I presented an overview of the Commons at the Renaissance Sackville AGM last night to a very attentive and interested crowd. It was a great experience to see the reaction of such a diverse audience and understand what aspects of the Commons resonate with different people.
For the record, here is my presentation, complete with links:
Our Commons
The Commons is an idea that has been evolving over the past two years. During that time, we’ve had discussions throughout our community involving many groups and interested people.
The idea started in 2005, when the Atlantic Wildlife Institute began looking at building office space for its Wildlife Emergency Response Network. It was decided that this should be to be located in Sackville, as AWI had just completed a $400,000 infrastructure project in building its learning centre in Cookville.
The office for the network needed to be in a more visible location, and we thought that an “Environmental Services Center” would be the right concept for outreach and even economic development.
Discussions over the past year with several community groups and individuals changed our understanding of what was really needed in our community. Several non-profit organisations, especially in the environmental and cultural sectors, told us about their need for space. Individuals with home-based businesses or independent artists and artisans also needed space, outside of their homes, as full-time office or studio rental was too expensive an option.
From these conversations emerged the idea of a place to nurture and grow groups that will sustain our community – economically, culturally and environmentally. This is our Commons.
So why is this necessary at this time?
Let’s go back a bit in time. About one hundred years ago, Western society shifted from an agrarian to an industrial economy. This changed the way that most people lived and worked; from following the cycles of the land and the seasons, to punching a time-card.
One invention that contributed to this massive shift was the mechanical tractor, requiring fewer people to farm a piece of land. Prior to the tractor, farms were limited to about 40 acres.
The other innovation was the creation of the road system – allowing workers to commute to the new factories that needed people to operate their machinery and build the new engines of production. This also spurred the development of larger, industrial-size schools.
Sackville was affected by this revolution; with the decline in wooden ship-building and family farming. We also had the creation of the local foundries to hire the local men and attract more people “from away”. The presence of a university helped to buffer some of these changes, providing jobs and contracts.
Today, in 2007, we are witnessing a similar change. The Industrial Age is giving way to the Internet Age, or what some call the Conceptual or Creative Age.
The Internet is changing most aspects of our lives. We are living through the biggest economic transformation in history – from a physical capital economy to one of human creativity.
US and Canadian data show a continuing decrease in manufacturing sector jobs and an increase in creative jobs – these jobs include entertainment, art, science, technology, design, and many others.
Creative work currently accounts for one-third of the US economy, and it is increasing. It’s expected that knowledge or creative workers will outnumber manufacturing workers in North America by 2015 – that’s in eight years.
Today, knowledge is the new currency.
How work is done and how wealth are created are already changing – witnessed by the phenomenal growth of companies like Google, Amazon and eBay. These companies are built on knowledge, not physical capital. For example, the Standard & Poor financial index comprises over 85% intangible, or non-physical, assets.
There are three other factors that are changing how we will be able to create wealth in the Internet Age. These are what Dan Pink calls the 3 A’s:
- Asia – whatever can be done in a cheaper labour market will be outsourced.
- Abundance – in the developed world, we have almost all of our basic needs met and we can buy almost any product; just look at electronics.
- Automation – any work that can be standardized will be automated by computers.
Let’s face it, business as usual, based on industrial age assumptions and management theories, or basically everything we learned in school and at work, won’t work any more.
Let me note emphasize that knowledge work is not information processing.
First of all, knowledge work requires creativity.
Creativity itself is a conversation – a tension – between individuals working on individual problems and the professional communities they belong to. This applies to all knowledge workers, whether they be artists or software engineers.
Strange as it may seem, conversation is the real work of knowledge workers. Because knowledge work is pretty well any work that cannot be standardized, knowledge workers continuously work at the cutting edge of their expertise, growing with their field of practice. But these knowledge workers need to converse with other knowledge workers. For them, it is essential to be members of what are known as communities of practice.
Today, with ubiquitous access to the Internet and knowledge tools, knowledge workers can live anywhere. Research by CEO’s for Cities also shows that environment and culture are the two key factors in attracting and retaining knowledge workers. Knowledge workers first decide where they will live, then what they will do.
That means that for Sackville to be successful in the Internet Age, which will have fully arrived by 2020, we will need to become an attractive community for knowledge workers. If not, who will generate the wealth that we will need to sustain our community?
We should remember that those regions that experienced growth during the early Industrial Age were not the same centres that were thriving during the Agrarian Age. During any period of major economic and technological change, there will be winners and losers.
There is no standard formula for future success in the Internet Age. However, we must start experimenting with ideas that can help us build resilience into our community. We already have strengths in the environmental and cultural sectors, but these various organisations are dispersed and fragmented. There is no way for anyone to quickly understand and connect with all of the environmental and cultural work being done in this community.
We are also missing strong linkages between these two sectors and the business sector. Furthermore, we need to create an Internet Age business sector that works with fundamentally different business rules than any Industrial Age business ever did.
Here are some of the new rules of business:
- As I mentioned, intangible assets have greater value than tangible or real assets.
- For knowledge-intensive businesses, the cost of physical capital is minimal.
- The knowledge that Internet Age workers need is constantly expanding and changing.
- Many successful businesses today are based on fostering communities on the Internet.
- On the Internet, you can make money by giving almost everything away for free.
- Finally and most importantly – Trusted relationships are now our most valuable assets – this harkens back to the days when a person’s word was their bond.
So how can a Commons help us prepare for the Internet Age?
As I said, for a community is to thrive in the Internet Age, it must be attractive to knowledge workers. These workers need to be connected to other knowledge workers so that they can remain creative. They need to have constant access to fresh ideas. One way to attract knowledge workers is to offer the right physical space and connections.
Secondly, most knowledge workers are not traditional salaried employees, they don’t need conventional office space. Many are starting to create their own alternative work and community spaces in cities such as London, Toronto, Kingston, Vancouver and more locally – Charlottetown. Several variants of Commons are being established at this time.
Our Commons will be our place that will help to build trusted relationships. It is a Third Space, being neither a dedicated office nor your home. Individuals will be paying members, but the cost of membership will be much less than renting a dedicated office.
For example, there will be shared space to Work; to Meet & Converse; to Create; and to Learn & Teach.
The Commons will focus on our local area but it will be a node in a network of connected commons. When traveling, members of the Commons will be able to use other commons to build trusted relationships. This reciprocity is already being discussed between various Commons.
At this initial stage, we see the following objectives for our Commons.
- To foster cooperation between entrepreneurs and non-profit organisations.
- To provide space for the increasing number of environmental and cultural organisations in our area who need a more permanent address.
- To reduce the barriers to self-employment.
- To bolster the establishment of a diverse cultural space to attract and retain creative people in the Tantramar region.
- To provide home-based businesses with a place for local networking.
We have developed a business plan that will ensure the operation and financial viability of the the physical premises. We have also spoken with many people in the community who are interested in becoming members. A preferred site has been chosen and we are currently examining our financing options. If all goes well, we may begin construction by the end of the year.
Finally, I’d like to emphasize that real change happens at the local level. We need to take courage and get excited about our future. Perhaps we can think of our Commons as a local garage to tinker with all of these ideas.
So what are we going to do next?
- buy some land
- talk to lots of people about the idea
- build a Commons and sign up members
- pay off bills & pay our taxes & nurture our community
