Collective intelligence has existed at least as long as humans have, because families, armies, and companies, all act collectively with varying degrees of intelligence. But in the last decades, a new kind of collective intelligence has emerged: groups of people and computers, connected by the Internet, collectively doing intelligent things and acting like a global brain. The success stories of Google and Wikipedia suggested that the time is now ripe for many more such systems, and on these premises the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence was founded. Their basic research question is:  How can people and computers be connected so that — collectively — they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before?

Founding director Thomas W. Malone explained in “COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE, A Conversation with Thomas W. Malone”, how one of the projects aims to “map the genomes of collective intelligence”. By collecting examples of interesting cases of collective intelligence they search for design patterns (“genes”). “For instance, the community that developed Linux embodies the “crowd” gene, because anyone who wants to, can contribute new modules for the Linux operating system. But that community also embodies the “hierarchy” gene, because Linus Torvalds and a few of lieutenants decide – essentially hierarchically – which of the modules that people send in will actually be included in the new versions of the system.”

Another project launched in 2009 is The Climate CoLab – an online platform where people can create, analyze, and select detailed proposals for what humanity can do to address global climate change. The winners of their contests have presented their ideas at the United Nations and on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Source: “Harnessing collective intelligence to address climate change: MIT’s Climate CoLab” (Robert Laubacher and Thomas W. Malone)

In a recent TEDx talk, Alberto Cottica also analyzed the future of participation and the potential that lies in collective intelligence:

As summarized on the European’s Commission Digital Agenda Platform: “Global warming, mounting inequalities, loss in biodiversity, rogue finance: humanity is faced with problems of unprecedented scale and complexity, that have so far resisted anything we throw at them. What these problems have in common is that they are not driven by any one bad guy‘s agenda: they are emergent properties of the interaction of billions of individual agents (individuals, businesses and governments), just as our minds are an emergent property of our 90 billion neurons interacting. We, as individuals, can’t control them, just as no neuron can control the mind.”

Another source of insights is The Millennium Project, a collective intelligence project founded in 1996, connecting futurists around the world to improve global foresight. It’s an independent non-profit global think tank of futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, and universities. Judgments from over 2,500 people are assessed, distilled and updated on a continuous basis in the “State of the Future” and “Futures Research Methodology” series, special studies, and integrated into this Global Futures Intelligence System.

Until the future arrives, you’re invited to experience a collaborative, collectively intelligent present with us

HUB: So Andrea, what’s the story behind “I Love Brot”?

Andrea Lunzer: I am at the HUB with the UNFOLD project, which is an initiative for sustainable packaging. But as I am a marketing person I also offer marketing consulting. Kathrina Dankl, product designer and service designer working at the HUB, approached me about a project she was starting on minimizing food waste. She was bringing together an interdisciplinary team of sustainability, eco and business advisors to tackle the problem of food waste in a small bakery in Vienna – Felzl Bäkerei. They have three shops, produce everything locally and the owner was open and crazy enough to say yes to the project pilot without knowing what would come out of it. I took the marketing part, Angie Rattay from Neongreen Network is doing the graphics, Kahtrina is managing the project and the design part, Wolfgang Wimmer from ECODESIGN is in charge with the sustainability part, Thomas Hruschka is the business consultant. And of course Horst Felzl from the bakery, who is a passionate baker with a strong interest in sustainability.

HUB: How does the project work?

AL: The goal of “I Love Brot” is to minimize food waste, especially bread and bakery products. We started by looking at what kind and quantities of waste there are at the bakery but also at the consumer’s, using different methods to analyze the amount and the frequency of the waste. The data we collect will be the basis for alternative products or services to reduce this waste and also grab it at the root. We will probably mostly focus on designing services, since Kathrina has this very strong service design approach.

HUB: Are you also planning on going beyond the Felzl bakery or is this a project just for them?

AL: This is a pilot project that will run for one and a half years. The aim is to form a business model using the same methods and team to approach other social and ecological problems.

HUB: Going back to the dream team behind the project – Kathrina, Angie and yourself are all HUB members, and so is Sandra Kozeschnik, your partner in UNFOLD. How did you guys connect?

AL: I met Angie through her events, then again through Kathrina, whom I met here, right in the beginning when I started at the HUB. All the tables were taken so I sat next to her, in two or three words we got to “ah, we should talk” and then “hey, let’s see”. It was immediately clear that I wanted to work with her. We have a very similar approach and values.

HUB: You’ve been a member for one year and already found two great projects you’re working on. You met Kathrina over a table shortage, Sandra over an IdeaLab workshop… What do you put in your networking potion that makes things happen so smoothly?

