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The Value Game For University Outreach

On May 31, 2012

The question that persist for many college and university administrators is what actions must they take to optimize all of their relationships in a manner that reinforces their own value to their community.

The Value Game is an ideal solution for this type of scenario (if you are unfamiliar with TVG, please visit this primer link). The first step is to identify the asset. The recent graduate is the university asset because they are the customer and the product being advanced. After all, the life worth of that graduate will reflect upon the institution that prepared them for professional service.

Next, we identify the players that will interact with that graduate over the course of their lives.

A* = The Graduate

The graduate will interact with their Alma Mater
The graduate will interact with their alumni association
The graduate will interact with Their broader community
The graduate will interact with corporations and entrepreneurs

Now, Let’s review each of the relationships and the economic incentives that drive them:

A-1: The graduate relies on the university reputation with players 1,2,3 as an extension of their own capabilities.

A-2: The graduate relies on the influence and success of prior graduates who hold an affinity towards each other in fraternal social networks.

A-3: The graduate will interact with their community for friendships, residency, recreation, and support.

A-4: The graduate will rely on strong and equitable employers / entrepreneur base where they may self-actualize as productive citizens.

Now, let’s review the relationships and incentives that each of the players has with each other:

1 – 2,3,4: The university has an interest in preserving the community because a motivated and educated workforce attracts opportunity far and wide in the form of business, travel, tourism and economic growth (Jacobs Externality).

2 – 1,3,4: Alumni seek to preserve the value of their alma mater because of the direct reflection upon their careers. It is in their best interest to support the university, it’s graduates, employers and the wider community.

3 – 1,2,4: The community relies on the university graduates and alumni to provide equitable and fair innovations that provide sustainable living standards.

4 – 1,2,3: Employers compete globally for talented, stable and engaged employees and service providers who are attracted foremost by a vibrant entrepreneurial economy and sustainable communities.

Data, information, knowledge, innovation, and wisdom

The Value Game is now played by university administrators who direct university facilities, influence, and resources to bringing at least 2 of these four groups together. Each time there is an interaction, the university will capture the data associated with the interaction. That data can be compiled to form information which gives the university administrator knowledge about what their next action must be. University feedback to the community will tell all of the players what interactions create the most social value upon which all players will innovate in their best interest.

As the game continues over time, the university gains the wisdom to understand the values of their assets and surrounding community. The community will act in the best interest of the other players as a means of acting in their own best interest (Social Capitalism).

Data is the ultimate shared asset

Over time, the University will become the physical “Search Engine” for data, information, knowledge, innovation, and wisdom in a community instead of just a vetting mechanism for book learned material. The University can now deploy this wisdom to their own internal programs and curricula as well as becoming an external reference source for government, industry, and economic development.

*(The University of New Haven is in no way affiliated with this post except I (the author) am a graduate of the UNH Engineering school (go Chargers!) and needed a realistic example that probably would not sue me – thanks guys)

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The Value Game Primer

By Admin

On May 30, 2012

In General Information

This reference post serves as an introduction to The Value Game (TVG). The Ingenesist Project will be posting Value Game Solutions to many specific scenarios that our readers and clients propose. Having this post as reference will help those new to The Value Game catch up quickly.

The following 12 minute video gives some historical perspective of The Value Game as we have applied to the aviation industry (see SocialFlights.com). This video also expands the idea to any shared asset and provides important insight as to how to generalize The Value Game across the economic spectrum.

Introduction to Value Games

The Value Game is a new class of business methods that manufactures New Value.
New Value represents all value that is not normally convertible to U.S. Dollars; i.e., creativity, community, sustainability, resilience, compassion, trust, etc
Currently, The Value Game begins and ends with dollars, however, all New Value created within the game is denominated in “social currency” which has no physical manifestation.
The Value Game converts between Social Currency and Dollars; i.e., business plans that are not viable in dollars may become viable when social currency is included in the bottom line

Building A Value Game

The Value Game starts by identifying any asset, tangible or intangible, that a group of people would share.
The next step is to find 3 or more communities that have a vested interest in the asset
The New Value Entrepreneur is able to discern which communities and which assets will interact successfully in a Value Game.
In general, once a value game is started, it will improve itself since only those who have a vested interest in the asset will continue playing.
Players that are inappropriate for the given asset and related communities, will drop out or find another value game
All players will eventually find and play value games that correspond most closely to their natural interest and passions.

The New Value Entrepreneur

Just like with any business venture, it is up to the entrepreneur to identify and engage all of the right components required to build any enterprise; this is no different for Value Games.

The objective of the new value entrepreneur is to organize three or more communities to interact around a shared asset
The interaction among these communities acts to preserve the asset rather than consume the asset.
Each community acting in the best interest of the other community is, in fact, acting in their own best interest.

The material that references this post will help identify what types of assets are suitable for value gaming and what types of communities would make worthy participants.

The Ingenesist Project is currently building Value Games for clients in aviation, construction, education, affinity groups, and social service communities. Please let us know how we can serve your New Value creation enterprise.

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With Respect To Time

By Admin

On May 18, 2012

In General Information

Yesterday’s post “This is what I believe” I make the following 4 statements:

Information is proportional to the rate of change of data with respect to time
Knowledge is proportional to the rate of change of information with respect to time
Innovation is proportional to the rate of change of knowledge with respect to time
Wisdom is proportional to the rate of change of innovation with respect to time

In clinical terms, this is called a “Differential Equation”

I always get a lot of questions about these. Most people’s eyes glaze over as their expression goes blank with far off images of high school Calculus class. Few people realize that these relationships are so common and so intuitive that we are all performing “Calculus” in many of their thoughts, words, actions, opinions, observations, and conclusions about the world around us.

But, just in case there is any doubt about the pervasiveness of differential equations in our culture and thinking, listen to the experts:

***

“Move fast and break things” – Mark Zuckerberg

The idea here is that it’s OK to fail because this is how learning happens (rate of change of knowledge) but make sure you do it fast (with respect to time) because the objective is to innovate, not to not make mistakes.

honor your creativity and you don’t ever ignore it or go against what that creative image is telling you. – Lady Gaga

Here she is referring to the proportionality component of creativity. The magnitude of the inspiration (rate of change of one’s knowledge of a matter) is greater than all other thinking moments, but it is constrained in time (with respect to time).

“The Googly thing is to launch [products] early on Google Labs and then iterate, – Merissa Mayer, Google VP

Marissa is talking about Wisdom. While innovation is proportional to the rate of change of knowledge, wisdom is proportional to the rate of change of innovation. The speed at which Google can innovate is how Google creates wisdom of what to do next.

***

Here are a few more. See if you can spot the differential equation:

“What Mark worries about the most is the lack of change, the lack of innovation” – Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook

“Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.”– Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon.com

“It’s always about timing. If it’s too soon, no one understands. If it’s too late, everyone’s forgotten.’” – Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief, Vogue Magazine

“All technology starts as a spark in someone’s brain”. – Nathan Myhrvold, Intellectual Ventures (hint: sparks travel at the speed of light)

“As people innovate and learn faster, they help generate new ways of performance improvements for everyone while progressing toward their own higher goals” – John Hagel, The Big Shift

Differential Equations are used to describe a vast array of phenomena in our physical universe.

