Dissertation Final Version PDM9006 (2)

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An exploration of the inherent possibilities of mobilizing collective intelligence through web 2.0.


Name: Adam Price

Course: BA (Hons) Product Design

Module: Dissertation

University: Cardiff Metropolitan University

Cover image Copyright © Leadbeater. C 2008

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Non-Plagiarism disclaimer

This dissertation has been produced as part of PDM 6009, BA Product Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University, All Contents © Copyright Adam Price 2012

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Abstract

This dissertation explores the concept of the global village and the shifts in motivation as progressively more peoples satisfaction with life has not increased with the rate of material wealth that has been gained.

The dissertation explains the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motives and shows the effects they have on wellbeing.It then goes on to explain that the greater the cluster of people the greater the amount of innovation by looking into Laws of Physics. The more encounters people have with rival arguments the better and the more information, knowledge, ideas that are experienced the more likely a new innovation is to happen the opposite to the story of the lone genius working in isolation.

It concludes that intrinsic motivation is best for prolonged work effort and being open minded to learning from all the information and ideas that can be shared today.

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Contents

Non-Plagiarism disclaimer.............................................................................2Abstract........................................................................................................3Introduction..................................................................................................7Chapter 1.0...................................................................................................81.1 An Exploration of Marshal McLuhan..........................................................81.2 The physics of spreading ideas...............................................................121.3 Constructal Law.....................................................................................13Chapter 2.0.................................................................................................162.1 Extrinsic Motives...................................................................................162.2 Long term striving to increase personal competence...............................172.3 The feeling of FLOW...............................................................................19Chapter 3.0.................................................................................................203.1 The state of Wellbeing...........................................................................203.2 If more and more money doesn’t increase Well-being what does?............21Chapter 4.0.................................................................................................244.1 Conclusions...........................................................................................264.2 Discussion.............................................................................................28References..................................................................................................31

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List of figures

Figure 1 – Global Internet use (Raaf, 2011)...................................................10

Figure 2 – Global mobile phone usage(data) (Raaf, 2011)..............................11

Figure 3 – Kleibers Law (Johnson, 1999)........................................................12

Figure 4 - Predictable cities (Munday, 2010).................................................13

Figure 5 – Examples of recurring network patterns (Professor Henry Markram,

2007)(Tom Carden, 2005) (Laboratory, 2005)(untitled, 2008)........................14

Figure 6 - Web 2.0 (DOPPELGÄNGERS, 2009).................................................15

Figure 10 the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (Hierachy, 2011)................21

Figure 11 Network of Rat neuron (Laboratory, 2005).....................................25

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank:

My parents for all your support

Steve Thompson has been a great help over the last 2years

EDC for the internship over the summer that really helped me develop my understanding of Ecodesign outside the walls of University

Finally Gareth Loudon and all the other Cardiff Met staff have been helpful along the way thanks

Introduction Global Village

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This dissertation sets out to explore the work of Marshall McLuhan from 1964 to understand the origins of the term Global Village and his description of a technological extension of consciousness. Which could be argued is materialising in 2012 with Web 2.0, providing networks such as twitter and Facebook that allow people to share thoughts and feelings instantly without geographical restraint as access to the internet increasingly becomes ubiquitous.

“An electric re-tribalisation of the west.” (McLuhan, 1964 )

This will look at Geoffrey West’s rule of super linear scaling to investigate what it is about big cities which are making the residences produce more innovation than that of people in smaller towns. An exploration into the Constructal law of Professor Adrian Bejan will look at patterns in networks. An investigation will be done into the natural network patterns that increase flow of a current and comparing them with technological patterns to see if these patterns increase the flow of information and ideas.

“There is something about a big city which is making its residents significantly more innovative than residents of smaller towns.” (West, 2011)

Then an evaluation of behavioural science will be done to compare and contrast extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. To gain a base understanding of why in rich countries where material wealth is high are people, prone to anxiety and depression. Then any differences between the two motives in work flow and creativity will be highlighted.