AL: I think it’s just about being open for these things. The HUB is like a leisure park where I actually work and can be very concentrated but still have this openness to interact loosely and easily with people. It allows things to fall into place and flow. Sandra wasn’t up for packaging design. She didn’t even know about it. But still there was something similar that worked between us so well that she came on board. All in all I’m very grateful to have found new projects I’m really passionate about and can also live off comfortably. Most people out there have tedious jobs with good money, or follow their dreams but don’t dare calculate how much they make per hour because it would be a ridiculous amount. When you get to do something you love that is also appreciated financially it’s awesome.

HUB: How can fellow HUBbers support the “I Love Brot” project?

AL: Follow Felzl on facebook, go to their website and download the journal – it’s a very interesting exercise to do: even if the study is over, it’s still interesting to keep track of your habits, it gets you thinking and can tell you a lot about how you deal with food.

Do you have a cool collaboration story? Don’t be shy! Contact Sandra Ghitescu to schedule an interview, we want to spread the word!

June 3rd marked the first day of our campaign, 50 Members in 50 Days! We’ve already welcomed two new members, Meg Mcgarrity with the Canadian Standards Association and Anastasia and her team from Green Off/On. Welcome to the HUB community, and let’s keep the momentum going!

I’m sure you all know that the HUB is the greatest thing since Wonderbread but we thought we’d give you FIVE awesome reasons why YOU should become a member.

1. Get plugged into innovative workshops, events and learning opportunities.
2. Get access to HUBnet, an online platform that connects you to thousands of awesome HUBbers here in Ottawa and around the world
3. Our HUB hosts who are always there to cheer you on, chat and help problem solve
4. To be part of a badass community of individuals and organizations doing game changing projects and work around the world
5. To be able to work among people as epic as you in an open, creative workspace.

PLUS free coffee and tea and stretch breaks to keep you energized!

During the 50 days (June 3-July 15), we will be increasing the number of Discover HUB sessions: Monday 9 am, Tuesday 5 pm, Thursday 11 am and Friday 4. pm

Click here to sign up.

So what are you waiting for? Stop by and join the HUB today for your chance to be part of an amazing community and to accelerate your impact on the world!

Last week, we held our very first Member Town Hall. We’re excited to have our community participate in discussions about HUB Ottawa’s future!

Town Halls are about transparency and being open to our member community. We share our financial performance, community performance, objectives for the coming year, and engage members in making the HUB experience even more cutting edge.

At the heart of Town Halls are two values that we hold dearly: sharing and co-creation.

Why sharing matters
We believe that transparency builds trust, deepens community bonds, and drives value for everybody. Our vision is to be an open, transparent and member-driven organization. So sharing our objectives, performance, impact, and even our failures are all important to building community.

Sharing allows us to have thoughtful conversations with members about their experiences and goals. It also allows us to get feedback from them on our strategy, programs, and impact measurement model so that we can stay relevant, make course corrections when necessary, and build the most cutting edge environments and experiences. I believe that good things happen to organizations that share.

Why co-creation matters
The practice of co-creation is about building something together towards a shared vision. Co-creation allows us to see possibilities that we may not have thought of and bring assets within our community to the surface, such as intellectual capital, technology, expertise or social capital.

Co-creating the “50 members in 50 days” campaign will allow us to diversify our community, better understand our assets, and increase our expertise. It will also allow our members to build a campaign that they are proud of and would champion everyday, providing opportunities for our member community to work together, expand their networks, and create a vision that enables us to grow the community together.

This exercise in shared value creation is a microcosm of the type of collaboration we would like to see around the world.

If you haven’t become a HUB member yet, watch out for our 50 members in 50 days campaign launching on June 3rd!

Sharing and co-creating – it’s how we can all change the world.

A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine examined how participating in leisure activities might effect the risk of dementia in the elderly. Researchers looked at both cognitive activities (ex: reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and doing crossword puzzles) and physical activities (ex: walking, swimming, biking, playing golf, and social dancing) in order to determine their effects on mental acuity. They found frequent social dancing to be the most effective at staving off dementia – a 76% risk reduction; the second most effective activity (doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week) accounted for 47% risk reduction; reading came in at 35%.

Schools that teach social partner dances love this study, and we cite it often to tout the mental benefits of dance. But reading this study also got me thinking about the broader implications of mental acuity studies, and what their findings tell us not just about avoiding dementia, but about maximizing our creative thinking and our capacity for innovation.
The study found that social dancing was the only physical activity that correlated positively with improved mental acuity. Other forms of exercise (walking, swimming, golf) can have cardiovascular benefits, but they had no measurable long-term effects on the brain. Why?
Researchers theorized that activities requiring split-second, rapid-fire decision making improve mental acuity by increasing brain plasticity, whereas activities relying on memorized patterns lack that benefit. Being decisive and quickly adapting to new contexts forces your brain to constantly rewire its neural pathways, making your thinking more flexible, adaptive, and resilient. And it’s this mental resilience that not only helps you stave off mental illness, but also kick-starts your creative thinking and problem-solving abilities.