These include the the forces of particles in motion, diffusion of medicine through cell walls, the decay of radioactive substances, and effects of gravity on bodies, weather, energy, chemical reactions, even the creation of money itself. It should not be a shock then that bankers, CEOs, politicians, and all “investors” are not actually concerned with money, they are concerned with the rate of change of money with respect to time.

The question now becomes, why would their NOT be an algorithm for human values of knowledge, innovation, and wisdom when there is an algorithm for everything else with respect to time.

Additional information can be fount here: Exoquant; an algorithm for Social Capitalism

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This Is What I Believe

By Admin

On May 17, 2012

In General Information

There is a tiny flaw in Market Capitalism that can be easily corrected
Technological change must always precede economic growth; we are going about the process of globalization as if economic growth can precede technological change. We got it upside down, that’s all.
Anything that can be made by allocating scarce land, labor, and financial capital can also be made by allocating abundant social, creative, and intellectual capital.
For every dollar of tangible value, there is at least 100 dollars worth of ‘intangible’ value that is really just ‘invisible’.
The global debt is trivial in comparison to the invisible value that exists with no accounting system to represent it.
There should be no economic incentive for anyone to make anything other than what they are most talented, interested, and passionate about.
Nobody knows everything.
Everybody knows something they can teach any other person.
Students, by definition, hold an equity position in their teachers.
Therefore, teachers should hold an equity position in their students – this will fix a lot of things.
Nothing economic happens until two or more people get together and build something.
Competition is over rated.
Collaboration is under rated.
All monetary things are valuable but not all valuable things are monetary.
There is a perfectly legitimate market for everyone.
A new currency will be the last thing that happens, not the first.
You can’t eat Gold
Information is proportional to the rate of change of data with respect to time.
Knowledge is proportional to the rate of change of information with respect to time.
Innovation is proportional to the rate of change of knowledge with respect to time.
Wisdom is proportional to the rate of change of innovation with respect to time.
If you want to create wisdom, go increase the rate of change of innovation. If you want to create innovation, go increase the rate of change of knowledge, etc. Now, flip over the series 15-18 above. See, you’ll do just fine.
Money represents past, present, or future productivity – otherwise nobody would work for it (think about that ).
Therefore, a currency backed by debt and a currency backed by innovation would become the mother of all hedge funds.
Securitization is a miracle of scale if done correctly, a disaster of scale if not
Time is the only valid basis of a currency.
My singular objective and greatest aspiration is to make “intangible” value tangible. I am confident that my children – and yours – will know what to do next.

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Growth Beats Austerity 100 to 1

By Admin

On May 15, 2012

In General Information

Bridge Over Troubled Water - by Cairn

Suppose a team of 10 engineers designs a bridge that spans a body of water connecting two small towns and cutting 1 hour off the alternate route for 14,000 people per day. Over the 75-year life of that bridge, those 10 engineers are responsible for 380 Million hours of increased productivity.

At 25 dollars per hour per person whose time is saved, 10 engineers create nearly 10 billion dollars of NEW VALUE. As such, only 100 engineers and a 10 bridges could create the same amount of New Value as Facebook is worth in an IPO.

Now compare the Old Value of the engineers.

Suppose that during the course of those same engineers’ careers, they could each borrow (capitalize) around 1 million dollars in personal debt for cars, homes, credit cards, and family education – debt that they would need in their lifetime.

By the miracles of the fractional reserve system, their 1 million dollars may be multiplied into 10 million dollars of new money available to the financial system for distribution. As such, those same 100 engineers would be worth approximately 1 billion dollars as economic beings in the Old Value economy.

100:1 Ratio

So in review, 100 engineers are worth 100 billion in New Value versus only 1 Billion dollars in Old Value. Of course, I purposely picked an example that would make the numbers come out all nice and orderly, but the most important point is that New Value leverages Old Value by several orders of magnitude.

Only two possible outcome of the global debt crisis.

1. The first is for all the countries of the world to get together and lop 3 zeros of the global accounts balance sheet and reboot. As such; 40 Trillion dollars becomes a quaint and manageable 40 Billion dollars. If it happens quickly, that’s called hyperinflation. If it happens slowly, that is called Austerity.

2. The second outcome is currently raging in Europe today with austerity protests toppling governments in France and Greece with the idea of growth vs. austerity. New candidates are promising to “grow” the economy out of its crisis. While this may be a bold and populist idea that is sure to spread, nobody knows exactly how it will be implemented without triggering number 1.

The New Value Movement:

By making so called “intangibles” tangible, vast amounts of New Value can be added to global accounts balances which could stave off wholesale collapse of the financial system. This will not be without hardship for some people; social priorities must drive Wall Street priorities, not the other way around.

We don’t have a financial crisis, we have a value crisis. One thing is emerging as a certainty, new value leverages old value by several orders of magnitude and The Value Game provides the capitalist model to access this astonishing wealth creation – in case anyone is wondering.

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The Facebook Basket of Goods

By Admin

On May 14, 2012

In General Information

Facebook does not produce anything. Facebook sells personal information to advertisers. This is not to say that Facebook is not worth a lot of money, but it certainly deserves a little perspective. In order for Facebook to be worth anything, people must be doing things, making things, and organizing things – otherwise, there would be no need for the utility that Facebook provides.

Consumer Value Index

In order for people to do things and make things, there needs to be basic infrastructure like energy, clean water, telecommunications, food, roads, bridges, and airports. There needs to be housing, education, and health care. There needs to be an effective and fair legal system, equitable political representation, and civil decency.

Debt or Human Potential

Facebook adds value to the human productivity potential that already exists. It is precisely that invisible human potential that seems to be worth most of the money that Facebook commands. When we estimate a value of 100 Billion dollars for Facebook – an astonishing 99 times their advertising revenue – we estimate that the market believes that intangible value exceeds tangible value by a factor of 100:1; versus, say, Apple at 16:1 or Google at 20:1

Nothing economic happens until people get together to make something

Charles Munger, CFO of Berkshire Hathaway uttered these deeply foreboding words at a conference at Seattle University in reference to the Enron debacle;

“it’s bad enough when we lose the accounting profession, but dear God help us if we lose the Engineers”.

Suppose a team of 10 engineers designs a bridge that spans a body of water cutting 1 hour off the alternate route for 14,000 people per day (connecting 2 small towns). Over the 75-year life of that bridge, those 10 engineers are responsible for 380 Million hours of increased productivity. At 25 dollars per hour per person whose time is saved, 10 engineers create nearly 10 billion dollars of NEW VALUE. As such, only 100 engineers could create the same amount of New Value as Facebook is worth in an IPO.

You are worth what is measured

We need to ask ourselves what is more efficient; making things that act as a proxy for the things that we are trying to sell, or measuring the real value of things that we make. Perhaps Facebook would be worth 10 Trillion dollars on such a balance sheet. Maybe Facebook would be worth nothing if true value were in fact measurable. Who knows?

Well, that’s exactly the problem – nobody knows.

Facebook acts as a proxy for human productivity, just like money is a proxy for productivity, but with no intrinsic value itself. Perhaps this explains their Wall Street convertibility. However, if we backed Facebook with New Value of human potential, rather than a basket of debt-able goods, perhaps we would not have a financial crisis to deal with, just a value crisis.

