An AIM discussion today 8/24/07, between KeithHopper (hoppermatic) and SamRose (Str9960)
(07:53:35) str9960: Hi, what's new these days, Keith? (07:53:44) hopperomatic: hey sam - (07:53:55) hopperomatic: not too much. just got back from vaca. (07:54:05) str9960: if you're busy right now, no problem. (07:54:16) hopperomatic: give me 1 min to grab a coffee - BRB (07:54:28) str9960: Ok, sure (07:55:53) hopperomatic: alright - back. sup? (07:57:00) str9960: Just checking in to see if you are still interested in building or exploring some of what we talked about with http://www.communitywiki.org/odd/CollectiveProblemSolving/Discussion (07:57:02) str9960: ? (07:57:34) hopperomatic: oh yes. (07:57:52) hopperomatic: admittedly, I'm a little stuck as to what the best next step would be (07:58:38) hopperomatic: I have continued to research this space on my own -- mostly around open innovation concepts (07:58:56) hopperomatic: haven't done much other than read, though. (07:59:41) hopperomatic: Did you have anything in particular in mind for moving forward in this space? I see your most recent comment was around a potential pilot problem, which I still think is a good idea. (08:00:21) str9960: I think you were saying from the beginning that you were interested in creating a tool, and if I recall correctly, a business, around the ideas you were talking about (08:00:28) str9960: maybe I misread that (08:01:38) hopperomatic: nope - you are correct. Of course, the tool/business has morphed over the year(s) that I've been thinking about it. Simply though, my original idea was to create a tool/environment for community problem solving - lately, I'm thinking more about a business/platform for collaborative innovation, but they're birds of the same feather. (08:02:18) hopperomatic: I'd say that I got more specific in my interest. (08:02:36) str9960: I think the problem plot and http://www.communitywiki.org/odd/CollectiveProblemSolving/PilotProblems were a good direction. I was interested in thinking about trying to design the tool/processes, or at least a prototype (08:03:30) hopperomatic: yes - this wiki page does a good job capturing the shift in my thinking towards more collaborative design and innovation and less about generic problem solving. (08:04:12) str9960: I think we left off on saying "what are the types of problems we can apply these ideas to"? But, we never really defined those problems (08:04:30) str9960: I think the types of problems are really broad (08:05:13) str9960: I also think we were close to something really practically useful (08:05:55) str9960: Also, wondered what you thought about the idea of "OrganizedInquiry"? (08:07:27) hopperomatic: Organized inquiry seems like a good model for exploring problem spaces. I've always felt more inclined to the design-as-problem-solving model. (08:07:50) hopperomatic: not that they are mutually exclusive, and I also haven't spent enough time truly groking the OI model. (08:08:18) str9960: it's a really new model, maybe not universally applicable to all problems, of course (08:08:45) str9960: what do yo mean by "design-as-problem-solving-model" (08:08:58) hopperomatic: let me find this great link that zeb sent me... hold on. (08:09:05) str9960: ok (08:10:10) hopperomatic: ahhh. here it is http://www.cognexus.org/wpf/wickedproblems.pdf (08:10:50) hopperomatic: It's an awesome paper if you haven't read it, but the gist is that problems are solved by designing solutions FIRST and then analyzing what they teach us about the problem. Lather, rinse, and repeat. (08:10:51) str9960: cool, thanks, will check it out... (08:11:47) str9960: So, the design is kind of an exercise. This is similar to what we call "backcasting" in futures studies (08:12:23) str9960: Starting from the point in the future where you want to be, and then tracing your way back through a plausible story about how you got there (08:12:25) hopperomatic: yes - except depending on where you are in the process, the design could be a model, could be a working solution, or could even be a concept (08:12:32) str9960: ok, I see (08:12:53) str9960: gotta run, thansk for the info, mind if I past this into CP wiki? (08:12:57) str9960: paste (08:13:15) hopperomatic: they use a great example of trying to design software that manages elevators. You start by coming up with the simplest idea that works, then looking at it and saying "oh, I didn't think of this aspect" and so on. (08:13:22) hopperomatic: no - fire away (08:13:38) hopperomatic: thanks for bringing this back up - let's stay in touch. I'm still excited about this stuff. (08:16:14) str9960: No problem, will see you on CPS wiki! talk to you later
A more readable version available here: http://socialsynergyweb.net/cgi-bin/wiki/CollectiveProblemSolvingDiscussion
(OddWiki does not allow this type of content, because OddWiki is meant to be migrated from once these needs arise, so I’ve also posted this on a OddMuse instance that does support IRC pasting. If desired, we can migrate CollectiveProblemSolving wiki to OBM WikiHive very easily – SamRose)
High-level description of “design-as-problem-solving” here: http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/design/dziersk/design-thinking-083107.html