Michel Bauwens is the Founder of the P2P Foundation and is a Belgian integral philosopher and Peer-to-Peer theorist. He has worked as an internet consultant, information analyst for the United States Information Agency, information manager for British Petroleum (where he created one of the first virtual information centers), and is former editor-in-chief of the first European digital convergence magazine, the Dutch language Wave. In this presentation, he talks about what peer to peer is. There are a series of exteensive interviews at YouTube and a full 40 minute lecture he recently gave atthe University of Swinbourne, Melbourne Australia can be viewed by clicking here.]]>Garma - The Significance of Others Forms of Educationhttp://www.cstc-apa.com/members-books-and-articles/2007/6/25/garma-the-significance-of-others-forms-of-education.htmladmin2007-06-25T03:37:39Z

Karl McPhee, film-maker and CSTC member recently returned from Northern Arnhem Land far north Queensland, one of the remotest areas in Australia where he was involved in making a documentary on "Garma".

The Garma Festival is a celebration of the Yolngu cultural inheritance. Yolngu culture in north-east Arnhem Land — a heartland of Aboriginal culture and land rights — is among the oldest living cultures on earth, stretching back more than 40,000 years.The Garma ceremony is aimed at sharing knowledge and culture, and opening people’s hearts to the message of the land at Gulkula. The site at Gulkula has profound meaning for Yolngu. Set in a stringybark forest with views to the Gulf of Carpentaria, Gulkula is where the ancestor Ganbulabula brought the yidaki (didjeridu) into being among the Gumatj people. The festival is designed to encourage the practice, preservation and maintenance of traditional dance (bunggul), song (manikay), art and ceremony on Yolngu lands in Northeast Arnhem Land.

Garma implies many things for Yolngu, as a practice and as a place. Garma happens when people with different ideas and values come together and negotiate knowledge in a respectful learning environment. The Garma Festival at Gulkula creates this kind of environment for Yolngu (Aboriginal people of northeast Arnhem Land) and Balanda (Non-Indigenous Australians).

The traditional models of Yolngu commerce have been eroded over the last century. The Yothu Yindi Foundation was established in 1990 by elders from five of the Yolngu clans, the Gumatj, Rirratjingu, Djapu, Galpu and Wangurri clans to address this issue.

The Yothu Yindi Foundation saw a need to create a new model that served both the requirements of traditional communities and western financial markets and institutions. The Foundation recognises that organisations that ask questions like “What can we do today to make sure our kids will be productive 20 years from now?” will be best equipped to create businesses that are sustainable from a community and environmental perspective and boost the spirit of the community.

The Garma Festival is the centre piece of this plan is a unique cultural experience. It encapsulates the very essence of how creative skills development might be applied in a contemporary context.

Listen to Manuwuy Yununpingu, a board member of the Yothu Yindi Foundation talk about Yolngu culture.

To obtain a full copy of the documentaryfilm, contact Karl McPhee at mcpheeprod@mpx.com.au

This podcast offers an excellent case study on the purpose and the strategy behind concepts of this nature including an understanding of management objectives and a suggestion about how programmes of this nature can be measured.

Download and listen to this 13 minute podcast that will take approximately 8 minutes to download.

I am constantly surprised at the complexity of the human mind and and dazzled by its beauty as it works creatively. I was kindly offered the opportunity to run one of the monthly meetings of the Sydney Facilitators Network and chose to "play with clay" as a way of exploring deep insights around emerging futures.These shots, show the final results of 4 groups in a 20 minute group improvisation where the only instruction was to go with your impulse or flow as you worked collaboratively. I combined two techniques in this 60 minute programme - the first one was a series of instructions involved in loosing the hands. I am indebted to Ed Bambling, the world renowned ceramist based at the Banff Centre for those clay improvisation exercises and the second exercise was to shape your emergent future and I am indebted to Otto Scharmer form MIT Sloans School of Management for the concept.]]>Artful Development - how different art forms can address business issueshttp://www.cstc-apa.com/members-books-and-articles/2007/6/4/artful-development-how-different-art-forms-can-address-busin.htmladmin2007-06-04T14:31:21ZA new report entitled "Artful Development - how different art forms can address business issues" commissioned by Arts and Business UK is a unique body of work for those interested in the nexus between the application of arts based processes in businesses and organisations. Researched and written by CSTC member, Tim Stockil, founder of CI: Creative Intelligence , an Oxford trained theatre director who has moved extensively between business and the arts and the former Director, Creative Development Arts and Business UK, it offers comprehensive insights into which art forms - theatre, muisc, visual arts and storytelling - might best be suited to various business issues and why. Importantly, the latter part of the report provides some sharp advice on the cost and resource implications of using arts based training and development. The report above all else is practical. Its written style is highly accessible and well pitched at its target audience of managers working in HR and Training and Development.