It could be argued that there is no more lone genius that can solve the environmental management challenges being faced and that the sharing of ideas is more productive and leads to greater innovation than any single genius could.

The aim of this dissertation is to uncover any commonality of the seemingly unrelated subtitles. The dissertation will look back in history at early signs of a connected world, at laws of physics, behavioural science and a brief history of innovation.

Chapter 1.0 Interconnected

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1.1 An Exploration of Marshal McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan in 1964 coined the term global village, known as a cliché in 2011, despite being a revolutionary idea at the time. The term describes the electronic interdependence which projects the world in the image of a global village. The interconnections created by an electronic nervous system conspire to a Global consciousness. This electronic nervous system has become an integral part of western popular culture and after more than a century’s growth has extended the electronic nervous system itself in a Global embrace. Communication is global and unaffected by both space and time as far as our planet is concerned.(Mcluhan, 1964) (McLuhan, 1964 )

In 1926 Nicola Tesla predicted in the future it would be possible to communicate with another person in almost any geographical location perfectly clearly and instantly. In an interview with Colliers Magazine he stated; “When wireless is perfectly applied to the whole earth, we shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. We will be able to hear and see one another as if we were face to face, despite geographical location. The instruments we will use to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone and a man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.” Nicola Tesla’s prediction could be argued has been realised in 2012 it is possible to communicate to another person on the other side of the world in real time. Mobile phones do fit into vest pockets now. (Tesla, 1926)

Marshall McLuhan describes the effects of the global communication now capable, to be making the world appear smaller and faster. As the interconnection becomes global it is like going back in time when we lived in tribes and villages, where everyone knows everyone. (McLuhan, 2009) Marshal McLuhan coined the word retribalisation which is the act of returning to a group. The world is changing to be one big village where everyone knows what everyone else is doing.

“An electric re-tribalisation of the west.” (McLuhan, 1964 )

A village is defined as a small community. Communities can now gather on the internet removing limits of geographical location. Web 2.0 sites are sharing platforms examples are LinkedIn, Facebook, Forums and Blogs. These virtual online communities can share information and ideas in a conversational way. In this virtual space a group of people with a common interest can participate in discussions of interest and importance to the community and of interest to them.

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It is possible to be part of conversations, being had in another country in another time zone with a number of people instantaneously. Email, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all platforms for extended consciousness. News travels fast as technology extends from our consciousness, which gives the effect of small village on a bigger scale.

There is ubiquitous connection and communication with the abundance of real time technology today from Wi-Fi, 3g, smart phones, tablets to mobile only phones. These devices are allowing people to find out what is happening on the other side of the world instantaneously. News reports are becoming behind the times for example in the case of an Indian student Anuj Bidve 23 studying in Manchester who was shot dead on Boxing Day 2011. The Father Subhash Bidve found out the news of his son’s death from India over Facebook, before British authorities or any press had a chance to report the incident. (Bingham, 2011)

In a global village the connections that use to happen face to face on a local scale can now be replicated on a global scale. Through mobile devices and social networks it is possible to communicate with someone in another part of the world instantly, this is argued to be allowing the resurgence of bartering, trading, swapping, sharing, but they’re being brought back into new dynamic and appealing forms. (Rogers, 2012)These are all aspects renowned with villages, reiterating the Global Village concept. The Global connection is illustrated in Figure 1 and 2.

