I just arrived in Brisbane, the last leg of my trip in Australia. I have met so many interesting people here and been so well received, that I’m tempted to conclude that Australia is a true P2P country!

The following is quite an intriguing and pioneering experiment in peer to peer governance. I’m reproducing the document received from Tim Gartside

Open Sphere as a New structures for organisations:

“The search for new forms of structure for corporate, government and civic sector organisations is hotting up. The emergence of the Internet based on a distributed architecture and of creative commons, such as Wikipedia, grown on that architecture, is providing a potent stimulation. Surely we can conduct our organisations in a manner that is more uplifting of the human spirit; that draws more on the creativity and spontaneity of the individuals residing in different organisations?

There are many folk on this quest. There is a growing sense that the current ‘predict, command and control’ structures of corporations and government are approaching their use-by date. They have served a grand purpose in the Western capitalist endeavour and now other complementary forms are needed to enable organisations to make the optimum use of available resources.

Attempts to operate without structure have not proceeded beyond the ‘tyranny of structurelessness’. In human affairs structure is required. The next phase is to develop protocol guided, peer to peer structures as a complement to formal and informal structures in traditional organisations.

Attributes of Open Sphere

• Tetrahedral Foundation: the work of Jacob Moreno (sociometry – attraction and repulsion), Buckminster Fuller (tensegrity structures – compression and tension), Anthony Judge and Ken Wilber:

o Moreno (b1889) started the development of the methods for which he is best known (psychodrama, sociodrama, sociometry and role training) in Vienna in the 1910’s and 20’s; he then moved to the states where he continued his work until his death in 1974.

o Buckminster Fuller is the renowned visionary ‘architect’, a maestro of form and structure who demonstrated principles of ‘Universe’ through sophisticated physical structures eg. geodesic domes. (1895-1983).

o Anthony Judge, Director, Union of International Associations

o Ken Wilber, prodigy, prolific author, inspiration for the integral approach and founder of the Integral Institute.

• Peer to Peer: promoting peer to peer interaction across the organisational sphere, and, in the initial phase, guiding the pattern of these interactions with a set of clear protocols.

• Experimental: conducting experiments with different structures in live organisational settings.

• Experiential: a strong emphasis on taking the theory into action eg. conducting all sorts of groups and interactions, and making use of action methods; moving beyond the talking and actually testing in experimental environments that mimic aspects of the live environment; and then trialling in live environments.

• Live modelling: embodying the espoused principles (interaction, spontaneity, ingenuity, self-assembly, autonomy) in the emergence and development of Open Sphere itself.

• Structure Library: creating a set of structural templates based on regular, semi-regular and irregular polyhedra, along with interaction protocols, to suit a wide range of group sizes and compositions.

• 2d to 3d: Is the conventional two dimensional organisation chart dying? How to create the protocols for three dimensional organisational charts based on Fuller’s omnidirectional geometry (radiating out from the centre of the sphere) and not the traditional x,y and z cartesian dimensions? Learn to think, see and express in this new language. Spaces, arenas, contexts, opening out rather than angles, boxes, lines, closing down.

• Image Library: develop a suite of informative images and computer based visualisations.

• Resuscitate the Negative. ‘Negative’ has got a bad name. Negative – compression – repulsion are all essential partners to their respective complements: positive – tension – attraction. In the emerging forms of organisation we need to learn to make greater use of the available forces.

Participation in the development of Open Sphere

• Three different types of contributors

o Livelihood contributors
o Organisational contributors
o General contributors

• Livelihood contributors: established groupwork practitioners for whom Open Sphere may be a revenue producing vehicle. Livelihood contributors will continue in their own independent practices and will have the opportunity to contribute to and conduct Open Sphere projects and events.

• Organisational contributors: for organisational contributors Open Sphere will provide a vehicle for stimulating interaction, peer support, and inspiration to sponsor Open Sphere initiatives in their own organisations.

• General contributors: Other contributors who may find in Open Sphere an initiative into which they can fruitfully invest and develop their talent.

Invitation

Our inaugural Polyhedral Parlour was held in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) on Friday 1st June, 2007. The next Polyhedral Parlour is scheduled in Brisbane for Friday 20th July 7.00-9.30pm. A two day/two night Open Sphere residential is scheduled on Wed 21st, Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd November at the Worldview Centre in Maleny, (SE Queensland). A yahoo group and a wiki site are waiting in the wings ready for activation (and a web site is under construction). If you have an enquiry or would like to make a contribution to the development of Open Sphere please contact us.

More Information:

Tim Gartside and Marg Herriot (initiating contributors), at timg@epicentrefto.com.au and amherriot@extrapolis.net