Knowledge Weaving for Social Innovation Laying the First Strand Aldo de Moor CommunitySense WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL 12 th Prato CIRN Conference, November 11, 2015
Knowledge Weaving for
Social Innovation Laying the First Strand
Aldo de Moor CommunitySense
WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL
12th Prato CIRN Conference,
November 11, 2015
The commons
• Communities meet and mingle in “the commons”
• Commons: – any collectively owned resource held in joint use or
possession to which anyone has access without obtaining
permission of anyone else (Nemeth, 2012).
– active process that is always emerging in a mode of being
and working together for the greater good of the community
(Wong, 2011)
• How to get networks of communities to co-create in
the commons?
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The commons: networked communities
collaborating on social innovation
• Wicked problems: ill-structured, suffer from social
complexity, stakeholders have different views about
what the problem is and what constitutes acceptable
solutions (Conklin, 2006)
• Social innovation: the process in which relevant
stakeholders jointly develop solutions to wicked
problems that none of them can solve on their own
• Networked communities key stakeholders
• The commons is their workspace
• Social innovation catalysts facilitate the process
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“The Tilburg Way”
Regional social innovation ecosystem
Tilburg regional network of
social innovation catalysts
Top Institute Social Innovation Government innovation
Excellent residential climate
Positioning the region
Open source knowledge & devt platform
SI stakeholders
Need for better knowledge sharing:
catalyzing & connecting conversations
Many social innovation catalysts…
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But how to patch them together?
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Knowledge weaving
• An intercommunal sensemaking process
• facilitated by social innovation catalysts
• in which existing community-owned knowledge
sharing practices, initiatives, and resources are tied
together
• into commons-based ‘knowledge fabrics’ that support
intercommunal collaboration
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Example: ESIW pre-events
Pre-events Post-events
? Cross-overs
Pre-event #1 (July 13, 2015)
Pre-events Post-events
? Cross-overs
• KnowledgeCloud
• Thematic network
• Online platform x physical meetings
• “Connecting across themes” methodology
• Cross-over topics
• Cross-over events
ESIW pre-event #1 – generating cross-
overs
ESIW pre-event #1 – reflecting upon
cross-overs
Thematic cross-overs
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Event-crossover: Water Debate
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Environmental Café
Site-specific theatre
X
= “Water Debate”
“Artistic community”
“Environmental
community”
Pre-events: lessons learnt
Pre-events Post-events
? Cross-overs
• Cross-over topics
• Cross-over events
• Pre-pre-event (June 1):
many tips for pre, during & post-knowledge sharing
• Pre-event #1 (July 13):
many topics & cross-over ideas
• Input for knowledge groups
• Pre-event #2 (August 26)
• Online dissemination & expansion
• KnowledgeCloud
• Thematic network
• Online platform x physical meetings
• “Connecting across themes” methodology
Distilling collaboration patterns
• Pre-event long before drumbeat-event
• Generating & reflecting on cross-over topics & events
• Capture cross-over results in commons
• Ensure follow-up triggers from social innovation network
• Widen the circles by “meta-communication” (social media,
mailing lists, personal communication..)
Pre-events Post-events
Cross-overs
• Cross-over topics
• Cross-over events
“Drumbeat-event”
Local knowledge
network broker
Collaboration patterns: reusable socio-technical lessons learnt matching specific collaborative requirements (De Moor, 2013).
Collaboration pattern: pre-event for drumbeat-event
Discussion
• Cross-case analysis: scenario-based design and
claims analysis method (Carroll, 2012) plus
collaboration patterns (De Moor, 2013).
• Knowledge weaving: focusing on community
demarcation or jointly enlarging the pie?
• Knowledge weaving by networked communities:
- meso-level commons building/use
- reduction of local governance/legitimacy complexity
• Expanding the metaphor
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