Evolution of open source IBIS software
As a way to enable conversations about wicked problems, IBIS (Issue-Based Information Systems) software seems to have evolved over the past few years. While the academic support of IBIS software has...
View ArticleMediating spaces, rich research spaces and GIGA-mapping
The thinking behind GIGA-mapping, as a technique from designers, echoes some research into (computer-supported) collaborative work from a decade ago. In “GIGA-Mapping: Visualisation for Complexity and...
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Systems generating systems — architectural design theory by Christopher...
The systems thinking roots from architect Christopher Alexander aren’t completely obvious in his work on pattern language. A republished version of an 1968 article resurfaces some clarification on a...
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Scenarios and Design: Instigating Change, Methods Framing, Scenario-Buffered...
At the Oxford Futures Forum 2014, hosted by the Saïd Business School, I was invited to be a participant in a generative dialogue. Each of the invitees was requested to submit a 250-word abstract and...
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Incubating Service Systems Thinking
Evolving the Proposal to Collaborate on a Pattern Language for Service Systems from January, the initiative has now taken on a label of Service Systems Thinking. The presentation at the 58th Annual...
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Sustainable scale of an organization: A case study at IBM?
How many employees can IBM sustain? At Dec. 31, 2013, IBM reported 431,212 employees for the company and wholly-owned subsidiaries. In February 2014, there were projections that 13,000 to 15,000...
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Much of the best work is done by amateurs (1890)
The origin of “much of the best work” is “done by amateurs” dates back to 1890 in photography. At that time, glass photographic plates was the norm for large images, as compared to the Kodak box...
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From Environmental Structure to Service Systems Thinking
Christopher Alexander’s work described the architecting of built physical environments. The 1977 book A Pattern Language bears the subtitle “Towns, Buildings, Construction”. This approach was...
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Unfolding values in places, spaces and paces: Service systems thinking and...
Prior talks on Service Systems Thinking have focused on basics. For this year’s Symposium on Service Systems Science at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, I decided to step up the emphasis in a short...
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Purplsoc 2015 digests and presentation
The pattern language community — followers of Christopher Alexander’s approach — is distributed globally. I participated in PLoP 2014 at Allerton Park, Illinois last September, and then attended...
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Industrial Ecology in 2015
Up to a month before the biannual conference of the International Society for Industrial Ecology, I hadn’t heard of this field. Industrial ecology is the study of the flows of materials and energy in...
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An Introduction to Service Systems Thinking
A lecture for the Master’s Program in Industrial Management at Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences was an opportunity to talk about the research that has been brewing over the past 18+...
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Systems Thinking: A journey, and some prospects
A system of ideas can be approached through a history of science. For my annual visit to the Creative Sustainability program, I decided to talk about the context that started me off on systems...
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System types as purposeful, and displaying choice
Russell Ackoff has a four-way categorization of systems that I’ve found useful, and often shows up in my presentations. I’ve had a history of citing a 1996 article that is peer-reviewed. However,...
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Towards a federated social web
Systems Thinking World — a LinkedIn group with dialogue from over 19,000 members — ceased to exist by October 28, 2015. It was a place where learners (new and old) of systems thinking came to overcome...
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Negotiating order with a GPS
This morning, I had a low stress commute through rush hour Toronto traffic. I programmed my GPS navigator, and then mostly decided against its recommendations. My commute time yesterday was about 75...
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Intellectual virtues; architectural programming; agile delivery and action...
For a class on Service Science at the U. of Toronto iSchool Master of Information program, Kelly Lyons granted me the luxury of 2 hours of time. In a relatively small classroom, she asked me to...
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Synergy, parts, wholes
Synergy is a term that is sometimes used by laymen that could use some more clarification. The Oxford English Dictionary defines synergy as: The interaction or cooperation of two or more...
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Systems Thinking 2 course, Aalto University, February 2016
As part of the Master’s Program in Creative Sustainability at Aalto University, I’ll be in Finland for 3 weeks in February, as an instructor. I’m doing this as a favour for Katri Pulkkinen, who has...
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Education of the average Canadian worker and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The average Canadian worker has (at least) some college or university education. This fact is counter to presumptions in a question on the first day at the World Economic Forum by Fareed Zacharia, in...
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