| ZIG Prototype Position1 #150976 Develops an 'innovation ecosystem for good journalism'—which means transdiscipline AND journalism prototypes |
ZIG Project description
ZIG stands for Zagreb Innovation Ecosystem for Good Journalism. While journalism / public informing is of course of key strategic interest in any strategy for positive change, it must also be made clear that the scope of this project is beyond the interest in conventional journalism. Indeed, the ZIG Project is currently being implemented as The Game showcase, because it embodies core elements of The Game in an eloquent way.
We here describe on-going steps in the current prototype (and elevate the discussion to the meta-level in the two sections that follow):
- create an innovation ecosystem for good journalism, i.e. a prototype transdiscipline; a minimal version of the innovation ecosystem consists of three student research/dissertation projects, as described in the ZIG Project Dissertations document; the ZIG prototype has been developed in part through a conversation with the eSTUDENT student excellence organization in Zagreb, notably with Iva Rašica, their Leader of International Collaboration; and currently with Prof. Mislav Ante Omazić who started eSTUDENT, and Luka Šolta, his undergraduate assistant, and Prof. Nedeljko Štefanić, who have together initiated the Toyota-sponsored Creativity Center in Zagreb; and with Prof. Nenad Prelog who is the creative force in (academic) journalism in Croatia; we are working on the possibility to develop the project in collaboration with the Creativity Centre, with Luka Šolta in the coordinator (E2) role; the innovation ecosystem (tentatively) implements Chessbrough's Open Innovation, using the Induct Software platform (Induct Software appears in the role of corporate stakeholder)
- (the ZIG prototype:) develop a public informing prototype, based on the BCN2011 Good Journalism prototype as starting point (click the node to see Details); (the current idea is that) the prototype will serve as media channel for the ZIG Project, hence help its international spreading
- (scheduled for end of September, 2012) inaugural meeting of The Club of Zagreb, organized in collaboration with Europe House Zagreb and Renata Bačić, EHZ Executive Secretary; The Club of Zagreb is an organization of The Game-Changing Game Z-players (co-creators of The Game, who play by enabling the A-players to have successful career projects within The Game); The Club of Zagreb continues the mission of The Club of Rome in an original way
- (scheduled tentatively for September 2012) ZIG Startup Weekend Zagreb 2012 — entrepreneurs join the ZIG Project and begin to co-create startup ventures
- (scheduled for September 30 - October 6) workshop and international course at Inter University Centre Dubrovnik; a goal is to internationalize the ZIG Project, through the IUC Dubrovnik; ultimately the ZIG Project serves as a laboratory version / am embryo of a growing international movement
Meta-Game
It is not difficult to see that the ZIG Project develops a number of core facets of The Game, thus naturally serving as a showcase. Here are some highlights:
- the transdiscipline marks a transition from traditional disciplinary academic work, to creative work that spans all disciplinary and professional silos to produce the most needed value to society ('flat tire'-style);
- we must give Erich Jantsch the credit for coming up, more than four decades ago, with a number of key strategic insights (published in the report "Integrative Planning for the 'Joint systems' of Society and Technology—The Emerging Role of The University"; The ZIG Project may be seen as a direct implentation of Jantsch's vision — it implements what Jantsch called 'system laboratory'
- the BCN2011 Good Journalism Prototype is an illustration par excellence of the potential behind systemic innovation; its advantages w.r.t. the conventional public informing may be expressed by the George Stephenson metaphor: Imagine the first locomotive and the horse side by side; you may like horses, but if you have truly understood the comparison, then you have understood that the horse-based transportation has no future
- entrepreneurship is of course a key power / potential for real-world change; including / re-creating entrepreneurship is a key strategic move; vice-versa, advantages to entrepreneurship are hinted at in the ZIG Project Idea document by the following metaphor: "While an investment into oil drilling and gas stations would make little sense in a world where the only means of transportation is the horse, it made lots of sense in the world where Ford had just undertaken to mass-produce automobiles. Systemic innovation in any domain offers similar first-mover advantages to its participants"
- The Club of Zagreb is analogous to The Club of Rome in purpose, but rather opposite in approach: Rather than talk to people in power (whose power stems from existing structures) the strategy is to empower the young (in spirit) people to co-create the kind of world they will want to live in
- Inter University Centre Dubrovnik serves as a medium for internationalizing the project, by bringing in graduate students from some of the leading global universities; an idea is to create a project that is 'viral,' that 'spreads like forest fire';
Epistemology
By directly implementing the action projected by The Game, the ZIG Project 'changes the wheel'...
Under design epistemology ZIG Project instantiates the next notion of 'basic research'...
The ZIG project has been developed through a series of emails and document sketches, some of which may still have reusable ideas:
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