I wonder what Charlie Munger would say

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Gambling With New Value

By Admin

On May 11, 2012

In General Information

What if the origin of political division in this country could be traced to a simple glitch of the generally accepted accounting practices? Let me explain:

The Economist magazine recently wrote an article in favor of airlines unbundling fees; Ancillaries; You Know They Make Sense

“By charging fees, once neglected baggage service departments have become star revenue performers for airlines. Department managers can now justify new technology and equipment. Where before, baggage service only represented a cost, it now provides millions in revenue”.

In other words, charging money for baggage essentially transfers this service from the liability column to the asset column of the accounting statement. As a liability, it can only atrophy under the weight of austerity measures.

And Then The Carousel Starts Spinning

What happens next is quite remarkable. The airline PR machine twists this into a veiled statement of American individuality, claiming “freedom is about having choices” and touting themselves as the protector of all that is good and great in America. Then, they BLAME the traveler for expecting that mustachioed Soviet-era entitlement to unlimited [baggage] service.

Just give it a French name

“Passengers will continue to complain about being nickel-and-dimed, but it may be that they are making false comparisons … “When a la carte shopping is successfully implemented, it’s not an evil method. Quite to the contrary, it’s the ultimate compliment to the consumer—it acknowledges their right to choose.”

Roll in the legislators

The resemblance to political discourse about a whole myriad of issues is uncanny and would make anyone suspect a larger conspiracy. But what if the problems are real simple? What if the genus of political division in this country could be traced to a simple but widespread accounting anomaly? There is no accounting system for human values.

For example; consider the fact that Motherhood does not count in American Gross Domestic Product, but Day Care services do. So in order to stimulate economic growth, legislators subsidize day care so a parent can go to work while in the same breath witholding services if the mother “fails” to work. Don’t forget to always blame the customer when things don’t go right.

Gambling With New Value

Similar paradox never seems too far from key social issues such as education, health care, Internet privacy, Immigration, International Trade, Homeland Security, even Banking and Finance Reform:

From Fox News coverage of the JPO Morgan 2 Billion dollar loss:

The basic problem is that regulators have been working for the last two years to define the difference between hedging and gambling, and can’t. Either the rules would be too severe and shut down banking, or would permit reckless risk taking that could take down a huge bank, and potentially put the taxpayer on the hook to pay off depositors through the FDIC.

A hedge acts on both sides of the accounting balance sheet while a gamble does not. What if that’s what it’s all about; all the fighting, and slander, and division, and prejudice, and injustice, and violence, etc., caused by a simple accounting system problem.

When we do not have an accounting system for human values, we can only gamble with them. To hedge, New Value must be must be tangible. The problem is simple; it is a failure in the accounting system for New Value Movements.

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The Reality Platform

By Admin

On May 10, 2012

In General Information

Today, we do not have a financial problem as much as we have a value problem. The challenges that face our civilization are far too great to be solved on an “Advertising” platform. Whatever happens next, it must start with a Reality Platform.

2012: A Space Odyssey

Back in the railroad days, a platform referred to the surface upon which passengers stepped in order to enter or exit the train. Later, the platform became a computer operating system.

In 2012, the “platform” refers to one of the big four space stations on the Internet; Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. On the backend, they each sort products and people into their appropriated categories. On the front end, they deliver the consumer to the product and vice versa. Everything is done electronically; wherever possible, even the product is electronic.

A Platform for Reality

Compared to the Big Four – which collect data behind secure walls, analyze with proprietary algorithms, then serve up content that is most beneficial to the platform (not necessarily the user) – The Value Game is revolutionary. In one application of the Value Game, a company called Social Flights collects four separate streams of data, converts the data to a single usable form, then shares the data back to the separate streams.

For example; an airplane operator submits data regarding the inventory of their aircraft. The hospitality industry submits data relative to their inventory of support services, Travelers submit data relative to their likely destinations, and event organizers submit data regarding their events.

Music is a combination of rhythm, sound frequency, and timbre

Social Flights captures all of these streams, organizes the data and feeds it back to the market in a more usable form. Aircraft operators learn the optimum use of their aircraft resources. Hospitality and tourism learn how to best allocate their inventory. Event planners learn to access their markets for attendees. Finally, Travelers learn the exact door-to-door cost AND TIME to achieve their objectives. All the connections are made WITHOUT advertising.

Social Value is literally “manufactured” because it is in the best interest of each player that the other Players are successful. Communities become vested in each other – not unlike an ensemble.

Advertising extorts passion

Today, nearly all social organization is now funded – and influenced – by advertising. People do not wake up in the morning aspiring to follow the Kardashians. If left alone, people aspire to follow their friends, to pursue their natural interests, and develop their natural talents. The sole objective of the advertiser is to convince people to do something other than what they aspire to do naturally.

Manufacturing Social Value

The Value Game is a real and valid social value manufacturing engine. The same system deployed to aviation can also be used for any shared asset or experience; cars, roads, infrastructure, corporations, education, and even government, all with the New Value data platforms that are under development.

The problem can never be the solution – we need a new platform.

***

*2001: A Space Odyssey is a story that deals with a series of encounters between humans and mysterious black monoliths that are apparently affecting human evolution,

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The All You Can Eat Option

By Admin

On May 9, 2012

In General Information

The proverbial “all-you-can-eat” business model works great for some products and not-so great for others. The opportunity, of course, is to be able to transform non-viable business methods into viable one’s using social media tools and data. In this article, we explore how the AYCE model can be improved.

Netflix for the Sky

The Netflix model for movies has been touted as one of the greatest business innovations in the modern era of technology – not because it is new, but because it works. Now, consider that the AYCE model has been applied to transportation, club membership, and telecommunication (cell phone data plans), etc. Some work better than others….

I found this recent article about American Airlines experience with the AYCE model – which became their worst nightmare. In 1981, you could buy a lifetime all access pass to first class travel on United Airlines for 250,000 dollars. While touted as a good way for AA to raise a lot of quick money, it proved to have long term liabilities that far outstripped the performance of the fund raising. Today, a small carrier called Surf Air is now trying to use a subscription based system on a limited circuit using executive turboprop aircraft.

What is the comparable human behavior?

AYCE models impact human behavior in often unpredictable (read “unprofitable”) ways. We’ve seen the unlimited plan for cell phones becoming a thing of the past. Taxi drivers have not yet introduced the subscription travel plan but certain bus routes and commuter modes lend themselves to unlimited passes where an alternate single use rate and behavior record can be used as a price comparison.

I recall a wise and successful colleague in the insurance business revealed the dark truth about unlimited subscriptions. “They are like extended warranties, the only people who should actually buy extended warrantee are those who fully intend to beat the crap out of the item that they are covering”. Like gym subscriptions, low use members are needed to subsidize high use members.

Simulated Economy

Another way to simulate the effect of an unlimited prescription without leaving the business with an unmanageable long-term liability is to create an option-like instrument. The buyer would hold the right without the obligation to purchase the service at a discount during a specific period of time where behavior will be regulated by market forces.

Holding the option would be priced relatively cheap so that the buyer does not feel a deep loss for not exercising the option, yet sufficient to subsidize the activity of those who do exercise the option for discounted service. Another feature is that the option can be traded allowing holders to build a proto-economy around the asset that they possess. This would decrease the marketing costs of the provider as the price of the options floats to meet the needs of the market.

