Megacommunity Manifesto
Within the blogosphere one of the grand topics is the emerging open commons. A wonderful example of this theme by blog writers is Jon Lebkowsky’s post here on WorldChanging. Titled ‘Complexity, Megacommunity, and Adaptation,’ the post discusses another excellent read called ‘The Megacommunity Manifesto’ from strategy and business.
The ideas discussed in these two articles are constructive food for thought as we work to build the iCommons. As Lebkowsky says in the introduction of his essay:
“The concept of ‘megacommunity’ is another way to perceive ‘power to the edges’ thinking about emergent organization and leadership. that are oriented to multilateral action. The megacommunity approach acknowledges that no single organization or entity can make the decisions required by today’s complex social and infrastructural systems. The challenges facing community leaders are based on ‘complexity: the growing density of linkages among people, organizations, and issues all across the world,’ according to the authors of ‘The Megacommunity Manifesto.’”
With apologies for this simplistic analysis, I think that undertaking the leadership of an emergent organization is quite a 21st century phenomenon. The 20th century was dominated by struggles to take over existing, often old, entities: nations, cultures, religions, political parties. There was a lot of allying and splitting up of organizations and countries.
Now, new communication and information technologies have created an emergent venue where truly new organizations arise and issues among them emerge as well. The Megacommunity Manifesto looks at this area, introducing the subject with these definitions:
“We chose the term megacommunity to reflect such a sphere’s character as a gathering place, not of individual people, but of organizations. We see megacommunities emerging in many locations, reflecting the evolution of long-standing communitarian and democratic traditions, and also the changing character of today’s business and political environments.”