Towards Landscape Change

Systematized knowledge commons matter to a vast community of actors with heterogeneous interests, backgrounds and capabilities. These actors are grouped at levels (target groups). Our focus is not on addressing "individual" or "shared" problems of one or a few actors at a single level. It is on the coherent adressing of problem chains involving actors at the different levels in a contemporary global society, as illustrated in a small number of Application Cases.

A Blueprint for three Action Realms

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Monitoring, evaluation and change "action realms" respond to challenges and problems in our daily lives and works (operations realm, repeating our daily routines). Rather than performing the former with a presumptive mindset — starting with strong priors about the nature of the obstacles to development and the appropriate fixes [1]— and stove pipe mentality — singly and severally —, the realm of collective growth and the characteristics of knowledge as a non-rivalrous resource permit much more sharing and reuse than currently practised. The right hand side of the figure lists some pressure points in each of the three action realms, and the left hand side depicts a blueprint with desirable attributes for them.

In the blueprint the insights from Growth Diagnostics [2] and the Dashboard of Sustainability [3] approach are scaled to multiple levels, and they are broadened to a capital approach that also reflects the importance of the environment and society [4]. The monitoring and evaluation realm will enable evolving diagnostics that motivate therapeutic interventions (including experimental ones) in the change realm. Monitoring and evaluation will help stakeholders to promptly learn which interventions work and which fail.

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A Road Map's What, Where, When, How, Why and Who

As in Rudyard Kipling's (1865-1936) poem from The Elephant’s Child (see full story), let's keep six honest serving-men to explain the journey (Their names are What and Where and When, And How and Why and Who …), rather than a million of them:

What?	What is produced in this phase?
Where?	Where will these products exist? How can they be accessed, and by whom?
When?	When will these products be produced?
How?	How are the products created?
Why?	Why do we need the products? Why is the phase needed?
Who?	Who is going to do the work? Who is funding it?

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Page tags: cooperative-action foundations multi-level operations scaling testing

What?	The components of the knowledge commons, in particular those pertaining to social interactions, sustainability, development, institutions and programme and project implementation. The architecture of a Stakeholder Common Engagement Platform. A first draft of a Convention on Knowledge Commons.
Where?	All foundation components (blueprints and services) are developed and provided as controlled wikis on the internet, accessible to all for review and comment.
When?	Blueprints and services will become available by December 2009.
How?	The foundation components are created by aligning, harmonizing and organizing existing material and practices, and by filling gaps.
Why?	From the perspective of the CKC, we must test the knowledge commons creation and utility before releasing them to a larger community. The need for action in the area of synergies among development initiatives and knowledge provide has been the topic of a number of prominent publications, e.g. those listed under citeulike tag problem-articulation
Who?	The founder of Pragmeta Knowledge Clout and respondents to the call for co-developers, published at devex.com blog.

What?	The Foundations are tested by elaborating a number of new test cases on their basis. Depending on the level of sponsorship and the size of the developer community, we can architect and test a solution for the translation of the knowledge commons and the methodological guidance.
Where?	The wikis created in the foundations are further developed. For each new case or application area, an additional cell or node is created. Depending on the target group and the status of the knowledge included, the node will be in the public domain or in the private domain. Nodes will be controlled by different stakeholders
When?	During the winter of 2010 (January, February and March 2010).
How?	For selected urgent initiatives, a team is recruited to address its problem-chain making use of the CRB methodology, the systematized knowledge commons, and the Smallholder Common Engagement Platform. During the test, the team will make use of the systematized components and services. It will add case-specific content, and give feedback on consolidated content.
Why?	This phase is needed to respond to several challenges listed on Welcome page: the CKC's interaction modes must reflect the value and risk drivers of multiple stakeholders; the systematized knowledge commons must have a broad-based reusability; for multiple actors operating in myriad situations, the situation-specific translation of knowledge commons must feed into actionable knowledge; we must build capacity to overcome the pipe-stoved mentality and approaches that have invaded our planning and implementation habits.
Who?	Teams will be recruited around the leading developers of the Foundations phase. Sponsoring companies and agencies, international or national, can launch their own activities, in which they pursue compliance with the terms of the (draft) Convention on Knowledge Commons.

What?	The tested components and services are made available globally. Initiatives are started to translate content and enact services in multiple languages. This will allow the broad-based and situation specific utilization of the knowledge commons.
Where?	A network of nodes, with each node's operations and content entrusted to an actor with a suitable level of trust.
When?	This will be determined upon conclusion of the Foundations Phase.
How?	The products are created using an approach that has been improved on the basis of the lessons learned during the testing phase.
Why?	The enactment of new nodes, and their use in projects and programmes will be driven by the needs of actors, or by the needs of the constituencies they represent. The value of the systematized knowledge commons lies in their support for barrier-free sharing of experience and knowledge.
Who?	Anyone who complies to the terms of the Convention on Knowledge Commons for the initiatives utilizing the Smallholder Common Engagement Platform and the systematized knowledge commons.

What?	In this phase the focus is on the broad-based delivery of sustainable growth on the basis of development initiatives that use the Smallholder Common Engagement Platform and the systematized knowledge commons.
Where?	Globally, in sectors and in myriad local situations where there is regular access to the internet for decision support, reporting and monitoring and evaluation. Where access to internet is episodic or sporadic, paper forms and messaging can assist the interactive communications.
When?	This will be determined upon conclusion of the Test Phase.
How?	The products are created using an approach that has been improved on the basis of the lessons learned during the testing and scaling phases. A continuous improvement policy will ensure ongoing improvement of the approach and the platform. Moreover, as more actors contribute new content into the systematized knowledge commons, their utility and the implied social savings will grow as well.
Why?	As in the scaling phase, the enactment of new nodes, and their use in projects and programmes will be driven by the needs of actors, or by the needs of the constituencies they represent. The availability of systematized knowledge commons, and the engagement platform will allow facilitators and catalysts to focus on the participation enhancing practices and knowledge translation for smallholders.
Who?	Anyone who complies to the terms of the Convention on Knowledge Commons for the initiatives utilizing the Smallholder Common Engagement Platform and the systematized knowledge commons. The donor-earner dialogue is facilitated by comprehensive balanced dashboards.

Pragmeta Knowledge Clout

Commons Catalyst

Towards Landscape Change

A Blueprint for three Action Realms

A Road Map's What, Where, When, How, Why and Who

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