Cloud Alchemy:
a manifesto for the conscious web citizen
a manifesto for the conscious web citizen
Cloud alchemy is a new form of expression.
Since Peter Russell introduced the idea of the “global brain,” (in 1986 with his video by that name), we have been growing a collective thinking organism, a neural net that exists in “the cloud.”
The neural net is the Internet.
The cloud is where the activity occurs.
The alchemy is you:
What you can do when you recognize value in the work of others, and you use your skills to expose that work to more players. Done well, you are literally orchestrating vital new brain areas – global brain areas.
We might think of it as pushing two clouds together to make a spark. Lightning! A new source of energy. Potential.
What part of the global brain are you?
Activate your area (your community) of the global brain with cloud alchemy.
There is room here for a very great intelligence.
In fact, that is what’s emerging: the collective intelligence
fed by you.
fed by you.
In this manifesto I encourage you to work toward that spark.
Be aware of its potential.
Learn cloud alchemy and participate in the introduction of one brain area to another.
- You are the agent.
- You are the connection.
- You can learn to join thoughts effectively.
- You benefit from the energy of the connection.
What follows is a description of how it works.
How to include yourself in cloud alchemy
1. Recognize that you are the agent.
You are the new idea broker. Include yourself by using a simple blog as your front porch and learn to invite people over. Build a trusting web family.
2. Know that your audience needs YOUR words. You speak their language.
There is no other brain on earth which works exactly like yours. Your unique neural footprint is valuable.
Restate what you learn for your audience. In your words. Your struggles, joys, coffee stains, time constraints.
3. Be intent upon telling the world good things.
While a call to action about a serious situation is a great use of digital communication tools, announcements of positive acts large and small are just as important.
4. Make communication a high priority.
Make this a new habit. Make room for online communication in your day: Carve it in.
Fostering meaningful connections can be easy and quick with today’s tools. Do what you can, when you can. Don’t see it as a big time sink.
5. Help lots of people now.
Think collaboratively and use a reciprocal approach. Then ask yourself: What is the best way I can help the most people, right now? The answer to this question is your north star. Progress steadily towards it.
6. Live up to your promise.
What are you promising your readers when you blog? Revisit, often, the spark that began your online journey. If your perspective shifts, make that known in your material.
7. Meet locally to serve your immediate community the offerings from afar.
Dive deep in the extended community of the web, using technology in the best way you can. Then look down at your feet and the ground that supports you. This is where you walk. Bring some juice back to your neighborhood.
8. Tolerate evolution: Keep adding skills.
Remain open to evolving tools. Learn about them organically through friends and connections. Visit new places on the web, and try to understand what the developers intended. Often the new tools will be better than the familiar ones you’re using. It helps if you keep that collaborative mind out front, and realize that developers are actually collaborating with your brain.
9. Be multi-human.
Understand we still have human bodies, and be inclusively multi-dimensional with multi-media. Learn about accessibility and strive to create it. Humans
want more than text. Use audio and video and deliver your voice, music, and imagery. Be wild-animal creative.
10. Be the bridge.
Offer to create visibility for others. Digital communication is not for everyone. Some people have rich, well-developed offerings the world needs, and it will be up to you to bring them forth to the global community. You will know when you see them. They might not know, but you will. (Ask first.)
11. Be intergenerational.
Venture younger and younger and older and older to make new connections. Older minds + younger minds = cultural depth, vibrance, & prospering. Let the equalizing power of the web do its job.
12. Be sticky. Stay with connections you foster.
Remain in the conversation, assisting recognition between players, as long as it takes for your vision to emerge. Once you connect people or groups or concepts, try to keep loving them. Remember, it's reciprocal.
13. ROI: Be bigger on relationships than on numbers. Build relationships. Big numbers and ROI follow relationships.
Analysis tools are very important but they can't answer every question about your path as a modern communicator. Use your heart. You can focus on numbers so much that your miss the relationships. Relationships lead to meaningful, prosperous numbers. Did I mention relationships?
14. FOCUS. Eliminate distraction.
Focus on the step you’re on right now. Your effectiveness depends upon your ability to work without distraction at least part of every day. Create mental triggers that remind you to carve out time that is free of multi-tasking and random distraction. Develop your FOCUS mind.
Recognize how intensely distracting technology is, and know that you can choose to focus. Make rules for yourself and work by them.
15. Play hard.
Play is the fuel; the super-charging, starbursting powerplant of this cultural evolution.
Play into your creative communication life. If playing has become unfamiliar or less than frequent, begin a new practice today. Relax, and feel friendly toward technology. Start to explore with an invested curiosity.
16. See #14.
Begin today.
Don’t be the unused 70% of the brain!
Be the most lit-up,
joy-endorphin-triggered,
far-reaching
agent of connection
you can possibly be.
joy-endorphin-triggered,
far-reaching
agent of connection
you can possibly be.
STAY CONNECTED.
BRING YOUR FRIENDS.
Cloud Alchemy©
Suzanna B. Stinnett
Sausalito CA/2009.6
Defining notes & a bit of history
Cloud
The “cloud” refers to the entire conversation happening through digital means today. This term’s use is shifting as we find new ways to communicate within and about modern media.
Cloud
The term “cloud” is an industry term for the complex hidden infrastructure of the Internet. (Paraphrasing Wiki.)
Cloudonomics (a serious thing)
Joe Weinman and Cloudonomics:
Cloud Computing
Basically, those web-based tools you use, served by a diverse web of physical resources instead of just one server.
Expect other variations on the cloud metaphor. Clouds easily carry many forms of meaning, while retaining their special cloud-nature.