These strategies are commonplace on Wall Street but a statistical construct for their deployment on Main Street may be emerging. New “platforms” will arise which produce and aggregate data in the right format to support an options type of instrument for the trade or exchange of any number of goods and services in a non-cash environment.

Maybe the all-you-can-eat buffet of the future will resemble a cornucopia of options for assets that everyone shares. Bon Apetite.

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How Collaboration Distorts Markets

By Admin

On May 7, 2012

In General Information

Adam Smith From the un-encyclopedia

Long before the word “economics” and “capitalism” were even invented, a Scottish social philosopher and political economist named Adam Smith describes how wages are determined by competition between workers and competition between employers – not necessarily competition between workers and employers.

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Published on March 9th 1776, The Wealth of Nations, in part, describes the fundamental dynamics of labor markets at the dawn of the industrial revolution. In essence, when workers compete with each other for a limited number of jobs, wages fall. When employers compete with each other for a limited number of workers, wages increase.

He also described what happens when workers decide not to compete with each other; and instead form unions. Unions effectively distort the market toward increased wages. Likewise, Adam Smith describes what happens when employers decide not to compete with other employers (tacitly or implicitly) for workers. This activity also distorts the market, except, towards decreased wages.

Why are we fighting again?

Adam Smith does not mention specifically that these mutual distortions manifests in workers and employers competing with each other in lieu of competing with themselves. Since the 1780’s, vast resources have been committed to preserving the fight without really questioning why the fight needs to exist in the first place.

A fish has no word for water

One of the ways that corporations form tacit collusion is with arcade job descriptions and skill codes. When a company or an industry develops its own language, this makes it very difficult for outsiders to enter and insiders to leave. Yet, this is precisely what needs to happen in order for the diffusion of innovation to flow across the entire economic spectrum.

For example;

A medical instrument manufacturer and an aerospace company and a sporting equipment company would have very different ways of describing the environment that they operate in. However, an engineer designing a carbon fiber composite aircraft structure would be equally adept at designing a composite athletic prosthetics. Yet today, engineers from multiple industries are rarely interchanged. In fact, interchange has been largely suppressed.

Innovation Economics

If workers were able to cross industries they would benefit from increasing employment options and the ability to shift rapidly with economic cycles. In Adam Smith’s analysis, this would drive wages up. On the other hand, employers would also have a greater pool of qualified workers to hire, which in Mr. Smith’s analysis would drive wages down. Both would benefit from increased exchange of knowledge, access to innovation, transfer of wisdom, and diversification of risk.

If workers and employers could produce the exact same labor relations outcome by collaborating among themselves, there would be no need for the massive infrastructure of social division and political rhetoric that we have invested in preserving the fight.

Public Knowledge Asset Inventory

The Internet has made collaboration and interchange vastly more efficient than competing yet our economic system remains in the 1780’s. We are watching a public knowledge asset inventory forming outside the construct of corporations. We are watching corporations begin to index their skill codes to the public knowledge inventory rather than their internal ontologies.

We now need to recognize the importance in which we formulate this public asset. If we do it right, astonishing value will be released. If we do not, the invisible hand of capitalism will remain, well, invisible. As such, even a distorted image would be an improvement.

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New Value And The Future Of Money

By Admin

On April 25, 2012

In General Information

The 3rd Annual Future of Money and Technology Summit was held in San Francisco on April 23rd, 2012. This was my 3rd appearance at the Summit and I must say that #3 was one of the most profound experiences that I have had a conference. FOM&T is possibly one of the most important conferences of its kind.

Lunatic Fringe

Several years ago, many ideas that are now becoming mainstream were fringe topics at best. At one time, the very idea that intangibles may in fact be immensely tangible, drew razor shards of broken glass from the KM community toward anyone who ventured toward such a claim. Then, modern events such as Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street demonstrated a direct challenge to very tangible “guns and money” brought by new ways of organizing communities around intangible assets.

The fringe questions of today become mainstream questions tomorrow

Now, what happens if we turn that concept into a means of producing the things that people really need instead of producing things that people don’t really need? What happens when people interact around a shared asset – either tangible or intangible – will they work to preserve the asset or consume it? What if an economy arose where the Earth is the shared asset? What if an economy arose where the individual was a shared asset? what if Both happened? What would that look like?

A Value Game

The New Value Movement Panel came together around those ideas. When I set this panel up, I created a value game – each of the people has something to gain from the success of the others on the panel. This panel shared an intangible asset in the form of a conversation.

The outcome was movement – a new value movement. Please watch this video and contact me with your thoughts – I am deeply interested in your interpretation of what happened here.
Thank you.

I hope to see you all at the next Future of Money and Technology Summit

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Elevator Pitch – The Ingenesist Project

By Admin

On April 20, 2012

In General Information

>door closes<

The Ingenesist Project designs and deploys a new class of business methods that will facilitate the production and trade of goods and services against the inevitable devaluation of the dollar.

The systems and methods developed by the Ingenesist Project can create new and tradable value from existing social infrastructure which would act as a hedge against inflation, austerity programs, and lost productive capacity due to high corporate unemployment.

Anyone looking for a hedge on the dollar is looking for The Ingenesist Project.

< door opens >

In case you are still interested

Ingenesist designs and executes a new class of business methods that creates new value by deploying a social game to real asset markets.

A Value Game begins and ends with money because that is the world we currently live in. However, new value is created within the game through the managed interaction of 3 or more communities that share an asset.

Current Milestones

The Value Game was developed from a large-scale international comparative education research project from the NAFTA implementation era. Currently, Ingenesist deploys a Value Game to the aviation industry with a funded start-up called Social Flights. In this platform; private aircraft are the shared asset and the operators, travelers, and economic development concerns represent the integral communities.

Ingenesist is currently designing a value game for the construction industry on a large remediation project for a high-rise condominium. In this case, the condominium is the shared asset while the residents, the contractors, and the real estate market represent the integral communities.

Future Milestones

Ingenesist is currently looking to fund a web application with a working title of Zertify. Zertify is a proprietary knowledge asset inventory method that will allow The Value Game to scale indefinitely and internationally. As such, the requirement to convert back into money will no longer be necessary as the value created in one game can be exchanged with value created in another game.

Expected Outcomes

If we are successful, a new currency will form; one that is backed by real assets and the real interaction of real communities whose best interest is to preserve real assets rather than consume them. Zertify.com will be followed by Exoquant.com, and Gamidox.com – which will securitize the new currency to achieve capitalization.

Why is this important?

This will be very important because the inevitable global currency adjustments would not have a direct impact on a non-debt backed currency. In fact, Ingenesist will hedge the dollar – as the dollar loses value, the new currency will increase in value. It is likely that everyone reading this post has a vested interest in the outcome; literally and figuratively.

Why are we different?

Many start-ups just scale Facebook networks and call it a “social currency” for the purposes of consumption marketing. Other application have formed the asset incorrectly in our opinion. Ingenesist actually produces real things that reflect the real priorities of real social interactions…and this is real serious business.

