Probabilistic Shifts

Revision 1320

Date
Author
BenSibelman
Comment
Created page.
Size
1878 bytes
Delta
== Discussion at [[Sol 2009]] == === Participants === * [[Arthur Brock]] * [[Paul Krafel]] * [[Alysia Krafel]] * [[Brandon CS Sanders]] * [[Ben Sibelman]] === Summary === ''These notes start in the middle of the session'' * A probabilistic shift is an action that doesn't have precisely knowable outcomes ** Like moving pegs in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko Pachinko] or the similar [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galton_board probability demonstration device] that creates a bell curve made of balls) ** Making something on the edge of the bell curve appear possible to others will draw in allies === Stream flow metaphor from [[The Upward Spiral]] === * Water moving slowly vs. quickly ** Slow movement means some water soaks into the ground rather than eroding a gully deeper ** Much of the water then re-evaporates and never makes it to the bottom of the gully ** This is equivalent to a situation where everyone involved in a project contributes creatively rather than a few leaders "letting the rest of the creativity run down the slope and leave" *** Alysia: This is hard because, having created a "space" for your project or group, it's hard to let others form their own creative "bubbles" inside it === Examples === * Chrysalis Charter School tried a model where each teacher autonomously set their budget, so that "money flowed from the bottom up" ** Didn't work, now a teacher's co-op * [http://aboutus.org AboutUs] is becoming more hierarchical in order to move faster with its venture capital ** By contrast, [http://wikipedia.org Wikipedia] grew more slowly/organically with its nonhierarchical model * Organization of information on the Internet ** Skill that kids need to learn ** Often you don't know exactly what you're looking for ** Supersites index a bunch of sites, then other sites index the supersites: similar to how nature is organized