>>Not sure if he's made it to Ned yet, but odds are he will.<<

Not yet, but hope so...this sounds fantastic.

I've made it to Ned now thanks to Mark's invitation. Mark, I've heard a lot of wonderful things about you from many people who I know well and have a lot of respect for. Thanks for setting up Ned, and I hope to participate often. And Greg, thanks for all your kind words! I feel like you revived AB in Chicago with your open space discussion (after a bad consultant tried to kill the concept)-- so thanks for believing so strongly in it.

It is indeed exciting that after 20 months of conceptualizing and refining, we finally have an AB "product" to roll out to Ashoka Fellows and beyond. One thing I want to emphasize from the beginning is that AB is a living, breathing, ever-evolving framework. As a result, it would be wonderful to have the feedback of all the brilliant minds that I know will be gathering on Ned to constantly improve it.

For any Seinfeld fans out there, AB is a little like Kramer's coffee table book that turns into a coffee table. I know that sounds weird, but here's what I mean: AB is based on the premise that adapting existing ideas (models) can be a more powerful lever for positive social change than seeking new ones. We feel there should be no shame whatsoever in social entrepreneurs using other people's ideas and adapting them based on local needs. And so we put together the AB Citizen Sector Framework to enable SEs to do this in a well-structured, systematized manner. We've given them all the information we think they will need to "scale-out" their ideas to like-minded individuals and organizations. In a nutshell, we teach them how to strip their model to its essential core (a blueprint), and help them effectively transmit that blueprint to partners. We place a huge emphasis on tight collaboration so that when partners adapt the model, the best innovations are shared among everyone to constantly improve upon the original blueprint.

Here's where the coffee-table book analogy comes in. The AB framework we're sharing with Ashoka Fellows in just a few weeks is our Beta version-- our very first shot at it. We've put together a 130 page IMPACT Guide that lays it all out (IMPACT is an acronym for "Implementation manual with practical advice and concrete tools", by the way). I'm not exactly sure how often, but probably at least once per year, we will release a new version of our AB "blueprint"(1.0, 2.0, etc...) which incorporates the best feedback we receive from everyone. So in other words, AB is an adaptable "blueprint" in and of itself-- like Kramer's coffee-table book that was a coffee-table.

Feedback will essentially come from three sources: from our long-term consulting projects (of which we already have a handful of extremely exciting ones), from the AB workshops we conduct, and hopefully from the wonderful people on Ned, who I know have a lot to offer. At Global Gain, we are huge believers in the power of collective wisdom, so we'd love for Ned members help us make AB into a powerful force for social change. Here's how I hope to enable everyone to do so. Last year, the wonderful Jean Russel set up an AB wiki. When I return from India on September 20th, I will give the wiki a major "house-cleaning" and re-launch it. The wiki will not be the place for discussion but rather where people learn all about AB-- where we lay out the AB Citizen Sector Framework for all to see. But since wikis are not well-suited for conversations, we'd love for Ned to be the place where people come to discuss AB and help us constantly improve it.

So onward and upward, indeed....

very cool!!! Looking forward to learning more.

Happy to have you jump in Nathan, and thank you for the kind words. (and another tip of the hat to Jim Carroll who really did all the heavy lifting setting up the software/site here)

Looking forward to however <Ned> and Ned members can help you move AB forward. Sounds like it's going to be dynamite.

Wonderful ideas here. What strikes me is in replicating best practices, an opportunity also exists to foster networks of like minded groups.

The potential is there for these networks to gain strength from their collective efforts and to communicate emergent best practices.

The problem is in determining what platform or tool will be used for that network, and what would its features be?

That's an excellent point Rory, and it is something we stress in our IMPACT Guide and workshop-- though perhaps not enough.

We emphasize the importance of creating and ABC Framework, which stands for Adaptive Blueprint Collaborative Framework. We also offer up some specific recommendations for what those may look like, stressing essential elements that we've dubbed TRICK Principles (Transparency, Respect, Inclusiveness, Commitment, and Knowledge).

As for technology platforms, though, I have to plead ignorant. Do you have any in mind that could work well? We still have 2 weeks until the workshop, so we can always add things like that into our resources section.

Isn't this the technology platform that all of us have used and that in fact lead to the Adaptive Blueprinting development?

Linda Nowakowski said:

Isn't this the technology platform that all of us have used and that in fact lead to the Adaptive Blueprinting development?

Nathan, you sure could set up a group within Ned, it sure seems like it could be a good match.

Nathan,

I don't have anything specific in mind, no, but I would agree with Linda and Mark that this tool might work very well.

The simplest way for groups to stay connected via the internet is with email lists, isn't it? Yahoogroups can help make those work better. i'm imagining not a lot of access to broadband, or even to the net itself though.

