See also an earlier post on Mark’s PhD Disseration on  Stigmergic Collaboration

http://www.rialtas.net/blog/2008/02/21/stigmergic-collaboration/#more-63

See also

http://www.rialtas.net/blog/2008/07/31/kilkenny-county-council-planning-wiki-first-use-of-a-wiki-by-a-government-organisation-in-ireland-as-part-of-a-public-consultative-process/#more-106
 

The federal government has released the report of the Review of the National Innovation System  Venturous Australia, which details recommendations for remodeling the nation’s innovation system.

Among 72 key recommendations was a call for an advisory committee of Web 2.0 practitioners to be established to propose and help steer governments as they experiment with Web 2.0 technologies and ideas.

“…exciting new possibilities are now emerging for government from the collaborative use of Internet technologies and platforms otherwise known as Web 2.0”, the report read, offering the example of crime being tracked in US neighbourhoods using Google’s online maps…

…“The possibilities [of Web 2.0 technologies] here are so substantial, so full of promise (and sometimes so challenging to existing cultures) that it is neither possible nor desirable for this report to spell out comprehensively what might or should occur,” the report, released on Tuesday, said….

…However, it did indicate that there are a number of principles with which we may be able to make progress:

“The most fundamental principle is that governments should be as open as possible to experiments with Web 2.0 approaches. Importantly, they should seek to learn from those that are successful but should expect, and educate the public to expect, that many initiatives will not fully succeed.”

The review also recommended making information about the full range of Australian state and territory government innovation programs available through a Web portal…

…Other ICT related recommendations include the suggestion that all practicable information, research and content funded by Australian governments should be made freely available over the Internet as part of a global public commons.

“This should be done whilst the Australian government encourages other countries to reciprocate by making their own contributions to the global digital public commons,” the report said…

The Review of the National Innovation System Venturous Australia can be viewed in full here

http://www.innovation.gov.au/innovationreview/Documents/NIS-review-web.pdf

I have just finished reading Mark Elliot’s PHD dissertation entitled “Stigmergic Collaboration- A Theoretical Framework for Mass Collaboration” and I found it to be inspiring and profound.

This is one of the most scientific and rigorous examinations of mass collaboration and social networking technologies and their interactions that I have come across, and I highly recommend reading it. In fact reading this paper has reinforced my interest in 2.0 technologies and my view that they are just the beginning of a new mode of working and of communicating. In fact I am now totally fascinated by research in the area of stigmergy and emergence, thank you Mark.

One element covered by Elliot (and I hope he will correct me if I am misinterpreting him) is that the whole web 2.0 collaborative technology framework is an human emergent (stigmergic) structure, emerging spontaneously through the simple actions and interactions of many individuals self-organising and evolving more complex structures as the social and technological conditions necessary for these types of structure to emerge become more prevalent (just as termite mounds and ant hills arise out of the simple behaviour of individual insects). This is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of the web and collaborative work (and of course collaborative art, and entertainment, and play…)

Here is a summary of the dissertation from Elliott’s own Blog:

The core insight of the thesis is that mass collaboration (Wikipedia, open source software, Second Life etc) enables a shift from social to cultural negotiation, shattering the traditional glass ceiling of collaborative participation from approximately 25 members maximum, towards hundreds of thousands and beyond.

Social negotiation is the means by which all traditional collaboration takes place and is characterised by turn-taking communication. In the case of mass collaboration, a digital workspace mediates participant interaction, providing stigmergic cues to negotiate contributions via the various literacies associated with digital technologies and the particular workspace’s norms, languages and ‘netiquette’. While this does not preclude turn-taking communication, it places the interactive focus on cultural information which serves as the first point of engagement.

In other words, the workspace acts as a boundary object that removes social barriers to participation in online contexts (establishing, negotiating and maintaining social relations with thousands of people) and streamlines the creative process through providing a single site of work to a theoretically infinite number of participants.

Many other themes and sub-frameworks contribute to the overall work such as

• an in depth review of the state of stigmergy research and applications;
• a original, general theory of collective activity;
• an etymologically researched, cross-disciplinary, collaboratively informed definition of collaboration and the beginnings of a general theory of collaboration;
• a framework for understanding indirect, mediated communication;
• the documentation of a number of real-world projects which apply and test the findings of the thesis;
• and of course, a framework for mass collaboration which integrates the above as well as preexisting frameworks and theories.

Elliott is also involved in the creation of an Australian ‘Government 2.0′ wiki site

The Australian Bill of Rights Initiative

The Australian Bill of Rights Initiative (ABRI) is a web-based organisation dedicated to the creation of an Australian bill of rights, written collaboratively by volunteers. Currently (in the first stage of this project) anyone can view this site, however contributions are restricted via password. If you are interested in taking part, or would like more information, please email: m.elliott AT vca.unimelb.edu.au

By means of online collaboration, ABRI aims to:

* stimulate a dialogue on the creation of an Australian bill of rights;
* facilitate broad participation in the collaborative process of drafting a bill of rights;
* raise public awareness of the value of preserving and protecting fundamental human rights; and
* provide a forum for determining an ongoing course of action for the adoption of an Australian bill of rights.

http://abri.org.au/bin/view/ABRI/