What Urban Planning Can Teach Us About Social

Business DesignGordon Ross & Thomas Vander Wal

Enterprise 2.0 Conference :: Santa Clara, CA :: November 2011

Who is Thomas?

2008

INY

1960

Design  Genre Output

Symbolic  &  Visual  Communica9ons Typography  &  adver9sing,  books,  magazines,    film,  photography,  television,  computer  graphics,  visual  designs  for  websites  (domain  of  graphic  designers)

Material  Object Everyday  “products”:  clothing,  domes9c  objects,  tools,  instruments,  machinery,  vehicle  (domain  of  industrial  designers)

Ac9vi9es  and  Organized  Services Logis9cs,  opera9ons,  schedules,  bureaucracies,  cause  and  effect  systems  (domain  of  management,  process  engineers,  bureaucrats)

Complex  Systems  or  Environments  for  Living,  Working,  Playing,  and  Learning

Buildings,  structures,  streets,  neighbourhoods,  towns,  ci<es  (domain  of  urban  planners,  architects,  systems  engineers)

Source: Wicked Problems in Design Thinking, Richard Buchanan; Margolin, V., & Buchanan, R. (1995). The Idea of Design. Cambridge: MIT Press

(Karl) (Fred)

MARXISM TAYLORISM

Planning is the guidance of future action

- John Forester

Planning is described as a forward looking activity that selects from the past those elements that are useful in analyzing existing conditions and form a vantage point of the future; the changes  that  are  thought to be desirable and how they might be brought about. 

- John Friedmann

Planning attempts to link scientific and technical knowledge to actions in the public domain. 

Planning is concerned with making decisions and informing actions in ways that are socially rational. 

- John Friedmann

KNOWLEDGEACTIONPUBLIC DOMAIN

KNOWLEDGEACTIONPUBLIC DOMAINSOCIETY

KNOWLEDGEACTIONPUBLIC DOMAINSOCIETYSOCIAL BUSINESS

KNOWLEDGEACTIONSOCIAL BUSINESS

THE PITCH

the practice of social transformation is planning

E2.0 / Social Biz is about the social transformation of work

you are planners**note: you just don’t know it yet

1MANIPULATIVE KNOWLEDGE

2APPRECIATIVE KNOWLEDGE

Social Scaling

InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2011

Scaling and FunctionalityPe

ople

Par

ticip

atin

g

# of Objects in System

A

A - Personal Use

B

B - SerendipityC C - Mature Social

Tool

D

D - Complex SocialSystem

Dave Snowden’s Cynefin Framework

Physical Social Scaling

InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2011

Scaling of Human Settlements#

of P

eopl

e

Land Size

A

A - Hamlet

B

B - VillageC C - Town

D

D - City

Santana Row

Lessons of Physical Social Scaling

Cruise Director /

Community Leader

• Sharer

• Lurker

• Writer / Creator

• Editor

• Curator

• Connector

• Synthesizer

• Theorizer

• Mitigator

• Negotiator

• Contextualizer

• Interloper

• Infovore

• Learner

• Monitor

• Councilor

• Gossip

• Critic

• Expert

• Broadcaster / Rebroadcaster

Social Roles

Simple :: Blocks

Complicated :: Grids

Complex :: Fractals

Social Comfort

Social Comfort with People

Social Comfort with Tools

Social Comfort with Content

Paving Emergent Paths

SPACE vsPLACE

SPACE = GEOMETRYPLACE = EXPERIENCE

THE CITY IS NOT A TREE

SAFE FAIL vs FAIL SAFE

UTOPIAN VISIONS OF THE FUTURE

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY

(aka MIND THE PLATONIC FOLD)

Thank you!

Gordon Ross &Thomas Vander Wal

@gordonr@vanderwal