I’ve been sidetracked by the exigencies of keeping bread on the table for the family. I haven’t stayed focused lately on the reason I established Asian Energy Advisors. Reading this entry about Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, has jolted me back to that vision.
In the early 90’s, Newmark got a job in the information technology department of Charles Schwab where he discovered Mosaic and started evangelizing the Web. “This is how you’ll do business one day,” he kept telling them.
My vision is that one of these days internet-based interactions will be fundamentally instrumental in shaping the Philippine energy sector.
Oh sure, we’re currently flinging emails around (how anachronistic is that!), publishing an announcement or two, and even providing access to some files. But we haven’t unleashed the social mechanisms that are uniquely enabled by the internet and connectivity across a broad spectrum of minds throughout the country.
Zohar and Marshall wrote here:
The best approximation to understanding a problem or evolving a strategy is to capture as many points of view on it as possible.
But instead of thinking half a dozen perspectives – the most we ever get in the power sector here under our existing paradigms – think 100, 200, or 10,000 perspectives.
We haven’t yet built up enough capacitance to jump the gap from a culture of self-interest to one of inclusion. But we will. Internet technologies allow us to (borrowing from Zohar again) move from a Debate culture to a Dialog culture.
Moving from a culture of …
Knowing –> Finding out, discussion
Answers –> Questions
Wining and losing –> Sharing
Unequal –> Equal
Power –> Respect
Proving a point, defending a position –> Exploring new possibilities, listening
Our energy problems will be solved by taking advantage of the self-organizing potential of the complex adaptive system that is us … empowered by these technologies.