Tools & Services that

Make Meta Networks

More Intelligent

A social business proposal.

What Networks Are Good For

• Weaving community – increasing & using social

capital.

• Accessing diverse perspectives.

• Building & sharing knowledge.

• Mobilizing people.

• Coordinating resources & action.

From Working Wikily article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, June 2010.

Networks come in layers

A Personal Network (e.g., me and all my contacts)

An Organization‟s Network(a single org and the networks it is in touch with)

A Single-hubbed network of orgs.(e.g., Advantage West and its network; a VC; a foundation)

A Meta Network(a multi-hubbed, decentralized network of networks)

Meta Networks:

• Are large networks of networks;

• That are multi-centered – having no single center of

control;

• Yet bound together by trusted relationships and shared

values, goals, and experiences.

an example of a social purpose

meta network:

This is an partial map of a small cluster of organizations

that work with social entrepreneurs and their organizations.

The background represents a meta network of related organizations

that is much bigger than this small cluster.

Other Meta Network Examples:

A regional or national network of early-stage

entrepreneurs, economic development agencies, and

investors.

The global network of organizations and their supporters

who are working on the “Sanitation” Millennium

Development Goal.

The global network of organizations and individuals

working on clean, sustainable energy solutions and

businesses.

“No one knows how many groups and organizations are working

on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty,

deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights,

and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

…Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement.”

Paul Hawken, May 3, 2009

The Largest Meta Networks are Global in Reach.

Compared to hierarchically controlled

organizations –

Meta Networks can be:

More intelligent and adaptable.

More universally accountable.

Better able to bring about shifts in global

awareness and behavior.

Better at distributing ideas, resources, and

talent to where they are most needed.

Meta Networks Matter

Individual professionals and their

organizations need more effective

meta networks, especially if they are:

• Entrepreneurial,

• Innovative,

• Have critical goals that are too big to

accomplish by themselves.

Meta Networks

• Help solve regional and global problems…

• By making organizations and people more

successful.

Everyone benefits.

Results from better meta

networks:More success due to:

Better collaboration with other organizations.

• Developing & influencing regional policies.

• Better coordination of activities & resources.

• Better sharing of knowledge & ideas.

Inside intelligence, influence & introductions to obtain:

• Funding, partners, customers

• Employees, experts, advisors

• Press contacts, etc.

Yet due to their decentralized and fragmented

nature, the potential of meta networks is

much larger than their current capabilities.

Fragmentation means:

Different parts of large networks are

mostly invisible to each other.

Why networks are fragmented

To understand the fragmentation of networks, let‟s first look

at the organizations in a sub-section of a meta network,

without showing any connections between them:

Why networks are fragmented

If we show some of the trusted personal connections

between individuals in the network, we can see that the

potential connectedness of the network is very big

Why networks are fragmented

But this would require that each person in the network be

a perfect reflector -- reflecting all the trust, attention, influence

and ideas coming through each connection back out to all other

connections.

Why networks are fragmented

Yet this isn‟t the case; so in reality most of the network

remains hidden to any single organization or small

cluster.

Why networks are fragmented

Because to be perfect reflectors, people would have

to be omniscient.

Which we’re not.

Why networks are fragmented

Far from omniscient, people are busy and focused on

their own worlds.

So even if I know you and want to help you, I don‟t know most

things about what you know, who you know, and what your

skills, interests, and needs are.

In addition, we‟re all flooded with information from all sources

and have time to take in only a small part of it.

Even though “we’re all connected” the right information

often doesn’t get to the right people at the right time.

What are the effects of

hidden network connections?

Fragmentation of the network that impedes flow of

ideas and resources.

Making more mistakes than would be made in a

„brighter‟ meta network.

Delay, excess cost and effort, or failure to deliver

needed money, talent, knowledge and ideas that are

vital for success.

And the effects of more light?

Even a small meta network, with fewer than 100

organizations, contains at least hundreds of

thousands of trusted and relevant connections

within 2 degrees, and at least several million

Within 3 degrees. (2 degrees = contacts of your contacts; 3 degrees = contacts of those contacts)

If that many relevant and trusted connections exist,

and if most are hidden to you and your organization,

what more could you achieve if the network were

even a little brighter – and more intelligent?

What can make networks

brighter and more intelligent?

Five things:.

1. Illuminating more of the useful but hidden connections.

2. Getting more people to make better use of existing tools.

3. Weaving the network to make it brighter and smarter.

4. Adding capabilities to make existing platforms more

intelligent.

5. Making use of a more visible network to expand

knowledge-sharing, dialogue and collaboration.

We’ll look briefly at each of these.

