Friday random thoughts ...

I was watching a show on PBS last evening about absolute zero.

What you may ask does that have to do with Long Island and the One Long Island project? Maybe nothing, maybe something.

What I found interesting in particular, among the many concepts explored, was the Bose-Einstein condensate concept wherein at a certain temperature gases, liquids and solids become a unique entity.

If they can do it in physics, we can do it organizationally on Long Island. If we "cool" the level of hostility, posturing and rhetoric that exists between individuals and groups, then we can begin to see a type of "condensation" of our own in a manner we began to explore here. Groups and individuals "condensate" to form "new organizational structures" to solve or collaborate on one or multiple issues.

Debates must be about ideas, not about what keeps individuals and organizations in "power." The One Long Island series of ideas can return "power" and decision making back into the hands of Long Islanders in a way Thomas Paine might have enjoyed.

It is as much art as science, even in the field of physics, hence the need for a (meta) multi-disciplinary approach to solving problems.

What uses does this have? I mean why work so hard for something that has no immediate payoff? Scientists are still exploring the potential uses including the generation of energy from alternative sources.

The point is the stretch the boundaries of knowledge and to explore what is possible without having to justify an immediate practical application.

Knowledge and ideas are then, in a sense, a means to an end in and of themselves.

Why do I say this?

Well, some folks tell me that while they enjoy this site, they can see no immediate practical application to my ideas. I hope to remedy that, at least in part very soon with the help of some of my new found friends and colleagues with a couple of "real world" One Long Island projects.

As I've stated before, we need to operate on many different levels simultaneously if we are to be successful. So working in the practical world and the theoretical world is certainly something we need to do as well.

The point is that if you don't think out of the box, sometimes WAY out of the box, you never really know what is possible.

If you don't draw on the lessons of other disciplines you are unreasonably limiting yourself and your organization and, by extension, the future of Long Island.

So what does absolute zero have to do with Long Island?

That's really up to you.

Another way to use Lydia/TextMap ...

We posted previously about how we believe the Lydia/TextMap project at Stony Brook would improve New York State's Project Sunlight.

Now imagine a way to access all Long Island Information (although it is really applicable to any size region) and to assess through sophisticated analysis the veracity and accuracy of the information?

For example, is what we're being told more likely or less likely to be accurate based upon all the relevant available data and additionally, based upon all the relationships and secondary and tertiary sources related to this data?

Holy cow Batman, I think we're on to something!

Again the trick is to get access to all the relevant data (government, libraries, newspapers, internet etc...) in a flexible yet secure manner that will allow us to do predetermined and ad hoc queries (and metaqueries).

More on this later.

Garbage to Energy ...

Another interesting article on "plasma gasification" here.

A follow-up to this post.

Seems to help solve, at least in part, two of Long Island's biggest concerns.

Long Island Change Management:Part One

Changing the way we "do business on" and "think" about Long Island is a long term project.

Some good preliminary ideas are here, here, here (where the above image is from) and here.

As we've indicated previously, the concept behind Long Island 3.0 (The One Long Island Project) is to create something that transcends current limitations and personal or organizational ambitions and instead, creates a long term and sustainable environment for the flexibility and dynamism Long Island will require to navigate the future.

"Change. Ours is an era of massive change, sometimes liberating, other times traumatic. Organisations find themselves buffeted by external forces: technological, market, political and cultural. They are challenged to become ever more efficient, effective, productive and competitive. How can they be active masters of change rather than reactive servants? How can change in organisations be driven by their people rather than the organisation in the abstract, or its leaders having to drag them along? Organisations will fail if they are not capable of learning, in a collective sense, as well as the individuals who spend their days at work there. They will fail if they do not regard themselves as places of continuous personal and corporate reinvention, of individual and institutional transformation. The organisation and every person within it needs to envision themselves, not as a change object, but as an agent of change."

Random thoughts on a Friday ...

(Overcome All Difficulties)

Long Island 3.0 is a methodology that allows all Long Islanders to collaborate in a dynamic manner, presuming they wish to do so. How do we maintain a collective focus with Long Island 3.0 so as to deflect the actions of those who wish to have little or no change? Can we encourage our great Long Island colleges and universities to expand the concept of "Long Island Studies" to incorporate some or all of the Long Island 3.0 concepts and create a whole army of professional Long Island "synthesizers," folks who see the big picture and know how to bring disparate elements together for a common purpose?

How can we show that by cooperating, we enlarge the opportunities for those already established? To enact change those in power, who obviously believe they have the most to lose (maybe they're correct, depending on the circumstances) must cooperate. Leadership, on some level, is the absence of fear. Established organizations must show that they are willing to "sacrifice" at some level for the greater good. Give a little now, reap the benefits of a more prosperous Long Island later. Perhaps we should call it the "One Long Island Project."

Opinion is important. Ideas are important. But employing some type of "Long Island Scientific Method" is critical to sustainable positive change. It is always tougher to argue with a demonstrated reality than with an opinion, no matter how well formed. Long Island 3.0 provides some of the framework needed to establish a "Long Island Scientific Method."

Giving up is not an option. Just complaining is not an option. Creating controversy for personal or organizational advantage is not an option. Having an idea or an opinion that you are unwilling to defend is not an option. Failure is not an option.

How do we make competitors into collaborators for the public good on Long Island? By freeing up the exchange of information through the various concepts contained in Long Island 3.0 (and elsewhere of course) we create opportunities we perhaps never knew existed. For example through ideas like the "Citizen Media Network" (an outgrowth of the Community Congress idea of the early 90's) and a companion of the Virtual Long Island Congress and all the other Long Island 3.0 ideas, we enable all not-for-profit groups (who do so much to help Long Islanders) obtain access to thousands (millions?) of additional contacts that they would not normally have access to otherwise.

We must begin the process of reshaping Long Island now, not just for short term and based upon immediate needs, but we must change the very manner in which we think about Long Island and how we communicate with one another ..... Interesting article ..... "So if we can't predict the future, why try? Because we have to." ..... Different, but interesting nevertheless.