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Rally Point Alpha was initially created in response to the unexpected popularity of my essay Situational Awareness 2017 and as part of the work that I and Jim Rutt have been doing for years. Quite a few years ago, we, along with several others, came to the conclusion that "civilization as we know it" is at end of life and that it is of utmost importance to understand how this is likely to play out and what, if anything, can be done to nudge things into the most favorable possible future.
Few people combine the ability to grasp the enormous complexity necessary to make this proposition more than a feeling with the native capacity to do something about it. The nature of SA:2017 and the fact that people who read it and felt moved to act seemed disproportionally to be of this tiny group made the RPA effort a good use of time.
Rally Point Alpha is now three months old and has recently passed the 500 members mark. Many have rallied, but for what purpose?
Jim and I are sincere in not having a prescription for Rally Point Alpha. This is because our models of the complexity of what is happening tell us that it is unlikely that anything he or I or even a small group of us could prescribe is likely to be on target.
However, what we have long believed is that the next "social operating system" must be the result of an emergent, dynamic, collective, and non-hierarchical leadership modality. This is tricky. Folks who are action-oriented feel frustrated as hell - because we *know* how to create a smart hierarchical collective intelligence and do something. Fiddling around with this vague new "mode" doesn't feel like real efficacy. And those folks who are idea-oriented can often wander aimlessly in the desert of the "interesting".
And yet, it is our proposition that we must start here. The group itself, as a SenseMaker, has to decide what should we do? and how to do it.
To that end I'm convening an Open Space Video conference.
An Open Space conference is a free form event where the participants propose the topics along with an associated video conferencing room for discussing each topic. Attendees vote with their feet as to which topics they want to discuss or work on. What happens, happens. Participants will be invited to take notes during the sessions. All of the shared notes will be assembled into a Proceedings document that will be published shortly after the event.
Read more about Open Space here: http://www.openspaceworld.com/users_guide.htm.
It is my hope that this lightly structured event can aid in Rally Point Alpha leveling up. But it's up to you.
The Open Space format calls for a theme.
Our theme is WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
We have also added a stipulation:
The Status Quo is seriously fucked and is very likely to collapse any time from tomorrow to at most 10 years out.
We are not going to discuss the stipulation. If you don't agree, or can't agree to effectively suspend disbelief for this conference, you should not attend the conference.
We have enhanced the usual Open Space video format by adding an online bulletin board for the marketplace, and Google docs for collecting the all-important proceedings.
While substantially enhancing the experience, it also means that to get full value from the experience you should participate from a computer, not from a phone or other small format device.
Registration is open to the first 45 people who sign up. There is a nominal price to encourage commitment to the date and time.
The event will be held on May 27th starting at 12:00noon EDT / 9:00am PDT and will last about 3 and half hours. There will be a formal closing at the end of the event.
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LocationZOOM Video (View)
Zoom Video
THE CLOUD, NC 27262
United States
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