There are predictions that say five billion people are to become connected in 2025 by mobile devices. This is meant to happen in both the megacities and rural areas of the world. The extent of this connectivity will create the possibility of a global consciousness that has never before been seen. (Gratton, 12-May-2011)

“50 years ago Marshall McLuhan also noticed a movement towards a technological extension of our consciousness.” (McLuhan, 1964)

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Figure 1 – Global Internet use (Raaf, 2011)

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Figure 2 – Global mobile phone usage (data) (Raaf, 2011)

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1.2 The physics of spreading ideas

“To what extent can biology and social organization (which are both quintessential complex adaptive systems) be put in a more quantitative, analytic, mathemitizable, predictive framework so that we can understand them in the way that we understand 'simple physical systems'? There is something about a big city which is making its residents significantly more innovative than residents of smaller towns.” (West, 2011)

Geoffrey West has applied laws in physics to complex adaptive systems like that of a human city. He took Kleibers law (Figure 3) which scientifically proves that as life gets bigger, it slows down and applied it to the social organization of a city, finding the opposite effect, cities speed up with the increase in size. The bigger the city, the faster people walk and the faster ideas are generated, the residences produce more innovation than that of people in smaller towns. (West, 2011)

Figure 3 – Kleibers Law (Johnson, 1999)

Wests research also showed along with the speed of innovation, increasingly productivity followed the same linear progression (Table 1). As the city increases in size so do wages, patents, colleges, gas station and so do other seemingly unrelated forms of infrastructure all correlating in the same way. (West, 2012)

The larger the cluster of people= the more efficient and productive they become.The larger the mass of people=larger mass innovation.

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Figure 4 - Predictable cities (Munday, 2010)

“Mass Innovation not, Mass Production” (Leadbeater, 2008)

1.3 Constructal Law

Professor Adrian Bejan created a simple new principle of physics called the Constructal Law, a phenomenon which governs evolution in biology, physics, technology and social organization. He said "for a finite-size system to persist in time (to live), it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it." (Zane, 2008)

The law relates to the tendencies of recurring network patterns in nature, trees, network of tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts which must evolve in a sequence to increase the flow of any currents whether it is the movement of water, blood, or electricity or ideas, it appears in inanimate or animate systems (Figure 5). Human or natural, it relates to the design in human organizations and corporate structure of hierarchy and flowcharts as well as neural connections in the brain. (Zane,

2008)

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Like the networks of tributaries pictured below societies are networks of people linked by friendships, familial relationships and professional ties. Networks spread throughout all parts of technology: the Internet, power grids and transportation systems are a few examples. (Bonabeau, 2003)

Figure 5 – Examples of recurring network patterns (Professor Henry Markram, 2007)(Tom Carden, 2005) (Laboratory, 2005)(untitled, 2008)

The same pattern is seen in the design of web 2.0, social networks and modern organizations which have sprouted from web 2.0. Rather than moving a current of water or blood it allows the flow of information from a point to an area or an area to a point.

In nature the network patterns purpose is to move more current farther and faster for less unit of useful energy consumed, the design allows them to move more easily. (Wikipedia, 2012)This relates to the design of web 2.0 (Figure 6) but instead of the flow of water current it allows the flow of information and ideas. This pattern allows ideas to spread faster, easier and further. The network of information on web 2.0 is continually evolving allowing the flow of information and innovation to get faster and go further as more people become connected.

Because the medium for carrying ideas is fast and cheap, ideas move faster and cheaper! The time it takes for an idea to circulate is approaching zero. (Godin, 2000)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/topic.cfm?id=transportation

http://www.scientificamerican.com/topic.cfm?id=internet

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Figure 6 - Web 2.0 (DOPPELGÄNGERS, 2009)

To put cell networks and information networks into context, Steve Johnson the writer of Where do good ideas come from? Describes the vantage point below as the long zoom and when you look at the history of innovation from this point, what’s found is that unusually generative environments display similar patterns of creativity at several scales simultaneously. This presents the bigger picture and shows understanding the causes of innovation on the largest scale, can’t be done without understanding what innovation is happening on the small scale, they affect each other. “Local for local, local for global, global for local” (Green, 2007) what happens on a local level affects what is happening globally.