Something called ning, http://www.ning.com/ is a way to create your own online network but I think it might be too much.

Hmmm. Simple printed cell phone/mail directories could be very powerful. Convenings of some kind are also really important, aren't they?

Sure would be sweet to see them here though, and we do know that this tool is accessible for non broadband...

It sounds like you have developed a really well thought out approach to this. I'd like to hear more about TRICK, maybe something Ned.com might want to adopt/adapt.

Stepping in where I really don't know much, Rory mentioned Yahoo! Groups. I like Yahoo! and actually am in several groups, but Google Groups maybe a better fit. I'm really not up to speed with Google Apps but it appears that these coupled with a Google Group may work better than Yahoo! Groups.

If the group lives in Yahoo Groups or Google Groups, the information stays locked within that group. If it lives in a group here...even a semi-private where only members can post to the group, but member can read...at least everyone can read and learn. Just a thought.

Mark is right. I have been using google apps a lot lately and i like it so far - we are using google to host all our email and do all the calandar work for TEN

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I agree that Ned is the perfect tool for conversation, which is really what AB will require for constant refinement. Even better if some face-to-face meetings result from time to time. I'd be thrilled to know there's so much interest out there. As I keep emphasizing, eliciting feedback is vital to AB-- so I'll definitely set up an AB Group at Mark's suggestion as soon as I return from India and can focus a little more. I see the wiki and Ned working hand in hand, though the former will be much more static than the latter.

I'm a big fan of google apps, too, but I think it takes a tool like this one to really harness the power of collective wisdom. I'm all for making it completely open to everyone unless/until it becomes unmanageable-- only then would we need to think about a member-only group.

My only complaint about this platform has always been the learning curve associated with it. It took me and I think most others, at least a few weeks to get comfortable with it (and I still have limited abilities with it). However, with that being said, I think there are plenty of people on here already who can not only participate from day one of the group, but can also help to shorten the learning curve for new members by showing them the ropes.

Linda Nowakowski said:

Isn't this the technology platform that all of us have used and that in fact lead to the Adaptive Blueprinting development?

Linda (and any others with an interest),

The O-Net platform was indeed the first place I went to beyond Global Gain's Board members to elicit some feedback. In fact, I'm pretty sure an intro to AB was my very first post to ON. I don't think Greg would mind if I pasted a portion of his response to it-- the date was 4/22/2006:

Greg said:

Adaptive Blueprinting...but...but...but that's my idea, and my business! ... We've obviously got to meet. I need to know more about Global Gain, and to see how we can work together...There is heavy (but not complete) overlap with the company I am involved in - www.templetongalt.com. My card calls me General Manager (Middle East & Africa), which is a fancy-but-not-too-fancy title that allows me to cause mischief as and when required. We are a Corporate Social Leadership consultancy that also does normal commercial stuff and has aspirations of being an Adaptive Blueprinting company (that's if I've got anything to do with it...and I do).

End quote

So when Greg and a few others told me they had a very good idea about what I meant with the oxymoronic term "Adaptive Blueprinting" without even needing to explain, I knew we had a potential winner on our hands. But I also knew that if it was ever to become what all of us in the social sector need it to be -- which is to say a simple yet highly-practical framework for encouraging "adapting the wheel" rather than reinventing it-- it would require some serious thought to provide the substance which just wasn't there yet.

So the very first opportunity for a solid brainstorming session came at the 2nd O-Net open space conference held in Chicago. Greg was the one who posted AB as a topic, and a group of at least 6 or 7 of us threw around some great ideas for 90 minutes or so. All the core elements were pretty obvious to everyone-- the need for more collaboration among like-minded orgs in the social sector, the need for that collaboration to be better structured, the need for that structure have a built-in flexibility to maximize innovations through local adaptations (i.e., a ying-yang element), and the need for more practical and effective knowledge transmission and knowledge sharing tools.

And by the way, the term "Adaptive Blueprinting" basically came out of thin air while at my office desk staring at a completely blank business plan model for Global Gain. I knew what I wanted GG to do, but I needed the power of language to get there. When the term you're looking for doesn't exist, you just have to throw one out there and hope for the best-- it worked pretty well for Bill Drayton :-) Speaking of Bill Drayton, the term "AB" easily could have subconsciously come from a chapter of David Bornstein's book "How to Change the World" in which he talks about Jarred Diamond's notion of "Blueprint Copying". He then talks about Ashoka's attempts to harness the power of their network of Fellows through strategies which were more or less based on the BC notion. That book in general left an indelible positive impression on me, so I'm thankful to Bornstein for planting those seeds of inspiration.

And now it seems to have almost come full circle with GG about to do a workshop on AB for 23 Ashoka Fellows and Ned being launched at the absolute perfect time to use this great technology platform again.

