Worldchanging has a very interesting post on megacommunities where it considers the implications put forth from the Megacommunity Manifesto along with complex adaptive communities:
'The concept of "megacommunity" is another way to perceive "power to the edges" thinking about emergent organization and leadership. Megacommunities are large multi-organizational systems that are oriented to multilateral action. The megacommunity approach acknowledges that no single organization or entity can make the decisions required by today's complex social and infrastructural systems. The challenges facing community leaders are based on "complexity: the growing density of linkages among people, organizations, and issues all across the world," according to the authors of "The Megacommunity Manifesto."
Because people communicate so easily across national and organizational boundaries, the conventional managerial decision-making style — in which a boss exercises decision rights or delegates them to subordinates — is no longer adequate. Solutions require multi-organizational systems that are larger and more oriented to multilateral action than conventional cross-sector approaches are. In such systems, the most successful leaders are not those with the best technical solutions, the most compelling vision, or the most commanding and charismatic style. The “winners” are those who understand how to intervene and influence others in a larger system that they do not control. We call this type of larger system a “megacommunity.”...
...This is just the kind of thinking that drives the Megacommunity Manifesto. Pollard's been influenced by Hugh Brody's study of indigenous cultures, The Other Side of Eden. Pollard notes that these indigenous cultures are "profoundly complex-adaptive." I.e. rather than attempt to dominate the environment, they adapted themselves to its demands and became an integral part of it.'
This post and The Megacommunity Manifesto is worth a read.
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