Global evolutionEcosystems

SpeciesBrains

Cells Nature

Ideas CultureWorkspaces

OrganizationsSettlements

Information networks(Johnson, 2010)

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Chapter 2.0 Motivation

2.1 Extrinsic Motives

A motive is the reason or cause for a person to do a certain thing. The pursuit of more money is an external motive called an extrinsic motive. An example of an extrinsically motivated person is… “I do investment banking to gain money.” The person’s primary reason here for doing the certain thing, whether it is investment banking or golf is for the external gain, whether that is money, food or praise doesn’t matter. These external motives have been the driving force behind economic growth, providing the fuel for the great engine of human progress. Rich countries have reached a much higher level of living in the pursuit of wealth maximization, but have now largely finished their work. (Wilkinson, 2010)

Extrinsic motivation is predominantly short term. For example If a student was paid to do maths they will most likely work hard in the short term with the incentive to gain money in mind, but then will experience burn out and lose interest in maths in the long run. When institutions-families, schools, businesses, and athletic teams, for example-focus on the short term and opt for controlling people’s behaviour with incentives to motivate, they do considerable long term damage. (Pink, 2010)

Daniel H Pink and the 50years of behavioural science he uses in the book Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Identifies rewards such as that used in extrinsic motivation can surprisingly give us more of what we don’t want. The science is revealing that incentives, external motives of money, all aimed at getting the most out of people…”I’ll give you ten pounds if you wash my car for me…Or I’ll give you £5 to do the dishes.” These incentives narrow our focus and the science is showing promotes bad behaviour and encourages short-term thinking at the expense of the long view.The vision is honed in on the incentive rather than thinking about doing the dishes as well as possible. If a task during paid work is challenging at mind set like “think of the money…“will prevail. Money is the only incentive to work. (Pink, 2010)

If extrinsic motivation shortens your vision so far you don’t concentrate on doing you very best at the task in hand.

To sustain means to last a long time and if people pursue wealth maximisation goals which are short term there is will a correlation in the short term sustainability of the

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planet. The vision can become so closed in on gaining more; the broader long term damage is missed.

This mind set is reflected in the short term focus of using oil and coal great in the short term but unsustainable in the long term over the past two decades global resource extraction grew from 40 billion tons in 1980 to 55 billion tons in 2002. Source: Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management / SERIN

Short term gains of smoking are not outweighed by their inherent long term health problems, associated number of cancer.

But long term goals and pleasing your future self takes a lot more self-constraint, self-determination, drive focus and goals which are a lot harder than giving into the temptation of that doughnut. Short term extrinsically motivated mind-set could be argued is a strong behavioural contributor to climate change. But it is a test of human will to worry about the future instead of the moment.

2.2 Long term striving to increase personal competence

What other motives and goals are there to pursue if people no longer doggedly pursue more money, possessions and stuff?The opposite of extrinsic motivation is intrinsic motivation this time around instead of striving externally... “Intrinsic motivation is striving inwardly to be competent and get better at something and to reward inwardly for personal progress.” (psychology, 2008)An example of an intrinsically motivated person is…“I do investment banking because I find it enjoyable.”

“Every human has an innate motivation to strive to be better.” (Pink, 2010)

Studies of Art students where done over the 1960’s to 1980’s, surveying their attitudes towards work, identified whether they were extrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated. The results showed “the less evidence of extrinsic motivation during art school, the more success in professional art both several years after graduation and nearly twenty years later.” (Carney, 1986)

The truth is…”It is those who are least motivated to pursue extrinsic rewards who eventually receive them.” (Carney, 1986)

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Intrinsic motivation has been a key aspect in sports phycology for years, now sports competitors get very anxious before a competition. To stop nerves the athlete will focus on how capable he or she is at the task in hand. Not comparing themselves with the other competitors. An example competing in football would be played for the sake of doing it or the pure pleasure of it not to earn money even though they do, an athlete will concentrate on achieving their best performance for their own satisfaction not for the money.