Nathan, as you show new members the ropes, could you take a few notes for me on what the main points are?

I'd like to put together a few screencasts (where I can show how to do things) but I could use some pointers on what to show first. I'd like to eventually eliminate the steep learning curve, but I have to understand what that means to others first.

Rory Turner said:

It sounds like you have developed a really well thought out approach to this. I'd like to hear more about TRICK, maybe something Ned.com might want to adopt/adapt.

Rory,

Here's a simple checklist we've developed for organizations to gauge how well their collaborative process follows TRICK Principles. We have a lot more detail, which I'm happy to attach in an email. But in the interest of space, here's the checklist:

1) Are we being transparent about our: Needs and Interests Intentions Actions

2) Are we maintaining respect for: People Process

3) Are we being inclusive of: Necessary stakeholders

4) Are we demonstrating commitment to: The greater vision The AB Collaborative (the "we") The AB process Time and effort

5) Do we have knowledge about: AB Collaboration Skills Blueprint

Woops! I should have previewed the last post in response to Rory. There were supposed to be bullet points, so it may be a little confusing now.

You can edit by clicking on the date stamp and then clicking on edit, Nathan.

Nathan,

I think I have been approaching the same issue from a different direction. We were looking at bringing the stake holders together first and then have the community choose among the available "blue prints". See Local Organizing and the Planetary Mind and existing organizations.

I would re-frame your principles:

• transparency - openly working to make positive changes
• respect - for existing goals and investment in particular changes
• inclusiveness - seeking out all those already seeking positive change
• vision - how do all the proposed changes "fit"
• knowledge - share success across localities (exercise? - or perhaps stimulate? - the planetary mind)

Is the one frame from the point of view of a particular solution that has worked else where being "blue printed" and the other being the point of view of structuring a process in each locality for the residents to take charge of their future? Does it make sense to combine the two?

Mark Grimes said:

If the group lives in Yahoo Groups or Google Groups, the information stays locked within that group. If it lives in a group here...even a semi-private where only members can post to the group, but member can read...at least everyone can read and learn. Just a thought.

So Mark, I'm ready to set up the AB Group now, but I have no idea how to go about it. I just went to all the help sections I could find, but no luck. Could you either point me to a link explaining it, or just tell me how to go about it? I decided it was important to get the group set up before the workshop, so we can put it in the resources section. Thanks in advance!

Jim Carroll said:

Nathan, as you show new members the ropes, could you take a few notes for me on what the main points are?

I'd like to put together a few screencasts (where I can show how to do things) but I could use some pointers on what to show first. I'd like to eventually eliminate the steep learning curve, but I have to understand what that means to others first.

For example, how does one create a workspace or a group? What's the difference between a group, a workspace, and a discussion? How does one link words? How does one link to other threads within Ned? Can links be made to specific comments within a thread? How does one keep track of what they posted and when people comment on those posts? How does the feedback system work?

All of these things and more have been difficult for me to figure out at one point or another. Most things, I've figured out by now, but there are still quite a few things I'm unable to do (create a group, for example).

To start a group:

1. Click the green groups tab at the top of the screen
2. Click tools at the right top corner of the brown bar
3. Click new group and follow further directions from there

> How does one keep track of what they posted and when people comment on those posts?

If you got to the "my ned.com" tab at the top, then My Discussions, you'll see all the post you have made. Anything that is bold has been updated since you read it. If you see (4 new to me) in the second column, that means that people have posted four comments, and by click on that link, you can jump directly to the ones you haven't read.

Even better, you can add every discussion where you post to your watch list. While you're looking at the discussion (before or after you post) click on the "Add" link at the bottom of your watch list. The watch list is in the left hand column just under the Help box. The watch list shows the most recently updated discussions first, and anything that has new content is bold. Click on the bold entries to read new items.

> how does one create a workspace?

Every group has a workspace, which is a set of wiki pages. To create a wiki page, edit an existing page, and when you get to the part of the text where you want to link to a new page surround the link text with backticks, and put an underscore after the second backtick.

to get that link I typed:

...link to a `new page`_ surround the...

After you save that page, you can click on the link you just created. It will either go to an existing wiki page with that name, or give you the option to create a new one.

You can also choose Workspace -> new from the brown bar when you are looking at a group's workspace, but it's better to do it with links because without links, the workspace is hard for others to find.

You might have noticed that the link in this discussion jumps to the new page in the workspace!

And perhaps most importantly:

How can I help to shorten the learning curve for new members by showing them the ropes?

Point them to the Help link in the upper left hand corner of the site. Clicking on the 'Answers tagged FAQ' link will bring them to helpful comments all over the site.

The link will open those in a new window (or a new tab depending on your browser.)