[Ci4cg-announce] A framework for working with and towards civic intelligence [1st installment]

Tue Aug 2 20:09:05 PDT 2016

Doug,

sorry for the long email.

To my feeling many if not all mental processes ("learning, perceiving 
(bringing in information), decision-making, etc.") are based on memory 
and pattern matching. Quick access to particular knowledge / patterns 
defines our mental and cognitive efficiency. I believe, same should be 
though in regards to the collective memory, including historical, as a 
part of collective intelligence / decision making process. Quicker 
access to stored information and facts defines our factual (as compared 
to imaginary) foundation for intelligence.

Talking about current status of our collective intelligence, I was not 
able to find a good reference page on Civic Intelligence as compared to 
other forms of Intelligence, Collective, for example. That should mean 
to me that Collective Memory either doesn't exist, or hard to find / 
discover. Knowledge cannot be reused (in intelligence, or other 
processes) if not found or discovered in time. If knowledge is not 
reused, it has to be "reinvented", on the expense of either time and 
other resources, or quality of intelligence / decision making (and/or 
other mental processes).

What does it mean practically? I would love to participate in CI4CG to 
my full capacity but I have no access to the history of our project, 
it's conceptual network, participants and their areas of expertise. From 
the researcher point of view, I see no systematic and systemic 
repository of the CI4CG data / knowledge / information including best 
practices, for example. Based on my observations, should I come to the 
idea that the agent's activities, including intelligence, are thought to 
be done in non-systematic and non-systemic way too?

To reframe the problem: long learning process, lack of a "single entry 
point" for all inquiries, queries and requests for particular 
information should indicate absence, or highly inefficient collective 
memory. Inefficient memory defines inefficient intelligence being a part 
of it we are not able to exclude.

I believe, if CI4CG community is interested in efficient intelligence, 
it should address the following questions:
- theoretical vs. experimentally confirmed "access rates" to particular 
knowledge, as measured in Topics, or Issues / minute.
- applicability of different data, knowledge and communication 
structures and protocols to the most characteristic activities CI4CG is 
trying to deal with, both theoretical and experimentally confirmed.
- classification of applicability of CI4CG methods and techniques to the 
variety of problems, considered vs resolved, or solved.

Your thoughts?

