Systems Community of Inquiry

Activity is picking up on the Systems Sciences Facebook Group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/2391509563/ , if people would like to converse over there.

The rise of the Facebook group has been a surprise, since it’s actually been around for a while. Facebook has incrementally added functionality, and Facebook is popular is a second (or…[Read more]

In D.C., March 31-April 1, ”Complexity and Reflexivity” meeting of American Society for Cybernetics hosted by Stuart Umpleby http://www.gwu.edu/~rpsol/preconf.html , as part of Capitol Science 2012, Washington Academy of Sciences http://www.washacadsci.org/capsci12/body.htm

SocioTechnical Systems perspective has two design principles, Redundancy of Parts as DP1, Redundancy of Function as DP2. Described by Merrelyn Emery, extracted at http://ingbrief.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/genotypical-organization-design-principles-dp1-and-dp2-merrelyn-emery/

Mary Catherine Bateson, receiving the Norbert Wiener medal, wrote a letter to the American Society for Cybernetics in August 2011.
> … hope rests on the potential offered by cybernetics for thinking in terms of whole systems rather than in terms of separate and competing interests and specializations, a potential that must be explored and…[Read more]

Credibility gap in “No Need to Panic About Global Warning” article in WSJ signed by 16 scientists? Opinion piece at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html

Repudiation about sources by D.R. Tucker “Scared of Science” at…[Read more]

At INCOSE IW, Janet Singer (as ISSS VP Research and Pubs) was tasked to lead a subcommittee on describing Systems Thinking, Systems Science and Systems Approach for the INCOSE Systems Engineering Book of Knowledge. Other projects (e.g. ontology) may also be involved.

See workshop at…[Read more]

What should dialogue designers know about inquiring systems? Workshop recap at http://bit.ly/AeetP6, slides http://bit.ly/A2him0 . Dialogue with Design session in Toronto

Systems biology, seeing properties in organisms not in the parts, arose from advances in computing in larger datasets, says David Weinberger.

> In 2002, when Hiroaki Kitano wrote a cover story on systems biology for Science magazine — a formal recognition of the growing importance of this young field — he said: “The major reason it is gaining…[Read more]

The influences between culture and education in a society are circular. “Decades ago, when the Finnish school system was badly in need of reform, the goal of the program that Finland instituted, resulting in so much success today, was never excellence. It was equity” says Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education’s Center…[Read more]

In school, losing cursive writing and long division seems like civilization in decline.

>WHAT’S IN: iPad therapy [....] Twitter assignments [....] Smartboard MacGyvers [....]
>WHAT’S OUT: Cursive writing [....] Long division [....] Computer labs [....]

The print edition also included WHAT’S ODD: Wikipedia U. [...] Robot Teachers…[Read more]

“Systems Thinking in a Bar” blog post leads to @jurgenappelo “Complexity Thinking or Systems Thinking ++” breezy 191-slide presentation. References to Russell Ackoff, Dave Snowden, Ralph Stacey, Donella Meadows, Peter Senge, Michael C. Jackson.

Blog post at http://www.noop.nl/2011/11/systems-thinking-in-a-bar.html , slides at…[Read more]

Obliquity: those who succeed the most are those who take the oblique path, says John Kay.
> [In] John Kay’s Obliquity … The veteran Oxford University economist carefully examines the pathways that people and organizations follow to success, and finds, over and over, that those who succeed the most are those who take the oblique path. “If you…[Read more]

Beyond the paleo diet, six elements of the Paleolithic lifestyle (Pedro Carrera-Bastos)
> DON’T JUST EAT IT – LIVE IT
Here are six key elements of the Paleolithic lifestyle, according to Pedro Carrera-Bastos, a Swedish health researcher specializing in the effects of “ancestral” diets, and his colleagues.
> 1. SUNSHINE
Getting enough vitamin D…[Read more]

The magic of diasporas: Immigrant networks are a rare bright spark in the world economy. Rich countries should welcome them.
> Diaspora networks—of Huguenots, Scots, Jews and many others—have always been a potent economic force, but the cheapness and ease of modern travel has made them larger and more numerous than ever before. There are now…[Read more]

Nice guys can finish first: Social networks aid cooperation, discourage selfishness (David Rand, Harvard)

>… in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research is among the first studies to examine social interaction as a fluid, ever-changing process. Previous studies of complex social networks largely used static…[Read more]