Anxiety is a negative effect of extrinsic motivation caused by the comparison of oneself with another person. Comparison will often be of possessions in the case of keeping up with the joneses idiom, looks and competence compared with your own.Intrinsic motivation has been proven to minimise anxiety, depression, worrying about how others see them, drive to consume, comfort eating, obsessive shopping and spending, or become prey for excessive alcohol, psychoactive medicines and illegal drugs. Because Instead of comparing oneself against the Joneses, the person will focus on learning or trying to create something better end up gaining pleasure from the act of doing it. The satisfaction will come from the success of inward striving for competence.(James, 2007)

A key aspect of creative thinking is state of being and the state is best with an open mind. Extrinsic motivation is closed in on the reward and intrinsic motivation is wide open for long term learning to be receptive to new ideas and information to keep learning more and more. Experiments have been done that show external rewards narrowed people’s focus and blinkered the wide view that might have allowed them to see new creative solutions to problems. Regularly capturing engaging in intrinsic motivation allows for more creativity and prolonged work effort both factors are good for innovation and solving problems. (Pink, 2010)

“There is no escaping the fact that individuals with the greatest well-being are most likely to be the ones with the combination of intrinsic goals and motives.” (James, 2007)

“To abstain from the enjoyment which is in our power, or to seek distant rather than immediate results, are among the most painful exertions of the human will” N.W.Senior 1836. It is amongst the most difficult to have self-restraint, self-discipline, self-commitment to look after the current and future self.

Harvard Business School Teresa Amabile calls it intrinsic motivation principle of creativity, which holds, in part: “intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity: controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity.

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“We can think more creatively if we open our minds to the many connected environments that make creativity possible. (Johnson, 2010)

2.3 The feeling of FLOW

Flow is a certain kind of intrinsic motivation that someone can feel. It occurs when someone feels an overall, intrinsically motivated feeling when they are totally involved in an activity and are on "auto pilot.” (psychology, 2008)

Elements to achieve flow

* A balance of levels of skills and of level of challenge* Complete absorption in the activity* Total concentration* A motivation to perform* The absence of certain outward goals or rewards* Appropriate focus maintenance.* Achieve optimal arousal before performing* Good feelings about performance* A balance of levels of skills and of level of challenge(psychology, 2008)

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Chapter 3.0 Wellbeing

3.1 The state of Wellbeing

“The dream of wellbeing dreamt until now by the few is not sustainable for all. We have to change, we have to learn how to live better while consuming less environment resources and regenerating the contexts of life.” Professor Ezio Manzini (Green, 2007)

Wellbeing is defined as the satisfactory condition of existence. It is contradictory that at the lofty peak of human material and technical achievement, studies of wellbeing and happiness show, no increase to ride with the economic growth only the opposite. They show rich countries are anxiety-ridden, prone to depression, worried about how others see them, unsure of friendships, driven to consume and with little or no community life. The increase in money and material wealth doesn’t result in an increase in a person’s wellbeing past a certain level of income which was potentially reached in 1970 in the UK according to neweconomics.org. (James, 2007) (Wilkinson, 2010)

“Since 1970, the UK’s GDP has doubled, but people’s satisfaction with life has hardly changed.” (neweconomics.org, 2010)

Rich countries have reached a level of wealth where the more of the same stuff no longer greatly affects wellbeing once people have enough food more food isn’t a great help. The richer a country gets the less getting still richer ads to the population’s happiness. The gaining of more wealth and possessions, and trying to keep up with the joneses culture is progressively being associated with increases in rates of anxiety and the use of narcotics. (Wilkinson, 2010)

“Almost a quarter of Britons suffer serious emotional distress, such as depression and anxiety, and another quarter are on the verge of.” (James, 2007)

“If money engendered wellbeing, millionaires would be the most contented folk on the planet as well as the richest.” (James, 2007)

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3.2 If more and more money doesn’t increase Well-being what does?

If a person isn’t very hungry, they’re secure, they’re surrounded by loving family and friends they have good self-esteem and they respect other people. Increasing their wellbeing by striving for more wealth as gaining more of the same thing isn’t going to help. Once they are no longer hungry more food won’t help a great deal if anything more food would be detrimental to wellbeing. Above are all the aspects of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs below is self-actualization to fulfil this is going to have the greatest increase in well-being in rich countries where the bottom of the pyramid has been gained. So what is it?

