Tom Munnecke,
Discussions between Munnecke, Koenig,
Ellerman and Hauser.
Trust develops when the following converge: Identification Reputation &
Accountability
The following questions emerged:
How can chains of trust be established?
Is trust scalable?
General convergence
on the notion of Helpers-> trust chain -> Doers
All met with Stu Kaufman in his BIOS office [photo].
Introduced the concept of Giving Space. Had a general discussion about the problems
present in development and relief, how to transform giving. He mentioned that the fitness function which
would drive the evolution of the space was an extremely critical issue. The group discussed notions of appreciative
inquiry and “benegnosis” – a way of understanding based on the positive. Stu was interested
enough to invite the group back the next day for further discussions.
Meeting with
Concept of Giving Space introduced to Dr. Gell-Mann. Discussion point included the problems in
philanthropy, especially the need to be able to trust the process. Discussion included concept of scalability
across continents, regions, nations, states/provinces, communities,
cities/villages/rural areas, tribes, families, individuals. Also:
Populations, environment, animals, plants biosphere. Question raised: are
there intrinsics that cut across the scale of all of these? [Photo of
Munnecke and Gell-Mann]
The perversities in development and relief that are beginning to be
recognized were discussed. The need for
development and relief to build on innate resiliency rather than just providing
funds was emphasized. Failure to work
with innate resiliency creates a “victimization loop” much like the welfare
state, where people learn they can profit from suffering from “victim
hood.” We need to be working to break
and eliminate this “loop.” The book, The Road to Hell by Michael Maran is a good reference source for more information on
this. The transformation that Giving Space promotes should be scalable,
self-propagating, auto catalytic and trust raising. [photo of Ellerman and
Gell-Mann]
Dr. Gell-Man is interested in the SFI
sponsoring a meeting with Giving Space, tentatively in Spring,
2002 to open the concept to a wider audience.
Others who might be included were the McArthur Foundation, The World
Bank and the Ford Foundation.
Much the same conversation and discussion was held with Dr. Kaufman
that was held earlier with Dr Gell-Man. Dr. Kaufman.
Dr Kaufman asked each of us, “How do you plan to operate.” In turn, each of us provided our thoughts to
him, and each other, about this. He noted that each of our descriptions were different…
Dr. Kaufman joked that what we needed to be doing was to “make the pie
higher.” There is a window of
opportunity in the wake of September 11th for us to make Giving
Space meaningful. He said, “We need to
find the leverage points.” “We need to
transform development/relief into a web of mutually supportive cottage industries
that could become exponentially more powerful that they are today as
stand-alone organizations.” Giving Space
needs to be able to continuously determine what organizations provide the most
bang for the buck. We need top determine
the Tipping Points in Philanthropy as well as the Sink Holes and where do they
matter
Dr. Kaufman also volunteered to join the Giving Space board, and was
given the honorable title of Chief Autocatalytic Officer.
The group
was invited to the home of Suzanne Dulle. Until recently, she was Director of Business
Relations and External affairs at the Santa Fe Institute. Her husband, Juan, was born in
Is it
possible to apply “
