the only one under development at Stony Brook. Construction is underway on the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology."

Stony Brook continues to keep Long Island in the forefront of technology and business growth. We must find ways to replicate their model all across Long Island and to tie it all into a dynamic engine for job growth and institutional change.

 Who knows what we can accomplish if we work together? 

Two on the right track

"In a first-time regionwide initiative, five major Long Island philanthropic groups have pledged a half-million dollars to help 12 grassroots organizations improve the quality of life in distressed communities."

Another good idea and a good start towards a "unified theory of regional coordination" we've been promoting with Long Island 3.0 and the Long Island Congress (and even since 1993 with Oyster Bay 2000). We've emailed most if not all of these groups the Long Island Idea Factory blog for a number of months now.  They don't respond, but maybe they read it occasionally.

It is important that "like minded" organizations begin to engage in this type of behavior so that when there is a "multi-disciplinary" approach to addressing Long Island issues, they have already coordinated and analyzed how they wish to approach particular issues. That is not to say that when they are "thrown into the mix" with other "disciplines" their opinions may change and have to be modified, but it is a good start nevertheless.

"The Long Island Regional Planning Board basically has no jurisdiction and authority per se. We do have the bully pulpit. I am, I think, also very skilled in listening to advocates and at conflict resolution, and that's what this is going to take."

Mr. White seems like a bright fellow looking to "coordinate"  land use issues on Long Island for a productive end. He would be well served by "broadening" the pool of talent available to him, whether land use related or not. Different disciplines have different ways of looking at things.  A "fresh eye" on different issues is almost always useful.

Again, the Long Island Congress, Long Island 3.0 concepts allow for the kind of dynamic multi-disciplinary approach required for the "sustainable" long term health of Long Island. 

Just keep connecting "connecting the dots."

Taming the Feral Beast?

"British newspapers will and should be subject to some form of new external regulation, the outgoing prime minister, Tony Blair, said yesterday in a broadside that attacked the media for behaving like feral beasts and eschewing balance or proportion ... He admitted that his own attempts to bypass traditional media through websites and press conferences had been "to no avail". He also conceded that he was partly to blame for the predicament, saying his determination to convey the Labour message in the period of opposition and early years in government had made him complicit in the decline in news standards."

Mr. Blair is probably stepping down just in time.  True the press can be as unfair, incompetent and brutal as anyone else in society. But this didn't start with Tony Blair and this press. Yes, there is more of it and yes, it is a business where being first is often worth more than being accurate, but different times present different dilemmas requiring different solutions.

Ours is a time of rapid change in media technology and the empowerment of the masses. The press feels the pressure not only to compete with one another but with, literally, the man on the street. This circumstance will escalate until the the next media "plateau" is reached and there is a sorting out and stabilization of how we receive news and information and how we process opinion.

If  Mr. Blair was incapable of getting his message out with all the apparatus available to him both politically and governmentally and with the ease with which  technology can make one person into a virtual media empire, then perhaps it was not how he got his message out, but what his message contained. All politicians have a shelf life. Mr. Blair has reached his.

"The town square may be too traffic-ridden in most cities for speakers to be heard today, but diverse voices still reach us each day in the virtual town square that is the editorial pages of American newspapers. There, we converse, challenge and opine on topics as diverse as taxes and prescription drugs, baseball rules and stadium construction, women's suffrage and civil rights, immigration and education, religion and ethics, freedom and fishing licenses."

Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. Buddha

In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action. Justice Louis D. Brandeis quotes

Long Island is no different than the rest of the world. Our challenge in to find a way to convey accurate information both to the organization and to the individual and to process that information for the common good.  

There will always be differences of opinion, personal ego, business concerns and a thousand other reasons not to cooperate. 

The Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 concepts are an attempt to allow for "more light than heat" on our important public policy issues.

More good work ...

"...Sarah Lansdale is the executive director of Sustainable Long Island, which helps communities plan for the future. Lansdale said a key to our region’s success is getting people involved in the development process...."

Good article with Ms. Lansdale. She seems to be on the right track in her particular area of expertise.

I'm sure that if her good ideas were pooled with others in different disciplines, the result would be a more comprehensive, coordinated, and ultimately more successful, approach to resolving public policy issues.

Artifice as Reality? Part One.

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

"What is emptiness? Emptiness (shunyata) is the reality of the existence of ourselves, and all the phenomena around us. According to the Buddhist point of view, seeking reality and seeking liberation amount to the same thing. The person who doesn't want to seek reality doesn't really want to seek liberation, and is just confused."

“The most dangerous thing is illusion.”

“It was more in our spirit to let things come to rights by the plain dictates of common sense than by the practice of any artifices.”

So much of what is done on Long Island seems to be done for "theatre" rather than for substantive change.


I don't think, however, this is done as some evil plot against the citizens of Long Island, although that would sell a lot of papers!


I think much of it is done out of a sense of frustration with the lack of communication and the "layers of complexity" surrounding almost every issue of public policy. Having many moving parts (organizations/individuals) doesn't necessarily make things complicated if there are permanent, common "bridges" of communication and a willingness to cooperate. This is the driving force behind the Long Island Congress and Long Island 3.0 concepts. Give people the means and the opportunity to cooperate and they will cooperate. Sort of like a "unified theory of regional cooperation." In future posts we'll explore what it takes to cooperate and to break down the "silos" and "fiefdoms" while still encouraging organizational autonomy and personal choice.

Some good lessons in leadership.

Leadership demands the expression of an authentic self. Try to lead like someone else - say, Jack Welch, Richard Branson or Michael Dell - and you will fail. Employees will not follow a CEO who invests little of himself in his leadership behaviours. People want to be led by someone real. Leaders and followers both associate authenticity with sincerity, honesty, and integrity. It is the real thing - the attribute that uniquely defines great leaders.

But while the expression of an authentic self is necessary for great leadership, the concept of authenticity is often misunderstood, not least by leaders themselves. They often assume that authenticity is an innate quality - that a person is either authentic or not. In fact, authenticity is a quality that others must attribute to you. No leader can look into a mirror and say, "I am authentic." A person cannot be authentic on his or her own. Authenticity is largely defined by what other people see in you and, as such, can to a great extent be controlled by you. If authenticity were purely an innate quality, there would be little you could do to manage it and, therefore, little you could do to make yourself more effective as a leader.

The ability to strike a balance, and to preserve one's authenticity in the process, is precisely what distinguishes great leaders from other executives. The challenge of great leadership is exactly that of managing one's authenticity, paradoxical though it sounds. (click for entire article)