Contact:

Daniel R. Robles PE, MBA
The Ingenesist Project, Founder/Director
Social Flights, Chief Innovation Officer

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Video: Sibos 2011
Video: The Value Game
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Speaking: The Future Of Money and Technology Summit 2012 April 23rd San Francisco
Attending: The Unmoney un-conference 2012; April 24th San Francisco

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The New Value Movement

By Admin

On April 5, 2012

In General Information

It’s time once again for The Future of Money and Technology Summit in San Francisco on April 23, 2012. Each year this community of visionaries dive deeper into the subject of alternate economics as the public narrative around the subject also increases. This is truly an important event. Please register here.

In full disclosure, the producers of FOM&T trusted me to assemble this panel to advance a theme that was initiated at Sibos Innotribe Sessions (Toronto 2011). I elected to NOT appoint myself moderator – Dr. V is much more experienced in that role. Instead, I will attempt to speak for the Ingenesist. The word ingenesist is derived from the Latin word for engineer – an ingenesist is any person who creates real value through their social, creative, and intellectual abilities. For this reason, the panel is titled:

The New Value Movement

Past panels in this segment at FOM&T included discussions about non-quantifyable exchanges and intangible capital. This panel introduces the New Value Movement where emergent ideas and associated web applications seek to allow non-quantifiable exchanges to become “quantifiable” and Intangible Capital to become “tangible”.

Like the Beatles once sang “Money Can’t Buy Me Love”, New Value refers to those things that cannot necessarily be produced through the allocation of classical factors such as land, labor, and capital. Rather, the next generation of entrepreneurs will allocate resources of social capital, creative capital, and intellectual capital in order to produce the things that society needs.

Innovations such as trust networks, knowledge inventories, social games, and abundance capitalism will become increasingly important and hold great promise for hedging the inevitable constraints on fiat currency.

Dr. Amy Vanderbilt – moderator

Dr. V is the Founder and Chief Strategist at TrendPOV.com, next generation social omni-media that over 600 thousand executives call GPS for your business strategy. Amy is an award-winning author, show host, executive coach, speaker, board member, and commentator. She has distinguished herself in academia, private and public industry as well as government. (full bio here)

Patrick Murck

Speaking to the existing legal structures and foundations that would support the storage and exchange of New Value Enterprise is Patrick Murck. Patrick is a Principal and Founder of Engage Strategy and Engage Legal. Patrick helps clients innovate, operate and grow their business with a heightened focus on the legal and regulatory issues governing the use of virtual economies, gamification, alternative payment systems, and social loyalty and reward programs. (full bio here)

Joe Johnson

Speaking to the emergence of a new class of business methods is Joe Johnson, CEO and head coder of runaway startup called Connect.me. Connect.Me is a new reputation and people discovery network creating a consolidated platform for social verification and trust in P2P and freelance economies. In 2011, Connect.Me won the prestigious Privacy Award from the European Identity Conference for its groundbreaking trust framework and business model. (full bio here)

My Role:

In Amy’s world of executives consulting, the ingenesist includes the designer new products. In Patricks world, the ingenesist may be an innovator from Anytown USA trying to navigate the intricacies of law, money, and finance. In Joe’s world, the ingenesist is the cloud of specialized skill holders looking for each other to create value together. I often argue that all value not created directly by Mother Nature, was created by the ingenesist within all of us.

Please join us as Dr. Vanderbilt skillfully weaves the ideas, needs, and predictions of this extraordinary combination of panelists into a unique and more complete view of the great opportunities that await on the horizon of this unprecedented financial revolution.

***

The Future of Money & Technology Summit brings together the best and brightest thinkers around money, including visionaries, entrepreneurial business people, developers, press, investors, authors, solution providers, service providers, and organizations who work with them at the convergence of cash and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving money ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment.

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The New Economy Movement

By Admin

On March 27, 2012

In General Information

The following 7 minute talk was presented at the Innotribe Sessions at SIBOS 2011 conference in Toronto Canada.

Here I identify a serious omission in our form of economics which may inhibit the ability for currency to represent the things that people do and make. I also introduce how a new class of financial instruments could re-connect currency with productivity thereby reintroducing vast amounts of value into the tradable asset (currency) pool.

What if the solution to the great complexity of economic collapse is actually fairly simple – and we don’t find it? What if the new economy is going to happen whether we want it to or not – and we are not prepared? What if the tipping point to the New Economy is already past – and we are not in the game?

The only ones to blame would be ourselves for not building the obvious.

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Goodbye University Hello Multiversity

By Admin

On March 9, 2012

In General Information

I recently responded to the following Question on a Facebook group:

How could a newly established university be designed today in order to be elite? Which features must be included, and which features can be left out?

Subquestion: “What would you include in all dimensions: desired faculty, desired student body, location, graduation, research and tenure requirements, institutional structure and purpose, among other things, and what features would you exclude that are currently prevalent at “elite” institutions such as the Ivy Leagues?”

***

My answer as follows:

Why not go farther, much farther. Teachers would not get paid. Instead, they would hold an equity position the future of their students. Sort of like an inverse pyramid scheme built on knowledge assets – teachers would collect a small % amount from many students and a smaller % amount from their many future students students, and so on (multiplying value instead of dividing value). This would attract a certain type of teacher as well as a certain type of student. It would also favor research and innovation since the promise of stagnant salaries are not attractive in this arrangement.

Why two or three subject minors? How about a 3 platform minors; one in social philosophies, a minor in creative arts, and a minor in sciences. Instead of a “degree” your education would be expressed as a string of code representing each unit of study to form your unique API. Your API would interface with the APIs of your colleagues and teachers such that an algorithm could predict the likelihood that a strategic combination of knowledge assets could execute a particular business plan. Such probabilities would be able to predict and associate future cash flows with such business plans. These cash flows could then be securitized into a financial instrument called an “innovation bond”.

Rich people, corporations, and governments would buy these bonds and the revenues would fund the school. Access to the bonds also provides access to the underlying assets – the world’s knowledge. They would be hugely valuable as a hedge agains a declining fiat currency because, like money, knowledge assets can be deployed to create the things people need. Soon, everyone would become a teacher and everyone will become a student in a new form of capitalism will emerge where factors of production are allocated as social, creative and intellectual capital.

***

There were several interesting responses to this question as well as comments to my response. Admittedly, I was riffing a bit with my response , but I’ll defend it as follows:

First, let us not mistake “money” for “value” as a so-called “equity position” can be denominated in either. Second, there are many examples in society that demonstrate my conclusion. Parents take an equity position in the future of their children, executives across America have a cadre of protege from whom they take an equity position in their careers, and Society accepts levies, and taxes, and buy bonds that fund public education so that future productive generations can support the elderly.

The miracle of capitalization and securitization have created extraordinary levels of prosperity on Earth compared to historic social structuring. The ability to capitalize and securitize knowledge assets (as opposed to classical land, labor, and capital) is likely the next economic paradigm…if not the only sustainable economic paradigm. I would suggest that current university system is the aberration, not my comment above.

Goodbye Universe, Hello Multiverse

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Encouraging Customer Self-Organization

By Admin

On February 25, 2012

In General Information

TrendPOV

Here is a repost of an interview with myself by Dr. Amy Vanderbilt at TrendPOV. I like Dr. V for her ability to really draw out the best in people. Here she tackles a topic of great complexity and makes it feel like an everyday conversation. If you ever have an opportunity to work with Dr. V you will be deeply rewarded with the outcome.

