Notes for the Sage Bionetworks Commons Congress, April, 2013, San Francisco

1. Feedback Loops
and
Knowledge Gardens
A Case for Improved Socio-technical Infrastructures
Jack Park
Sage Bionetworks Commons Congress
San Francisco, 19-20 April 2013
CC-By

2. Complex Systems
Shared Stories
Collaboration in the Garden
From the perspective of
complexity theory, emergence
arises from complex systems
that create new properties
from “autonomous unities
coming together into larger,
more powerful unities”*
The emergence we seek is that of
insight into the nature of and
* [2]
solutions to complex problems

3. Great Law of the Iroquois
"In every deliberation, we must consider the
impact on the seventh generation...”
3

4. Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour,
Rains from the sky a meteoric shower
Of facts . . . they lie unquestioned,
uncombined.
Wisdom enough to leech us of our ill
Is daily spun; but there exists no loom
To weave it into fabric
– Edna St. Vincent Millay

5. A Strategy

6. Learning, Improving Requires Feedback
Towards a cultivated ecosystem…
Structured but
emergent networks of
claims and arguments
ordered gardens
ordered gardens
Informally expressed
wild borders claims and arguments,
wild borders awaiting ‘proper
linkage’
Source: Simon Buckingham Shum

7. Triple Learning Loop
[1], Page 23

8. Completed Representation
Compromised Host
Appropriate For
Bacterial Infection Contraindicates Antioxidants
Because
macrophages use antioxidants
free radicals to kill
Let us co-create solutions
kill bacteria free radicals
to cancer

9. References
• [1] FEDERAL HEALTH FUTURES SUMMIT LEADERSHIP LEARNING for TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE.
September 10-11, 2012 Washington DC Metro Region
• [2] Olen Gunnlaugson (2011). A Complexity Perspective on Presencing. Complicity, Vol 9, No 1 (2012).
Online at: http://ejournals.library.

10. About Me
Built airplane
Undergrad study: aero eng.
Built windmills/Solar homes
Built wind/solar sensors
AI to analyze data
Collective intelligence
Knowledge gardens
Life in a Waterfall