Thank you,
Dimitri

On 03/08/16 13:12, Doug Schuler wrote:
> Dmitry,
>
> To me, the "integrated set of processes that enable an agent to act in 
> ways that are appropriate to the agent's goals and to the environment" 
> should at least include learning, perceiving (bringing in 
> information), decision-making, etc.
>
> In human (and, especially, /civic/) intelligence, I'd include 
> non-symbol manipulation approaches such as sense of justice, emotions, 
> creativity, empathy, etc.
>
> To me everything you suggest about looking at memory seems relevant.
>
> I also think about historical memory as talked about in our "Memory 
> and Responsibility" pattern 
> (http://www.publicsphereproject.org/content/memory-and-responsibility)
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>
>> On Aug 1, 2016, at 9:58 PM, Dmitry Sokolov 
>> <dmitry.v.sokolov at gmail.com <mailto:dmitry.v.sokolov at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Doug,
>>
>> would you related intelligence to decision making?
>> I am not sure whether acting without thinking / reflection / decision 
>> making can be thought intelligent.
>>
>> Regarding storage media "in human memories, libraries, online, or in 
>> tools, systems, or artifacts.", would you suggest comparative 
>> analysis of those techniques (and possibly "collective memory" 
>> platforms?) by accuracy / fidelity / access time as a function of 
>> time? I am interested in real-time decision making where timely 
>> access to particular knowledge is critical.
>>
>> Thank you,
>> Dimitri
>>
>> On 02/08/16 13:49, Doug Schuler wrote:
>>> Todd — and everybody else (hopefully of interest)
>>>
>>> This is a follow-on to the conversation that Todd's note launched. 
>>> This note is more like the first version of a summary of the 
>>> findings and assertions so far in relation to my exploration of 
>>> civic intelligence. As you know I'm trying to develop 
>>> civic intelligence as a focus for research, activism, education, 
>>> policy-making, ... , etc. You also of course know that it's not a 
>>> term that's in common use and I'd like to change that. I would love 
>>> your comments on any and all aspects of this.
>>>
>>> I've been packing the idea of civic intelligence in many ways for 
>>> quite awhile. Sometimes it's used as a part of social inquiry, 
>>> sometimes it's meant to be aspirational, and sometimes it's intended 
>>> to be used as a goal or guideline — and other uses are possible 
>>> (ranking schools for example). These varieties of uses could be a 
>>> source of confusion (in either the critique or the exploration 
>>> itself). My belief and hope is that the diverse perspectives are in 
>>> fact coherent, although that might not be apparent without the 
>>> background logic.
>>>
>>> I'd like to think that a graphic depiction can be developed that 
>>> showed the main elements and regions of the overall exploration. 
>>> Ideally this would help maintain coherence, reduce 
>>> misinterpretation, and promote additional work in this area. (And, 
>>> of course, critique could help shape this effort into more 
>>> productive ways.)
>>>
>>> I'm trying to explore a lot of things simultaneously — including the 
>>> fact that exploring and practicing civic intelligence seems to be 
>>> empowering to students, although this isn't addressed in this note.
>>>
>>> The following is an attempt to describe one region of the framework 
>>> which is largely positivistic and should have the necessary rigor 
>>> and logic to be palatable to social scientists of various types. I 
>>> consider that everything is subject to modification.
>>>
>>> (1) We start with a (working) definition of Intelligence. This seems 
>>> to be keeping with standard views of intelligence while containing 
>>> elements that lend themselves to characterization and analysis. I 
>>> wanted to focus on the potential richness of the concept (of 
>>> intelligence) rather that be limited to a minimal, quantified and 
>>> somewhat non-useful construct that some social scientists seem to 
>>> prefer.
>>>
>>> Definition of Intelligence: An integrated set of processes that 
>>> enable an agent to act in ways that are appropriate to the agent's 
>>> goals and to the environment in which it exists / acts — 
>>> particularly areas that present actual or potential challenges 
>>> or opportunities.
>>>
>>> An "agent" can be one or more people, any group, animal, computer 
>>> program, hybrids of the above, and others as well as any artifacts, 
>>> natural or otherwise, or system of artifacts that are useful in 
>>> pursuit of the goals.
>>>
>>> Collective intelligence is a major type of intelligence that is 
>>> distinguished from individual intelligence (e.g. that of a single 
>>> person).
>>>
>>> Intelligence can also be distributed over space and time. And the 
>>> results of the diverse processes can be stored in many ways—in human 
>>> memories, libraries, online, or in tools, systems, or artifacts.
>>>
>>> (2) The various components / elements of the definition suggest ways 
>>> to characterize, analyze, categorize various approaches.
>>>
>>> Composition of the "agent"
>>> Environment in which the intelligence operates (Intelligence is 
>>> context dependent)
>>> Processes that are used and how they are integrated (i.e. the structure)
>>> Goals, values, and norm
>>> The products of the processes
>>>
>>> The claim that I'm making is that it is probably possible to 
>>> identify different versions of intelligence by the goals, types of 
>>> actions, and composition and coordination of the agent. This might 
>>> not be 100% certain but it could be useful.
>>>
>>> [TO BE CONTINUED]
>>>
>>> Douglas Schuler
>>> douglas at publicsphereproject.org <mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>
>>> Twitter: @doug_schuler
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Public Sphere Project
>>> http://www.publicsphereproject.org/
>>>
>>> Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good
>>> _http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci4cg-announce_
>>> Creating the World Citizen Parliament
>>> http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament 
>>>
>>> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution 
>>> (project)
>>> http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv 
>>> <http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/>
>>>
>>> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution 
>>> (book)
>>> http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Ci4cg-announce mailing list
>>> Ci4cg-announce at scn9.scn.org
>>> http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci4cg-announce
>>
>
> Douglas Schuler
> douglas at publicsphereproject.org <mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>
> Twitter: @doug_schuler
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Public Sphere Project
> http://www.publicsphereproject.org/
>
> Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good
> _http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci4cg-announce_
> Creating the World Citizen Parliament
> http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament 
>
> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution 
> (project)
> http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv 
> <http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/>
>
> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution 
> (book)
> http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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