Everything is a system. We intent to dramatically narrow our offering. To narrow our focus we are guided by these simplifying principles are:
* Supporting **people in social systems** dealing with social complexity is our interest.
* **Personal**--start with and expand personal diagrams of meaningful and situated problems.
* **Problem-solution** orientation
* **Action and outcomes** oriented.
* **Usable and understandable** by normal people.
* Nothing that cannot be seen (diagramed). (**visual**)
* All in support of **activists' conversations**.
* Only **theory that is necessary** to support practice.
By Lines: **Draw Your Relationships, See Your Systems.**
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Why model? Good Regulator Theorem
Here we explore the art and science of **steering complex systems** by using and creating models.
> We will strive to make this approach self-paced self-learning, with support available if needed. We can only do this by first working together with pilot groups of learners.
We are only going to model **purposeful social systems** which still have the possibility of being ethical and locally participatory.
We will keep asking, **what use** will you put the model to. Without that context modeling isn't more than an amusement.
Diagrams and dissertations too often fail to motivate. We are working on a new form for diagramming that is integrated with story telling. This approach, the EIP Sketch is a work in progress, hopefully it will always be improving.
**Stories can motivate**.
We plan to translate models into English and into stories.
Models of purposeful systems can be related as settings, characters, goals, and plots--that achieve their goals and or learn about the system or model.
We will keep our philosophizing and exposition to a minimum so we can learn by doing--by using models or by creating models.
We believe that locally created models are essential for survival.
We will try to model near the bottom of the ladder of abstraction--modeling systems that you personally can observe, touch and talk with. Maybe we should call them, **intimate models**.
**Foundational Concepts** Ask students to research and discuss: Laws of Form DsrP Feedback and Cybernetics Cynefin Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety Social System as BGTE Power as Tetrahedron +++ Emergent Meta Ecology Paradigm