At Reboot a few of the best talks circled around the conference theme of FREE by talking about the individual freedom. And they are right in saying that the level of freedom we enjoy in western societies today are important: they give us opportunity to create value and thus add to our societies, they allow us to express our opinions in direct opposition to the institutions of power, they safe guard us against crimes etc. etc.
Furthermore they are also right when they say that the extreme level of freedom that we enjoy on-line, where we can create, share and rearrange information freely might very well be good model for how we should deal with problems in organizations, in politics and so on.
The individual freedom is a cornerstone of the society we live in the western world, and which billions strive for in the rest of the world.
So why talk about collectivity and why design interfaces, services product for the collective user?
It’s a simple and yet complex question.
Complex answer part one:
Collectivity and collective intelligence sounds to some as the system talking over control with the free individual. Based on experiences of oppressive political or corporate structures, surely communism or raging capitalism is the opposite of freedom. Within such perspective the skepticism is valid.
But we have to look at collectivity in at least two ways: in this first way collectivity contains and constrains the individual, but in a second perspective collectivity is that which builds on the free individual and goes beyond the free individual.
The simple answer to the previous question is that the experience of radical freedom one can have when participating in a well-tuned collective is freedom beyond the individual. If you have ever experienced or participated in a successful brainstorm or ideation process, you might know what I mean. This type of collectivity is not only powerful but also explosive with evolutionary potential - the stuff that points to solutions that brings us forward as a whole…
Complex answer part two:
It all has to do with structures of consciousness. And one day I will be clever enough to explain what that means in a blog post.