On a side note, I felt so comfortable that I forgot that I was on air – you can see my eyes wandering, yikes. Next time I’ll tape a sign on the ceiling that says “Look Down”. Anyway – it’s an interesting topic so please watch and let me know what you think.

From Trend POV

Social media is no longer just a way to reconnect with friends; it has become an integral part of daily life that is rapidly gaining traction in the business world. Social media now provides a format for customers to self-organize in a way that creates a competitive market for goods and services where both the customers and the vendors can benefit. The depressed economy has brought people together to share advice and zero in on great deals through group buying.

As defined on Wikipedia.com, “Group buying, also known as collective buying, offers products and services at significantly reduced prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers would make the purchase.” Originating from China, group buying, called tuángòu grew from the practice of haggling and has now infiltrated the online world in many parts of the globe. Notable sites include Groupon, LivingSocial and MyCityDeal.

Unlike China’s deal strategy that is self-organized and executed, most of the group buying in Europe and North America is done using online intermediaries who charge vendors fees that can be as much as 50 percent of the deal. Group buying has been gaining consumer popularity for three years now; however, group buying in the business sector is still in its infancy. Despite Groupon having over 100 million subscribers that had bought over 60 million Groupons by September 2011, skeptics suggest the trend will not last.

Consumers may be getting saturated by email overload from deal sites competing for their attention. China is struggling amidst accusations of selling fake goods; almost a fourth of the 6000 group buying Web sites shut down in 2011 and those still operating are losing money. But group buying is probably not yet dead. As Dan Frommer said on businessinsider.com, “The future of group buying is on mobile devices. Why? Because they’re always with you, can identify your location via GPS, and can access a network of real-time, instant deals.” If businesses can engage customers and retain loyalty, group buying may have a bright future.

To turn this trend into an advantage for your organization, consider the following. Customer self-organization is going digital. Selling to groups can increase profits. Use social media to drive customer self-organization. Group-selling is not for gaining new customers. Instead, try group-selling for exclusive products and services and rewarding loyalty.

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The 5 Pillars Of The Inevitable Economy

By Admin

On January 24, 2012

In General Information

The previous article identified a recurring trend in human history; each new stage of civilization resulted from the integration of tools invented in the prior stage. Where we are today carries many clues about where we need to go tomorrow. However, change cannot come about from changing random components because the output of one component is the input of another. In general, this is what defines a “system”. This article describes the 5 pillars of the inevitable economy.

The financial system is built on five integrated pillars

Currency

A currency is a device that people use for both the storage and the exchange of value. Currency serves as a proxy that represents the value of things that people produce it is not in itself an actual product.

Inventory

The accounting system keeps track of the things that people produce. It is helpful to use a currency to represent the the storage and exchange of value from the things that people produce; but again, currency is only a representation of inventory.

Vetting

An economy must have a vetting mechanism that keeps the game fair otherwise nobody would play. Today this includes a legal system, contracts, and institutions – such as representative government – that defend the value of things that people produce.

Entrepreneurs

Classically, entrepreneurs are the merchant class who allocate land, labor, and money in various proportions and combinations as a means of organizing and matching the supply of things that people produce with the demand for what people produce.

Society

People define markets. They supply the inventory that other people demand and they demand the inventory that other people supply.

Examples of financial system failures are legendary

The Enron Fiasco was an accounting system failure caused by a vetting mechanism failure. The housing bubble was a was a currency failure because CDOs effectively divorced the dollar from any meaningful representation of productivity. The unemployment crisis is a social failure that limits the ability for people to supply the things that they demand.

The Inevitable Economy

So what if the functions of these same five pillars could be achieved and integrated in some other way? What if this is already happening? Going through the list backwards to reflect a mirror image:

Society

People are reorganizing in new and different ways. They increasingly use social media and mobile technology to supply and demand limitless information with which they then use to supply and demand many useful things of each other.

Entrepreneurs

Land, labor, and capital are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the age of non-scarce information – instead, entrepreneurs are allocation social, creative, and intellectual assets as a means of matching the supply and demand for the things that people need.

Vetting

Social contracts are playing an increasing role in keeping the game fair. It is not in the best interest for anyone to act with low integrity when they can be Googled in a matter of seconds.

Inventory

The knowledge asset inventory is forming in many applications and platforms – but it is not yet integrated. When this happens, an accounting system for social, creative, and intellectual assets will immediately emerge.

Finally, the currency

Any device that can represent human productivity better than today’s money will become that next currency. This can only happen after the four pillars begin to integrate.

The currency is supported by the system. The system is NOT supported by the currency.

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The Inevitable Next Economy

By Admin

On January 23, 2012

In General Information

The Human Productivity Chart:

Human civilization has progressed through many stages. Each stage arose from the “integration” of the tools developed in the prior stage. Believe it or not, the next economic paradigm will arise from the integration of the tools being developed in the current stage of human development. Let me explain:

Hunter -gatherer:

We started as hunter-gathers who traveled from place to place to follow animal migrations and seasonal flora. People would collect fallen branches and burn them for heat or cooking. Then people started to sharpen rocks that could be used to hunt food better than a dull rock. They sharpened rocks to chop down trees for warmth and shelter. Soon they sharpened rocks to till soil.

The agrarians

The arrival of the agrarian age came when the arrow, the axe, and the plow were integrated; that is, the output of one became the input of another – allowing people to conserve energy and increasing productivity. The emergence of communities led to the division of labor as people specialized their skills. People soon developed tools and techniques for forging metals, building structures, and harnessing of forces such as wind, sun, water, and domesticated animals.

City-states

The arrival of City-States arose when division of labor, harnessing forces, and transportation became integrated. Spare time became available to experiment in ideas such as governance, laws, civil services, and currency. Travel allowed for trade of goods, services, and the spread of knowledge across great distances.

Philosophers

The age of philosophy emerged as the leisure class, knowledge exchange, and civil law integrated such that people began to question existence, spirituality, and test theories about the observations that they constantly witnessed in the natural world.

Scientists

The scientific age emerged from the integration of tools developed during the philosophical age. Written language, mathematics, geometry, came together as alchemists attempting to turn lead into gold, instead created many other new and useful things from the elements. Astronomy, calculus, the scientific method, and modern finance were born.

Industrialists

The industrial age emerged as an integration of the tools developed by the scientific age. Eli Whitney demonstrated the “interchangeability of parts” paving the way for modern production. The printing press and cotton gin demonstrated the scalability of machinery while capitalization and securitization of value (finance) allowed a merchant class to allocate land, labor, and capital.

Information

The age of information formed from the integration of tools created by the industrial revolution. All that machinery created a tremendous amount of data. Computers were developed for processing data creating information that could be used to make productivity more efficient.

Knowledge

The Knowledge age emerged from the integration of tools developed during the information age. The Internet vastly accelerated the amount of information available from which knowledge could be applied as factors of production in physical systems from weather prediction, space travel, medicine, and new ways for people to organize their selves.

Innovation

The innovation age will emerge from the integration of tools developed by the knowledge age. So called “social media” is creating thousands of platforms upon which people reorganize themselves around interests, affinities, relationship, and commerce. As these tools integrate; that is, when the output of one tool becomes the input of another tool (and vice versa), a new economic paradigm will emerge.