The social dance floor is perfect for that – you have a set of learned patterns, but you constantly have to adapt them to the music, the floor, your dance partner, and the people dancing around you. The constantly-changing environment forces you to keep your thinking fluid, which improves your neural connections.

Try a New Experience to Help You Think Creatively

Richard Powers, a researcher and full-time instructor at Stanford University’s Dance Division, coined this aphorism for the creative process:

“The more stepping stones there are across the creek,
the easier it is to cross in your own style.”

The trick is to create those mental stepping stones, and find those many alternate paths to a creative solution. Involve yourself in activities and situations that force you to think differently and explore new ways of crossing the creek. Taking a class on a new topic, talking to someone new, playing a fast-paced game, finding one little habit and trying to mindfully break it for a day, all can help your brain to create more parallel connections. The more new things we learn, the more unfamiliar situations we put ourselves in, the more split-second decisions we make, the more flexible our thinking becomes, and the more we open ourselves up to new ideas.

So sit somewhere new today. Do a crossword puzzle. Take a new route home. Or try a salsa class!

I stumbled into The HUB in May 2012 on wobbly legs. I had recently left my steady job as a manager determined to do more of what I love: teaching, coaching, collaborating, and learning. Was I scared? You bet. I felt like I had entered a room full of giants and I had no idea where I fit in.

The HUB community was so different from the one I had at the time. I think it was the first time I started to understand myself, because it gave me a different lens to look through. Suddenly I wasn’t just weird, I was innovative and creative. I wasn’t just obsessed with finding flaws, I was strategic. I wasn’t a silly dreamer, I had a vision. The HUB gave me words to reframe these traits, and in that way it gave me permission to learn to love them. But it was also humbling, and it continues to be.

After spending some time at the HUB, I went home overwhelmed by the sheer genius at play. I remember asking myself “how will I make a difference in the world when I have so much to learn?” I knew fairly early in my experience with HUB that I wanted to give back to this diverse community. Everywhere I turned, I met someone who not only had something to offer, but was determined to offer it. That kind of dedication inspired me. It still does.

Hosting at The HUB allowed me to play a supportive role. I saw all of these amazing members, and I was able to help them see how amazing they are. After hosting for some time, I led a Brown Bag Lunch, and then piloted and led a yoga program. Sharing and teaching yoga is a dream come true for me. Yoga is fantastic for entrepreneurs, since they are prone to stress related illnesses, among other things. Before the yoga program began I really wrangled with balancing this desire to support the community with my desire to contribute to the evolution of inspired thinking.

Did you know that one definition of ‘inspire’ is to breathe in? I think that’s pretty cool, and that is one of the core values that I bring to teaching. Reminding members to slow down and take a breath is powerful. I feel like, in some small way, I am making a difference.

The HUB is fuelled by its members and their unique characteristics. Its diversity adds richness to the environment. Don’t hold back. Lean into it. Give more of what makes you unique, and don’t underestimate the power in that. It can be a big step for some of us to have enough trust to do this. But don’t give up, give in. No matter what I promise you that what you learn from the experience will help you grow professionally and personally.

It is in this view that 6 HUBs in Europe (Amsterdam, Bucharest, London-Kings Cross, Milan, Stockholm, and Vienna) have come together as pivot points within their regions – in partnership with i-propeller, DIESES the European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA), the European Network of the Foundations for Social Economy (PEFONDES), and Cariplo Foundation - to launch the BENISI project. BENISI – Building a European Network of Incubators for Social Innovation – is a three year EU-supported project to support the scale-up of 300 social innovations across Europe.

“Europe is not facing a crisis of opportunity. On the ground in our HUBs, we witness every day citizens responding to the times through prototyping entrepreneurial initiatives that make their communities a better place.” says Alberto Masetti-Zannini, the founder of HUB Milan and BENISI project coordinator on behalf of the network of HUBs.

What’s the infrastructure for realising world-changing ideas? In our recent global gathering of HUBs we used words like trans-locally connected or multi-local enterprises. This begs us to consider the opportunity to re-consider how entrepreneurs of today might be shaping their businesses differently, and how a network of HUBs might provide the infrastructure to support them in their efforts to scale-up. Thanks to BENISI, HUB members will benefit from stronger HUB to HUB relationships and will be able to build multi-local businesses in several European cities, a more locally-rooted and socially-responsible response to the era of multi-national corporations.

Which social innovations are worth scaling in Europe today? How does an entrepreneur realise he/she is ready to take their enterprise internationally? What tools and support does that entrepreneur need? These are just some of the questions that through BENISI we aim to address. We depart this journey trusting our experience that trans-local collaboration between people who share a common passion in resolving today’s most pressing needs is a great base for building international sustainable businesses. We are looking forward to helping them thrive all over Europe.

