Bill Wilt wrote:
> 
> So here's the elephant in the back of the room that nobody's talking about.
> And I have to admit I'm not quite ready to turn all the way 'round in my
> chair and stare at it straight in the trunk, either. Maybe it wouldn't seem
> so large if I did. My sense of that elephant represents something like a
> new way of organizing an economy, one which explicitly recognizes,
> accommodates, provides for, supports cooperation, rather than competition.
> 

I am bursting to talk about net ecology, and these are the words that bring 
it out.  (Thank you, Bill.)  The newspaper is a natural hub, the mediator of 
all information flows.  And that fit is clear when the institutions are 
organized according to an ecological, not an industrial, paradigm. 


That elephant that Bill nodded his head to in deference needs a name, 
and I propose the principles of net ecology, hereadfter, "the 
elephant."  One of these principles is EXPLICIT STRATEGY, a foundational 
element to cooperative environments, a quality fully anathema to capitalist 
values.  It's a variation on the theme of resource management.

CW: "Why share information??  The enemy will get it!"  Okay.  So, figure that 
this Guy A thinks, "If only I had that information about Guy X, I could have 
made a much better...." 

The idea that prevents him from thinking, "Okay, why not, let's share," is 
the notion of self interest that pits agents against one another.  
If INTERRELATEDNESS characterizes the virtual economy, then self-interest 
must also be transformed to accomodate the whole, the networks of epistemic 
communities.

(Also, the focus needs to be on process, not product.  What is a product when 
it is virtual??  It's an experience, not a product.  The virtual newspaper 
has value is in its adaptability, its use, not in its singular consumption.  
Perhaps, nevertheless, image will prevail as the means to attract buyers, 
even to information itself.  Now, that's terrifying....)

Anyway, this is the elephant in the back of the room, and given our current 
shared interests in making the news an integral hub to the virtual economy, 
it's clear that the role of editors and journalists is one that can act as 
hubs *of mediators* of this hyperactive flow of information across and within 
the many epistemic communities, that all overlap and flow together at Intel 
speed.  As mediators, what are their responsibilities, their constitution?  
Do these questions resonate as meaningful for you, too? 

Lastly, consider that newspapers already make strategies explicit  (everyone 
else's, that is).  Why wouldn't they be well adapted to highlighting the 
interrelatedness of all systems?  This would enhance CW (conventional wisdom) 
acceptance of a revised self-interest such as BIll describes in noting the 
preposterousness of CW "There's not enough to go around."  
 
The elephant is our friend if we trust it enough to embrace it.

Cheers, people.  Keep up the exhilerating insights.

- -- 
One last thing:  I can list the qualities of this kind of environment, if 
there's interest.
- --
Alison


> The competitive model is based on the conversation "there's not enough to
> go around." Not enough editors, writers, money, crushed trees, responsible
> behavior, great music, entertainment, poetry, food, highway lanes,
> advertising bucks, air-waves, cable-channels, honest lawyers, not enough
> time, not enough slots in the next undergraduate class at Hamilton or
> Harvard private high-school, all of that.
> 
> What if the conversation were, instead, "There's  enough to go around?" I
> don't know how the world would look; I have a powerfully uneasy sense that
> it would look, oh, a _tad_ different.
> 
> However, the world works the way it works today and, no matter what, I'm
> now convinced (I wasn't at 18) that, indeed, I will pay taxes for the rest
> of my life, and that my life will end. In between now and then, that's
> where I get to play.
> 
> Whee.
> 
> bw
> 
> --
> Bill Wilt, ...
> Creating & Executing Strategic Business Visions For An All-Digital World;
>  Publisher: The Wilt Letter: How to Flourish In an All Digital World
> http://www.rt66.com/wilt/welcome.html     wilt@rt66.com     wilt@tiac.net
> One Royal Crest Drive #2, Nashua, NH 03060 603.891.1984;fax: 603.891.1700
> ---

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End of online-news-digest V1 #575
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