Figure 7 - The top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (Hierachy, 2011)

Morality – This is shown in a new drive for non-profit organizations, purposeful work on sustainability. The bookend generations quest for purpose.

As the writer Sylvia Hewlett has found in her research, the two bookend generations “are redefining success and are willing to accept a radically ‘remixed’ set of rewards.” Neither generation rates money as the most important form of compensation.

It seems clear people around the world, alarmed by our circumstances, are seeking and creating paths forward to a more sustainable future. (Kelly, 2006)

This is particularly true among the younger generations. “Millennial” generation- born after 1982 are taking environmental issues very seriously. This was also been made clear in D H Pink book Drive.

Baby boomers around the world because of the stages of their lives and the size of their numbers are nudging purpose closer to the cultural centre. In response, business has begun to rethink how purpose figures in what it does.

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Boomers aren’t singing alone in their chorus of purpose. Joining them, and using the same hymnbook, is their sons and daughters-known as the Millennial, or the echo boomers. These young adults, who have recently begun entering the workforce themselves, are shifting the centre of gravity in organizations by their very presence. (Pink, 2010)

Creativity - As work is becoming more creative as the computer or machine can take care of the autonomous work the human is left with enjoyable creative part. But as a business’s manage people rather than lead them, when a mundane task is given to a member of staff an extra incentive is given. Dave if you put these letters in to these envelopes by 2 o clock I’ll give you a tenner. (Pink, 2010) The strength of the creative industry here in the UK, overall picture developed by Staying Ahead showed– the UK creative industries were proportionately the largest in the world, comprising 7.3 percent of the UK economy, and 6.4 percent of UK Gross Value Added – equivalent to £57bn.(Reid, 2010)

Spontaneity/Autonomy - This is reflected in new Results Only Work Environments ROWE that a company called Meddius implemented among others. This way of working lead to more autonomy, it is up to the employer to the do work when and where they choose. Cases where this was used, productivity rose and stress declined.

Problem Solving – There are overwhelming tasks of managing environmental challenges and a rising global population to cater for.

Lack of prejudice – In a global village the connections that use to happen face to face on a local can now happen on a global scale This is making the world seem smaller and bringing people together.

“A large majority of people want society to move away from greed and excess toward a way of life more centred on values, community, and family.” (Wilkinson, 2010)Value and purpose fits well into the Morality side of needs. “Happiness is gained from intangibles rather than more tangibles.” (Green,2007)Relationships, peer respect, experiences and being part of something larger a community or bigger objective to save the planet from Warming to much.81% of Britons believe that the government should prioritise creating the greatest happiness, not the greatest wealth. (neweconomics.org, 2010)

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Chapter 4.0 Lone Genius

In renaissance time rational humanism began, people then started to believe that creativity came completely from the self of the individual and for the first time in history people started referring to that artist as being a genius. This is a big burden for any human psyche to manage and can warp and distort ego. It creates unmanageable expectations about performance Elizabeth Gilbert argues. (Gilbert, 2009)

Genius is defined as having a natural capacity of intellect had in creativity shown through original work in a subject e.g. art, science and so forth. (Harper, 1400)

“A surprising truth about big ideas: even when they seem to be individual flashes of genius, they don’t happen in a flash though the people who have them often subsequently claim that they did.” (Johnson, 2010)

There is a mystery behind the flash of genius that inventors have when an idea is sparked for a new invention. A moment of clarity is had, like the moment Charles Darwin realised the theory of natural selection he famously suddenly saw the mechanism for evolution in a blindingly obvious flash of genius. The story goes along the lines of the genius Darwin had a Eureka moment the theory of evolution came to him. “It is very, very rare to find somebody in isolation has had a sudden spark that changes the world.“(Johnson, 2012)