Stay tuned…

- by Tatiana Glad, HUB Amsterdam and Alberto Masetti-Zannini, HUB Milan; co-hosts of the HUB EU Cluster

Connect to your local HUB if you have a social innovation that you want to scale up.
Download the official HUB BENISI press release here

On April 18 the HUB launched the Speaker Session series with Michel Bauwens. As a Peer2Peer thought leader, he drew a crowd of P2P frontrunners, supporters and researchers. He went in deep – in the first round the listeners were challenged to keep with the pace of the narrative. The speaker was honest about his politically charged ideas about a necessary transition that followed from his analysis of everything P2P. The crowd did not let Michel Bauwens off easy in the second round. This blog: three central ideas by Michel Bauwens and two questions from the onlookers.

“We live in an age of pseudo-scarcity and pseudo abundance”. First, goods which are not actually scarce are produced to be scarce because this is how money is made in the market economy. No light bulb company will create a light that lasts a hundred years. However a community that designs for itself and not the market, will. Second, things that should be cherished and will run out are used as if they are abundant. We need to save energy and materials, thus we need to move from an economy of scale, to an economy of scope. Open source creates the economy of scope, it is the mutilization (mutual usage) of e.g. knowledge (Wikipedia), car and homesharing (AirBnB).

“Peer2Peer needs to be more than Peer2Peer”. We need to look beyond the simplest forms of open source, which just eliminate the hierarchical institutions previously needed to organize interactions between peers. Being able to directly sell or lend to your neighbours or to work together freely with peers which you find using apps, is nowhere near the possibilities of the new economy Michel Bauwens proposes. In the ‘commons-based-society’, we work together with others to create (non-monetary) value. This can and is happening, show the examples Bauwens shared (see links below).

“We are living in a candy economy. Those who produce the value just get a little candy to keep them satisfied. Entrepreneurs are the new proletarians”. Often, value is extracted from our clicks or views which is sold to advertisers while we get a little candy in the form of a YouTube video. At other times, we contribute to the commons – goods that can be used freely by all – but are rewarded little. The problem is that the current economy is based on a division of labour. We need to move to a division of tasks, explains Michel Bauwens. What tasks needs to be done can easily be made visible with current technology and communicated to the connected group. Your contribution matches your skill, knowledge and capabilities and is rewarded by peer validation. You produce, because of intrinsic passion, not for the external motivator of income. 

“What do you consider efficient alternative currencies, as they seem to be very important in Peer2Peer initiatives?” – Irina Enache
Alternative currencies can become successful to a certain local scale. Once they scale up, they lose focus and become less social. However, the possibilities of an alternative currency lie in the design and how the currencies are used. For more on currency and the difference with money Michel Bauwens referred to metacurrency.org.

“On collaboration platforms there are always a few that make the largest contribution and a large group that does a little, some because they aren’t able to contribute (as in the current system), how do you solve that?” - Ciara Byrne
It does not matter who contributes a lot or who contributes little, because firstly contributors work from their passion and secondly, in a system like Sensorica, contributors get reviewed and rewarded by their peers according to their contribution. 

What would you add to the answers given by Michel Bauwens? What did you take away from the Speaker Session? Share your thoughts in a reaction to this blog!

- Tessa van Mechelen, HUB Connect Lead

Links:
Curto Café aims to make great coffee and does this fully ‘open’. Open supply chain / Open book accounting / Shared design of coffee / Open research / Crowdfunded retail expansion – with investors that get paid in coffee.
Fora do Eixo has created a national movement of culture by aiming not to sell music but to sell tickets to a festival. They do this while designing an alternative world. Alternative currencies / own university / own media / own political party.
WikiSpeed opensource automotive prototyping. 

This social entrepreneurship educational program for students is currently running in 3 HUBs (Vienna, Bucharest, Prague) as well as in Bratislava and is now in the final competition stage. Here’s where you come in. We are now in the phase of selecting  the best ideas from the 4 participating countries. The finalist projects are presented through a video on the online platform. Check them out, find out what these amazing people are planning to do and vote to make your favourite projects for impact come true!

The Social Impact Award mainly aims to create impact on two levels:

Direct Impact for Participants:

• Students gain insight into the ‘job profile’ of a social entrepreneur and their own desire to chose this career path,
• They improve their skills to find and execute an innovative social venture idea and
• They build a personal network with peers and experts in the field

Mediated Impact on Society

• The community and society benefit from these Social Businesses through employment opportunities, positive solutions, pushing a more collaborative and social paradigm etc.
• From a sector perspective the award increases the number of students choosing to work in the social enterprise and NPO-sector, and their level of training and experience.

SIA is currently working on scaling even further to bring the Social Impact Award to other HUBs like Athens, Berlin, Belgrade, Ljubliana, Munich, Zagreb, Zurich in 2014.

So check out these innovative ideas for social impact and make your voice count!