This is a most vital, interesting, and useful book about community design. Don't miss reading this classic. The book is basic about community in all of its complexity, beauty and simplicity... and yet so rare in reality!

This small book is a gem. It reminds us why conversations matter to us as individuals and to the communities where they happen.  Most rich group processes are conversations. The author, Theodore Zeldin, is promoting a new conversation for the 21st Century. His work is passionate, playful, loving, and life giving.  "... thinking is bringing ideas together, as ideas flirting with each other, learning to dance and embrace. ... Ideas are constantly swimming around in the brain, searching like sperms for the egg they can unite with to produce a new idea. The brain is full of lonely ideas, begging you to make some sense  them, to recognize them as interesting." Conversations give place and respect to these lonely ideas. They forge community. 

"There is an old Sanskrit word, lila, which means play. Richer than our word, it means divine play, the play of creation, destruction, and re-creation, the folding and the unfolding of the cosmos. Lila, free and deep, is both the delight and enjoyment of this moment, and the play of God. It also means love. Lila may be the simplest thing there is - spontaneous, childish, disarming."

And so the story begins and I follow with great pleasure... I finished the book today, reluctantly. It is one of those delicious books that does not want to be finished but savored page by page. I call this kind of book a gift to all humanity.

This book is a classic. Kelly is a great story teller and these stories are about systems... The author leads us deep into the heart of complexity, systems, emergence and the new rules for understanding control in a complex, dynamic world.

It is available for free online as well as for purchase at Amazon.

With permission of the author, we've published chapter 4 and chapter 20 within our website. These are a couple of chapters we cite frequently in our work. You'll find links to these chapters scattered throughout our Journal pages.

"None of the happy conditions in Ecotopia are beyond our technical or resource reach of our society" claimed Ralph Nader with a quote on the jacket cover.  And now, years later, the conditions are ripe and we have made many strides forward in our abilities to be Ecotopia. Perhaps, we should begin the revolution. 

The Science of Synthesis explores the development of general systems theory and the individuals who gathered together around that idea to form the Society for General Systems Research. In examining the life and work of the SGSR's five founding members – Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Kenneth Boulding, Ralph Gerard, James Grier Miller, and Anatol Rapoport – Hammond traces the emergence of systems ideas across a broad range of disciplines in the mid-twentieth century.

"Imagine a world guided by the deeply held values that most Americans share. The Great Turning has the power to turn our country, and the world, to this more positive course." -Jim Hightower, columnist, radio host.

I am in the middle of this book. For me, it is essential reading for clues... although not a classic in the sense that I will return to it again and again. (Gail)

A fascinating, easy to read account of the design and facilitation methodology invented by Matt and Gail Taylor (of Tomorrow Makers) and the organization they founded, MG Taylor Corporation. Their system has enabled organizations of all sizes and kinds to solve complex problems and reach a level of sustained breakthrough thinking in a fraction of the time and with far greater results than are possible by other forms of strategic planning, problem solving, or group process.

Though the "state of the art" in the company's methods has progressed significantly since this book was published, the numerous interviews with Matt and Gail as well as clients, workshop participants, and knowledge workers offer a great introduction to the essence of MG Taylor's way of working.

Leaping The Abyss is available for free online at the author's website, as well as at Amazon.

While not groundbreaking, an important book as it reinforces and reminds readers of the changing dynamics of organizations.  One of the first books to touch upon the intention of Value Web communities.  The book features Wikipedia, P2P, Open Source, eMule and others and lays out the principles behind this kind of organization (starfish), and compares them to the characteristics of what are generally considered more typical, centralized organizations (spiders). The central point of the metaphor in the book's title is that of spontaneous regeneration, an ability displayed by starfish but not their eight-legged friends, spiders. A short book that can be read and absorbed in a couple hours, it is a great entry point for considering the ways of organizing that a network  economy demands.

Zoom out and in... Nothing is as it seems. Enjoy this book. I have often used it with participants in a workshop or event to reveal context and vantage points.

This book, through the telling of Alya's journey from orphan through young adulthood, brilliantly captures the creativity and insight of this young girl. The author creates context and content around moments in time when the entire world view changes for her young protagonist and then Auel follows the trail revealing that when Alya moves to action and doing, new insights and possibilities spill forth. The Design, Build, Use and 3-Cat MGT Models come to mind.

This is a most interesting book to me as it maps the Native American knowing with the emerging uderstanding of complex systems and quantum physics.  Peat helps us see the many similarities.  To the native culture, however, there was no word for 'knowledge' ... no final resting place for the experts. Rather, this culture thought in the sense of always coming to knowing ...

A fabulous book of design principles applicable far beyond the fields of architecture and building. Explores design as an "age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world and their own being." This is the first of a 3 volume series that includes A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment.

David Bohm's writings have influenced me greatly. The idea of ideas unfolding and enfolding back on each other, always remembering and attracting a higher order. Bohm reminds of that the power of dialog, play, and imagination (as distinct from imaginary) forms how we think and how we shape our internal/external worlds.

"Information is the difference that makes a difference." This is the first idea of Bateson's that I encountered, when I first started working with MG Taylor. It wasn't for around five years before I made a concerted effort to read any of his published work. My  relationship with Bateson is similar to my relationship with Bucky Fuller. I learned of them, and had my first many impressions of their ideas made primarily through oral and written stories told to me by mentors and colleagues, most of whom were students or colleagues of Bateson or Bucky. Sometimes I wonder at myself for waiting so long to engage in Bateson's work. If there is an advantage in coming to the source after so long, it is that I had developed - through experience -  a deep appreciation for the practical implications and applications of his ideas.

Between Mind and Nature (Mind) and Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Steps), I found Mind considerably more accessible. Or, I more accessible to it. Let's say my relationship to Mind was more deeply felt. I had, I believe, a glimmer of grocking.

~ Todd 

An important book. Barnes lays out a model that can be built upon.  If offers some design thoughts around how to level the playing field so that our commons (including the generations to come) have an equal vote with the corporate and political players. 

This is a great way to bring out your thoughts and to give them form.  By using this writing method, I discovered  patterens about my way of thinking and choosing words.  I watched my mind move from one topic to another... facinating!