zenpundit.com

John Robb posted the first part of a working paper that extends John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral into Open Source environments. I want to draw attention to the third potential solution to catastrophic failure ( result of mismatch of rigid, hierarchical, bureaucracy with rapidly evolving, chaotic, environment) that Robb offers in his conclusion:

C) Decentralized decision making via a market mechanism or open source framework. This approach is similar to process “B” detailed above, except that a much wider degree of diversity of outlook/orientation within the contributing components is allowed/desired. The end result is a decision making process where multiple groups make contributions (new optimizations and models). As these contributions are tested against the environment, we will find that most of these contributions will fail. Those few that work are then widely copied/replicated within components. The biggest problem (opportunity?) with this approach is that its direction is emergent and it is not directed by a human being (the commander)

Some preliminary research in small worlds network theory indicates that very noisy environments will have emergent rule-sets. Human social systems are less tolerant of extended periods of chaos than are other kinds of systems because there are caloric and  epidemiological “floors” for humanocentric environments that, if breached, result in massive population die-offs, emigration and radical social reordering. History’s classic example of this phenomena was the Black Death, which created a general labor shortage that fatally undermined European feudalism. Because of this, military forces whether of state orientation or irregulars would be forced to react cooperatively and adaptively, however indirectly, toward a consensus in order to maintain at least the minimal economic flows that permit their military operations to be sustained.

WIKI-ING THE BURMESE JUNTA INTO THE DOCK?

The Burmese government is now engaged in wholesale massacres of it’s Buddhist opposition:

“Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle” –The Daily Mail

” Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta has revealed. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.” Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand. “

eddie of Hidden Unities sent me the following article from TIME:

“But while the junta can control the street, the monasteries and even the web, they can’t control the sky. On Friday the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), working with Burmese groups, released a new analysis of high-resolution satellite images that pinpointed evidence of human rights violations in the eastern Burma. For the first time in Burma, scientists were able to use orbital satellites to confirm on-the-ground reports of burned villages and forced relocations of civilians by the military. The technique has already been used to document human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and Darfur, but in Burma, a closed country that often seems like a modern-day version of Orwell’s 1984, it’s almost like turning Big Brother against itself. “We are sending a message to the military junta that we are watching from the sky,” said Aung Din, policy director for the U.S. Campaign for Burma. “

What if NGO’s, IGO’s and national governments geographically divided Burma into “observation zones” and used government and commercial spy satellites to accumulate evidence of crimes against humanity by the military regime, making these images available on a public wiki ? An open-source pressure campaign for the prosecution of Burmese leaders before a special tribunal or the ICC ?

UPDATE:

Free Burma! is a central site for “International Bloggers Day for Burma -October 4 “

BURMA LINKS:

The Glittering Eye New!

Swedish Meatballs Confidential New!

Pundita and here

Hidden Unities as well as here

Jules Crittenden

Agam’s Gecko

DEANGELIS ON HBR “BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS 2007”

Steve DeAngelis at ERMB has two very meaty posts up “HBR 2007 Breakthrough Ideas, Part 1” and “HBR 2007 Breakthrough Ideas, Part 2” based on “The HBR List:Breakthrough Ideas for 2007“. Steve gives his insights, links and extensive excerpts on the breakthrough ideas which are:

1. Accidental Influentials
2. Entrepreneurial Japan
3.Brand Magic: Harry Potter Marketing.
4.Algorithms in the Attic
5.The Leader from Hope
6.An Emerging Hotbed of User-Centered Innovation
7.Living With Continuous Partial Attention
8.Borrowing from the PE Playbook
9.When To Sleep On It
10. Here Comes XBRL
11. Innovation and Growth: Size Matters
12. Conflicted Consumers
13. What Sells When Father Knows Best
14. Business in the Nanocosm
15. Act Globally, Think Locally
16. Seeing is Treating
17. The Best Networks Are Really Worknets
18. Why U.S. Healthcare Costs Aren’t Too High
19. In Defense of “Ready, Fire, Aim
20. The Folly of Accountabalism

An impressive density of concepts and commentary in just a couple of medium size posts.