Rarely is the story told like this… after years of forming the idea from exposure to many opposing rival ideas, experiencing many different environments and interactions as well as going through stressed and relaxed states. A prolonged period of time was spent conversing and concentrating on the argument, which has been a hunch for many years, a moment of clarity happened where all the pieces of the puzzle where put together. (Deininger, 2012)

“It's very, very rare to find cases where somebody on their own, working alone, in a moment of sudden clarity has a great breakthrough that changes the world. And yet there seems to be this bizarre desire to tell the story that way." (Johnson, 2012)

The vast majority of major innovations since 1800 have come from outside of environments where money and profit are the main motive as extrinsic motives can shorten the concentration and focus onto the money. But innovations happen in an environment conducive to an open state of mind like a university or other environments where intrinsic motivation prevails.

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Creativity is rare in isolation, being exposed to as many rival ideas, environments, things , people, experiences a lot of challenging ideas and most importantly a person’s state of mind must be open which is why being intrinsically motivated to be open to take on new ideas and information.

“We need to group together. If you want to change the world, you have to group together you have to be collaborative, religions do this. They are multinational they are branded they have a clear identity so they don’t get lost in a busy world.” (Botton, 2012)

The truth is the genius put far more hours of hard graft into a task and has made the luck for this genius ideas to happen or performance to happen. They have tried out more ideas than anyone else. A way of increasingly the probability of coming up with new inventive idea is to have a lot of ideas. The larger the conversation the more ideas being brought to the surface and the time it would take one person to brainstorm ideas compared to a large group is slower simply man power isn’t there.

“High complexity design is no longer a case of clever individuals or teams creating products in splendid isolation, but of multidisciplinary organizations or networks creating relevant qualities and cultural spheres.” Stefano Marzano of Phillips

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4.1 Conclusions

Marshal McLuhan’s concept of the Global village from 1954 continues to become realised in the 21st century, with the internet connecting 1,733,993,741 people in 2011 and 5billion by 2050 Marshal McLuhan’s is going to become even more apparent. (Raaf,2011)

Geoffrey West work showed that the bigger the city, the faster ideas are generated; the residences produce more innovation than that by people in smaller towns. This in theory shows that greater mass of people = greater mass innovation. As the internet progressively pushes geographical boundaries out the window it is at the same time allowing a greater mass of people to group together. The speed of innovation will increase with the increase in the number of people connected on the internet. Super linear scaling sums it up.

With the Constructal law illustrating the increase in flow is created by the common network pattern and its continual evolution, pictured below. The network structure is great for increasing flow of water and blood and information as shown by web 2.0. But can the structure be applied to education networks and organizations to increase work flow? The law also showed that when applied to web 2.0 instead of increasing flow of water it increases flow of ideas and information continuing to spread, further and faster as it evolves. But can it being applied to increase work flow in education and organizations? Could the organisational structure of a linear, pyramid of hierarchy being swapped for a network structure increase work flow?

Figure 8 - Network of Rat neuron (Laboratory, 2005)

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In conclusion the exploration revealed a number of opposing truths.

The more modern technology creates global interconnections the closer to being tribes and village people become again.

Klieber’s law is actually the opposite when applied too cities. Instead of getting slower as cities get bigger they get faster.

If a person is intrinsically motivated for self-betterment and the less focused on the money the more likely a person is to gain more money.

The flash moments of a lone genius actually tends to happen over a longer period of time than a flash.

It shows a strong link between 3 quite seemingly unrelated areas of laws in physics, behavioural science and creativity.

As more people connect, more innovation can happen to ensure that is does intrinsic motivation is a key for prolonged work effort and being open minded to learn from all the information and ideas that can be shared. The more encounters with rival arguments the better and the more information, knowledge, ideas that are experienced the more likely a new innovation is to happen the opposite to the story of the lone genius working in isolation but a flash a genius arrives.