Wisdom

Keep in mind that the agrarian economy and all previous stages are still with us today. Keep in mind that elements of future economies also exist today. Keep in mind that the US dollar has not always been the currency of trade nor should we expect that it will always be with us in the future. We can assume that the productivity inherent in people and communities is not dependent on the currency, rather, currency is dependent on it. Time is the only scarce resource and everyone has an equal amount of it. As such, time is the only true currency.

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Ideas Are The New Currency

By Admin

On December 20, 2011

In General Information

‘Tis the season for “The Year In Pictures” – the annual new year pictorial accounting of the events of the outgoing year. Any rational collection for 2011 would include three events; Arab Spring, The Earthquake / Tsunami in Japan, and Occupy Wall Street. These three events eclipsed the Royal Wedding, Steve Jobs, the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the space shuttle retirement and even the end of the war in Iraq.

These three events tell a very interesting story of who we are and where we are going as a civilization.

Classical economists such as David Ricardo and Adam Smith brought us the idea that a merchant class allocates land, labor, and capital in various combinations as “the factors of production” that match supply and demand for all that societies need via the invisible hand of market capitalism.

Yet, in a single hour, land, labor, and billions of units of Capital were wiped off the surface of the Earth by in Japan. While we see the images of total destruction, there are hundreds of square miles that were untouched and where all seems quite normal – except for that invisible hand of radioactive cesium. Land, labor, and capital failed as a an economic cornerstone for all those who had once called this land home.

In the Middle East, with few jobs and even fewer opportunities for youth, the quaint notion of “land and labor allocations” crumbled under the forces of people with mobile access to dynamic data, free information, community knowledge, innovation, and wisdom. Governments, with no relative shortage of money, were unable to challenge the opposing factors. Again, the idea of land, labor, and capital as the economic cornerstone had failed.

Quite appropriately, Occupy Wall Street was executed on borrowed land, with borrowed labor, and borrowed capital. The operation was peaceful so nobody died. The stock market did not even crash. Politicians went largely unscathed and the attorneys stayed in their collective offices. Nothing physical was actually created, and therefore, nothing physical was actually destroyed. However, a great deal was produced.

All three of these events had something in common – they all produced something very tangible. They all produced an idea in the minds of others.

As we review the year we review it is increasingly evident that land, labor, and capital are inadequate to articulate what people actually produce. It will be through these shortcomings of classical economics that a new economy will form. The degree to which society actually produces the things that society actually needs, this new economy should not look much different. The degree to which society does not actually need the things that capitalism produces, great new ideas will emerge.

What was once the land of opportunity can now become a planet of opportunity.

Photo Credit: David Shankbone via Mashable

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The Paragon of Capitalism

By Admin

On December 13, 2011

In General Information

Capitalism is characterized by the condition where individuals acting in their own best interest consequently act in the best interest of society. By contrast, Socialism is characterized by the condition where individuals acting in the best interest of society consequently act in their own best interest.

Who are the Socialist?

While America espouses a capitalist system of social organization, the jobs that Capitalists create are contained in corporations that operate much closer to the socialist model of community organization.

In a corporation, employees are motivated to act in the best interest of the corporation as a means to assure their own best interest. Resources allocation is channeled through ministers who are led by a benevolent dictator responding to the priorities of a family of stockholders. Tasks are segmented into units of equal pay for equal work. There are limited avenues to advancement. People cannot talk freely against their employer. It is acceptable practice to banish some people for the best interest of the collective.

First Amendment To The U.S. Counterintuition

The opposite holds for the OWS movement – some say the occupiers are socialist, however, the jobs that they create are Capitalist. There is no benevolent dictator or appointed ministers or hierarchy to allocate resources. Anyone can join and nobody gets sent to the gulag. Yet, everyone knows what to do like some kind of invisible hand that elevates an ideal. Most importantly, there are unlimited avenues for advancement.

The movement was peaceful.

Buildings did not fall. Mothers did not mourn the death of children. There was no volatility induced on the stock markets, the lawyers stayed in their offices, politicians were relatively unscathed. Those protestors who did suffer are now celebrated in the media, culture, art, music, Facebook, etc. In short, People acting in their own best interest were in fact acting in the best interest of society.

Reoccupy Wall Street

Now that the movement has been dispersed, and the 89% who still have jobs return to occupy their respective corners of Wall Street. The global narrative has changed for everything from warfare to environmental protection to income equality.

The products that emerge

Already, mobile apps now exceed CD/DVD sales. Mobile computing devices will replace PCs. Television sales are going down. Many of us now own our last internal combustion automobile. Social Media Applications are mimicking financial instruments with new systems for trade, exchanges, trust, influence, and value creation. Allocating social capital, creative capital, and intellectual capital rather than the now quaint but hopelessly static notions of land, labor, and fiat capital is producing real value.

Capitalism and socialism are simply two of many different forms of social organization. People are reorganizing.

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Do We Really Need To Fail?

By Admin

On November 30, 2011

In General Information

Yesterday, I heard a report on NPR about the resource management department in North West Washington, in response to diminished funding – is certifying private boats for emergency duty in clean up, security, and rescue. This is logical because nobody knows and understands the waters of Northern Puget Sound and The Strait of Juan De Fuca than the local tribes and others who ply those waters daily.

Today, I heard another report on NPR about how the City of Houston has gained far more from the demise of Enron than their existence. Enron would recruit the top intellect in the country, move them to Houston and reward them for creativity and hard work. The collapse of Enron released 4000 hugely talented people to the Houston Economy where many have started new businesses with remarkable success.

Vicious Circle or Virtuous circle:

I will not pass judgment beyond what these reports stated, except that there is something very valid about the “Knowledge Inventory” that exists in a community and their specific location. The Jane Jacobs externality proposes that endowment of creative and educated people drives economic growth in a community by attracting investment and development, which attracts more smart people, etc.

Vicious Galaxies or Virtuous Galaxies

As the NPR reports suggest, the type of investment and development is dependent on the quality and quantity of knowledge assets that exist in a particular location. Now, let’s extrapolate that to include all disciplines and talents of knowledge that exist in all communities and we encounter a stark reality that there is no knowledge inventory from which to build – except in the response to a failure such as the corrosion of government spending or in the wake of corruption and associated corporate collapse.

Yes, it is often said that adversity brings out the best in people, but is that really necessary? Do we really need for the whole rig to collapse before we emerge from the ashes?

We need to build the knowledge inventory today. People need to know what people know – that is where the truth lives. We need to know what can be built from the parts that we have in the bin. We don’t want to try to build something from the wrong parts any more than we want to misallocate the right parts to build the wrong things. In any industry in the world, none of these situations would pass the stink test, yet this is the state of our communities today. We don’t even know that we don’t know what we know. Seriously, is anyone else wondering about these things?

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89% Are Already OWS

By Admin

On November 23, 2011

In General Information

99% of Americans don’t have a game that they can win playing by the rules imposed on them by the other 1%. But in order to keep this game in play, that 1% utterly depends on the remaining 89% who still have jobs to show up for work and do as they are told. The spectre of the 9% fallen is an incentive, of sorts, to those still walking.

These are the 89 percenters…

…who already occupy Wall Street with their knowledge of systems and processes to implement procedures and methods that support the connections and networks of the remaining 1%. Without these people in place, the system will fail faster than S&P can calculate a credit score, literally.

