FOPL/BothAnd | OpenMediaDesk mapping the next library via co-created community stories a collective intelligence framework

September 2016FOPL/BothAnd | OpenMediaDeskmapping the next library via co-created community storiesa collective intelligence framework

If OMD is the solution......what the hecks the problem?

The problem.Perth County is evolving into a knowledge-driven, innovation-hungry communityOur lovely old libraries, vital resource for Perths new information ecosystem, is in the throes of evolving itself and proving value for money/return on investment...all without losing the trust of its patrons and partners as the countys old factory economy morphs towards a new collaborative economy

Tall order. But heres a secret for you.

Heres our secret in action.

...so whats the secret?Simple: its knowing that the communities you serve are sharing something incredibly powerful about libraries...and if you can understand the patterns of what theyre sharing, youll understand your librarys future and be able to plan sensibly

the key to the futureNetworks.Networksboth live and onlineare the future of our economy, our media, our politics, our education system......as we interact and collaborate more and more, organize and co-create value along our personal networks...

We create patterns we can map.

And those patterns reveal community insights and solutions (the kind of co-created solutions astute library planners love)

But what drives those patterns?With the explosion of social networking, human beings now use a new/old currency along our networks......and its not money and its not time...and its something weve shared for thousands of years...

Heres a hint.

Who knows what this is? This is a detail of the stunning cave paintings at Lascaux, in SW France. Theyre 18,000 years old...and they represent the oldest European storytelling experience known. Theyre important to me because Im a storyteller who also builds software: theyre the first interactive storytelling software!

its story.We meet one another and get to know one another and learn to trust one another by sharing storyShared story is the basis of our trust networks (think: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat)

Think about it: we build trust by sharing and comparing story. Every significant relationship in our lives is predicated on storyhow I met Maureen, how I met those of you here in this room, the people Ive met and filmed in Bosnia and Cuba and Eastern Europe: despite shyness and different backgrounds, language barriers, despite cultural differenceswe shared story and we built relationships

Why care about story?Shared stories relax people and focus their attention (shared insight/context)Shared stories start conversations (inspire value co-creation)Shared stories spark emotions and make people do amazing, human things (incite real action)Stories dont sell. The best dont tell eitherthey lead us to something new (inspire real change)

Thats what our blind friend teaches us.Change the story => change the world

SHARED STORY IS COMMUNITY DATA...WITH SOUL

shared story is power.Every successful political/marketing campaign (and thats what savvy libraries are doing these days) is nothing more than daily shared storyObamas 2008 campaign demonstrated the power of sharing stories that incite communities to collaborate for change

...and if you can parse out the patterns within/amongst the stories people are sharing about libraries...

Youll have incredibly rich data on your side.

You can plan up a storm, people.

Shared community stories tell you who you are.We know more about libraries than most non-librarians in this room......only because weve heard more stories about libraries in the past 18 months than any sane person ought to

Heres but a taste.Libraries are trusted repositories of community data (youth especially believe this)Libraries are key first respondersLibrarians are human search enginesLibrarians share something priceless: contextLibraries are the safespace/community living room/media hackerspaces of the futureSmall business is a huge service growth space

shared community story builds important stuff.trust which buildsauthentic relationships which in turn buildtrust networks which in turn co-create...

story

story patterns we can map.

Howd you do that?Rather than simply collecting flat data, we map and metatag the community stories that shape our public and private conversations...and play those story insights right back into the ongoing conversations...to create more insight we can share

thats collective intelligenceCollective intelligence unlocks undiscovered story patternsThat discovery process exposes hidden memes (hunches and half-ideas) andthen plays back those memes/hunches into ongoing conversations to reveal the full value of the patterns

...to create yet more stories.

Its a virtuous circle...and we can index everything against the internet.

...to sustain the story.

eCairn conversation mapping tool

whats the payoff?peer-to-peer collective intelligence means co-creation participants (the community itself) has a stake in the library strategic planning (and change) process...and lead the buy-in for the rest of the community as well (sustainably, too!)story co-creation is the predicate for a self-sustaining, self-identifying advocacy base for libraries ...our once and future allies/evangelists

its a beautiful thing(because of course libraries are collective intelligence in action)

recapWe tap into collective intelligence around the idea of library via small, diverse, autonomous collaborative teams We capture and map the interactions of participants contributing to the collective intelligence...and we generate data frameworks to see that intelligence in actionable datato build better stories

Thank you