4.2 Discussion

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“Over the past two decades global resource extraction grew from 40 billion tons in 1980 to 55 billion tons in 2002.” (worldresourcesforum.org, 2009) “The median UN population forecast projection is for 9.3 billion by 2050.” (Martin, 2011) These are a couple of the statistics that sum up the overwhelming problems that are facing societies today.

With overwhelming tasks such as managing the Environmental challenges. “No single person, government, religion, region, country, ideology, institution or market place can tackle these overwhelming problems alone in isolation.”(Kelly, 2006) No single person can take responsibility for the burden of tackling the challenges ahead; for this reason the future will be less about predicting it and more about collaboratively designing it. (Green, 2007) Innovation will be essential for meeting the Environmental challenges of the future –including moving to a low carbon economy and reducing waste. (bis.gov.uk,2010)

“Mass innovation not mass production” Charles Leadbeater. (Leadbeater, 2008)

Another overwhelming statistic reveals “the [Americans and the Japanese] have seen no increase in happiness over the last few decades despite economic growth. Depression is on the rise and the world health organizations predict it to be the 2nd largest health problem in 2020.” (neweconomics.org, 2010)

"It is a remarkable paradox, that, at the pinnacle of human material and technical achievement, we find ourselves anxiety-ridden, prone to depression, worried about how others see us, unsure of our friendships, driven to consume and with little or no community life". (Wilkinson, 2010)

At the same time the electronic infrastructure has evolved to a state where there is ubiquitous access to the internet 1,733,993,741 people are now connected. (Raaf, 2011)

The internet allows for sharing and participation in conversations with little geographical restriction and provides an abundance of free knowledge. “The new virtual environment creates interconnections that compel commitment and participation. We have become irrevocably involved with, and responsible for, each other.” (McLuhan, 1964)

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It is the author’s opinion that the environmental challenges being faced are best tackled my maximising people efficiency and making the most out of the opportunities made possible with Web 2.0. Not just the environmental challenges but any innovation will be better for it if the inherent possibilities in Web 2.0 are used effectively to mobilise collective intelligence of a diverse range of communities. To tackle the overwhelming problems facing environmental management, innovation and creativity is paramount to maximise creativity and the physics shows it is best to increase the amount of people that can get together to increase innovation. Optimistic maybe but the goal is to turn the problems into opportunities, it is such a big problem being faced but at the same the internet is creating an opportunity for creativity and abundance of knowledge and ideas that can aid the creative process.

The literature review revealed that Marshal McLuhan work in 1964 in the author’s opinion is very relevant today with terms like Global Village, Global Consciousness and re-tribalisation of the West. All terms that describe what is materialising today and into the future as 5 billion are project to get connected.

In the authors opinion the increase in interconnection does appear to be making the world feel smaller and as the physics showed in the chapters 1.2 and 1.3 it is also speeding up innovation. The authors observations from the literature review is that innovation and ideas are now spreading further and faster and will progressively do so into the future. The implications of this for product design will unfold in the future and doing further research would focus in detail into the implications as well as on existing business examples.

The idea of more people having intrinsic motivation on paper sounds easy. But the true implication of implementing and tapping into intrinsic motivation in reality is a real struggle… “To abstain from the enjoyment which is in our power, or to seek distant rather than immediate results, are among the most painful exertions of the human will” N.W.Senior

In further research would in depth into the technical details behind sharing information and open innovation. As the dissertation set out the key factors which are creating a shift in future work. Detailed case studies of existing companies would be done to see how they have taken advantage of the opportunities of the internet.

Further research would ask… can the benefits of the cluster of people grouping together in cities be replicated on an even bigger scale online as the internet through mobile devices becomes an extension of our consciousness?

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Key findings

It is the authors opinion the exploration has shown that the greater the cluster of people the greater the amount of innovation. Intrinsic motivation minimises anxiety at the same time as increasing concentration on do any given task better and that the lone genius is better of collaborating.

It’s complicated.

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Dissertation Final Version PDM9006 (2)