The 89% know what each other know

The logistics manager knows whom to call when the packages are late. The account manager knows all of the customers by name. The service team knows exactly how to get the computer systems back online. The loan officer knows where the money is. But only the 1% know where the knowledge is…and where it isn’t…

Knowledge is money

As RIM recently learned, if the computers go down, all the money in the world will not bring them back. Most companies have an off-line life span of only a few days or hours before irreparable damage occurs. Only the right knowledge in the right place at the right time can save the firm. This is a huge monetary vulnerability.

The Public Knowledge Inventory

I found a great picture of the Occupy Wall Street Library from here. The great irony is that OWS felt the need to build a Library that represents the ideas that they have between their ears. What they really need is a “Library” for the knowledge that actually lives, breaths, and acts in the minds of the 99%. Only then can they deploy the force that they need to move enterprises.

Divide and conquer

As long as Americans are fighting with each other, there is little chance that they will organize their knowledge assets and deploy their knowledge assets in a manner that serves social priorities instead of Wall Street priorities. This is the big shift that the World is waiting for. As long as people fear losing their jobs, they will comply with the 1%

What scares them the most?

The greatest fear of any company is to have their key employees poached by a competitor. Companies have gone out of their way to implement non-poaching agreements between known competitors and NDAs against unknown competitors. Companies hide key players behind a mountain of bureaucracy, misinformation, and obscure titles and job descriptions in order to hide them from the open market; yet they willingly poach other firms when they can.

The cry of the 99% is income equality.

Let me suggest that OWS consider knowledge equality as a superior alternative. So instead of the OWS book library, they should form a public knowledge Library. A public knowledge inventory would make knowledge transparent to all people and all companies equally.

Then Let the Poaching begin

If the 89% were not scared heartless about getting another job, then they would be far more willing to join the movement. In fact, the MVPs would be the most powerful voice of the movement – the top innovators and visionaries toiling their life away for a company willing to raid their pension fund or drop insurance coverage at the drop of a hat. Nobody is going to tell them to take a bath – they are the water.

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Who is Awarding The Disruption Badge?

By Admin

On November 10, 2011

In General Information

There are some big names getting involved with “badges”. Modern ideas about badges arise from incentive used by the gaming community to indicate achievement. Historically, however, badges are older than money itself. Recently, badges are gaining attention in the area of education as a means of indicating achievement.

Badges are steeped deep in our economy and culture

When people write their resume, they “badge” themselves with the names of the companies that they worked for and the schools they attended. They badge themselves with the market brands of the products that they worked on. They badge themselves with the trademarks of the technologies that they applied.

People even badge themselves with corporate ideals such that “chronology”, “reasons for leaving” and “no blank spaces” are somehow rational proxies for intellect, creativity, and team working skills. We need a behavior platform, kids. Passion, family, and purpose are merely business disruptions.

There are several directions that this can go

The first is the inevitable collusion between badges and branding. I am still scratching my head over AMEX hijacking the “Social Currency” badge. Other badges (or logos) are considered among the most valuable assets that a company can own from Microsoft certifications to the Chuck E Cheese Rat … badges have value – with their own branch of the legal profession to prove it.

The second direction can be quite disruptive to branding. For example it can cost well over $100K to wear the Harvard “Badge”. Meanwhile Steve Jobs literally ridiculed Stanford to their collective face(s) with the idea that diverse combinations of knowledge assets are what set the innovation enterprise apart from the old guard.

What if the college degree badge is irrelevant?

Who is to say and engineer in not an engineer until they take on $2000 more debt for a course in Western Civ. And, if not Western Civ., then what course denotes the ascension into engineerhood? A physics major that rules video games, kite surfs, plays in a punk band, and writes decent code is equally, if not more likely, to create a new industry than someone with a CS degree from MIT. Where is that badge?

Badges should be disruptive

What happens when it is no longer important to have “Google” on your resume? Why is it so now? What happens when being a Princeton drop-out is no better or worse than being a drop out from State U? What happens when people are recognized for their passions and the things that they are naturally good at? How can a credit score extrapolate success from measuring failure? What happens when there is no badge for the color of one’s skin, physical appearance, or family connections. What happens when Brands are accountable for the people who wear their badge instead of the other way around?

Badging already exists and in order to improve anything, badges must be disruptive.

So, who is awarding the disruption badges?

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Plenty of Work But Where Is The Knowledge?

By Admin

On October 21, 2011

In General Information

Millions of people are looking for Jobs. Meanwhile, employers complain of a chronic “skills mismatch” that prevents them from hiring people or initiating new innovations.

When an engineer is laid off from an airplane manufacturer, a company like Starbucks has no idea what that person knows even though aircraft and milk steamers have a great deal in common from the perspective of the Engineer (both are pressure vessels subject to extreme environmental conditions).

The same is true for a marine engineer, and HVAC engineer, or an electrostatic coating machinery engineer. Each of these disciplines has far more in common than they have differences. However, if you compare the descriptions for any of these jobs, they sound like they all happen on different planets.

God forbid you are not an expert on MS Excel, which only takes a few hours for almost anyone to learn – yet not tagging that radio button can negate 20 years of experience that only 1% of people have the desire, discipline, and intellect to achieve.

The same holds true for many talents and professions. There are serious problems with the way that we discern the supply and demand for knowledge assets.

What is needed is an intermediate knowledge inventory in the commons that everyone can index to. So when an engineer tags “pressure vessels” the term registers into the resident ontology of all observers.

Why is this better?

Of course companies are trying to eliminate variance and risk by hiring a person who has been trained by someone else – preferable a direct competitor. On the other hand, the mantra of modern business is to innovate. Innovation does not happen by duplicating yesterday’s ideas. Mixing diverse combinations of knowledge assets, and not all common knowledge assets, accelerates the process of Innovation. Think of all the music that is yet to be created for lack of musicians to play the different instruments.

An intermediate knowledge inventory solves both problems by allowing companies to introduce diverse knowledge assets without introducing irrelevant knowledge assets. It also gives people far more mobility to pursue specialties that they are most talented and interested in. As such, the allocation of knowledge assets would improve to match supply of knowledge with the demand for knowledge in an innovation economy.

There is not a shortage or work, only a shortage of knowledge about knowledge.

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Where Teachers Hold an Equity Position

By Admin

On October 19, 2011

In General Information

Teachers are “threatened” with layoffs. In some cases, the profession is openly mocked. Meanwhile, corporations are staring blankly at the knowledge gap in their industries. The older generation is retiring, moving on, and taking their knowledge with them. Teacher’s unions are busted and disappearing. Apprenticeships are a thing of the past. Everyone is asking “where are the jobs – there is plenty of work to do”

Education is obviously a financial instrument. Think about that for a minute – it is an investment like any other investment. Wall Street has an arbitrage instrument for every market anomaly – why not education?

What would happen if teachers were given an equity position in their students? Isn’t this what families do to prepare their kids to take over the family business? Isn’t this what happens in corporations where executives pick proteges? Isn’t this what happens in politics where knowledge is traded among a closed group?

A school like Harvard University or MIT certainly hold and equity position in their students. What if every community viewed every child as an asset instead of a liability?

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