1. Illuminate more of the useful but

currently hidden connections.

Solutions to this already exist:.

Global-scale Social Network Platforms.

Social network platforms solve the „omniscience‟ problem by having

each person tell the network what and who he knows.

Then the network can combine and use all that information to make

hidden 2nd and 3rd degree connections visible and accessible.

Users can search for their immediate needs, and also see whom

they know who can provide inside intelligence, influence, and

introductions.

2. Get more people in the network

expertly using existing tools

For all their popularity, global social network platforms are

surprisingly underused in the ways that could most help

organizations and networks.

Training is important, and so is encouragement from their

peers to get into the habit of using these tools to accomplish

priority goals of their organizations and the network as a

whole.

3. Weave the network to make it

brighter and smarter

A network weaver is someone who intentionally weaves connections

that create mutual value and lasting trust.

Network weaving is a skill, and some people are naturally good at it.

Yet, it‟s important to have a good strategies and training for making

connections that will create most value and make the network smarter.

Because an important part of network weaving is knowing about

network members‟ skills and needs, social network platforms can help

make network weavers more effective. Social network platforms can

also actually help the network members weave themselves together.

4. Add software capabilities to make

existing platforms more intelligent.

For various reasons, global-scale social network platforms

have not yet added some advanced capabilities that can

be especially valuable for organizations and networks.

Global platforms still have great value; but we and others

are developing additional capabilities that can make them

still more valuable (described briefly later).

5. Use the increased light to expand

knowledge-sharing, dialogue & collaboration.

With more visibility and omniscience in the network,

individuals can more easily “self-organize” into small

groups with the perspectives and expertise needed to

analyze problems, innovate, and produce better

solutions, polices and decisions.

When forming collaborative groups, getting input from

trusted personal connections can be very important for

evaluating how well different people will work together.

Next Steps

These five tasks will involve two types

of social businesses:

1. Enabling Meta Network Enhancement Projects.

This first approach is a services approach:

Consulting, training, coaching, community building.

2. Designing and adding new software and

Web services for Meta Networks.

This second approach is a software development

process: Designing, developing, and implementing

interoperability between collaborative projects.

Meta Network Enhancement Projects

Learning to walk before running, our first step will be:

Launching a short-term, low-cost,

Meta Network Demonstration Project

for one or more selected network hubs.

Meta Network Demonstration Project(Summary)

Will:

• Last 3 to 4 months.

• Involve a cluster of organizations that is a part of a larger network.

• Require minimum cost and participant time.

• Produce tangible results related to critical participant objectives.

Project objectives will be related to goals at different levels:

• Goals and priorities of individual project members and their

organizations .

• Goals shared by participating project member organizations.

Priorities of individuals members and their organizations are likely to include obtaining

new partners, customers/clients, investors, donors, employees, advisors, knowledge,

ideas , expertise, and sources of influence.

Meta Network Demonstration Project(Summary)

Demonstration project components may include:

• Identifying priority project objectives.

• Use of a “seed group” strategy.

• Training in use of existing social network and social media tools and

platforms.

• Network Weaving training and coaching.

• Help in implementing a viral campaign to ensure maximum

participation and results.

• On-going collection of results related to objectives.

• Learning sessions, e.g., sharing best practices and solutions.

• Project evaluation and determination of desired next steps.

Software and Web Services to

Enhance Network Intelligence

Includes

Data Integration

IT projects that integrate private data and apps with „public‟ social

network platform data and apps.

Developing intelligent add-on social apps

to combine and extend existing social media platforms.

Network Intelligence-Enhancing Software .

Our first steps for this will be:

Designing a framework and first simple apps

that add value to existing platforms.

This will include a simplified trust-exchangeTM layer to enable user-

customizable control of access to attention and private content.

The trust-exchange layer will support other add-on applications,

including:

- Dynamic social network mapping.

- Support for network weaving.

- Diversity-synthesizing reputation systems.

-Context-sensitive attention management.

- Tools for scaling dialogue & collaboration.

These two initial projects will be carried out by

members of

The Social Catalysts Collaborative..

Including:

Duncan Work. Inventor & designer of social software for the Internet;

organizational consultant. former Chief Scientist for LinkedIn.

June Holley, Network Weaver, NetworkWeaver.com

Network mapping and analysis, network weaving, self-organizing communities

And others listed at www.socialcatalysts.com/partners.html

This has been a high-level overview.

For more detailed information on our rationale and plans for

Meta Network Expansion Projects

and

Network Intelligence-Enhancing Software

Please write to request a confidential executive summary and

social business proposal.

Duncan Work

duncan@socialcatalysts.com