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See Document overview. [See also website for University of Earth (2007)]
The University's finances continue to develop in a healthy manner as indicated in the Financial Report (annex). The main sources of funds, or fund substitutes, are now as follows:
Of necessity most of the financial operations are carried out through intermediaries
and a network of suitable bodies. These operations are very closely supervised by three
independent boards which each raise queries and formulate separate reports (see annex).
Efforts are made to minimize the links between these operations to reduce the risk of
exposure through trace-back. The University avoids financial opportunities which are
contrary to its "good citizen" policy, provided that by so doing its resources
are not actually diminished or otherwise rendered vulnerable.
Budgeting continues to be a domain of extensive experiment. The system is so organized
that alternative budgeting procedures are being used by groups. The search continues
however for more effective ways to ensure budgetary flexibility for the University as a
whole.
The availability of funds to emerging programme initiatives, and the reallocation of funds
between initiatives, are perceived as vital to the dynamism and creativity of the
University. Given the nature of the University however, fund budgeting does not provide an
adequate picture of the use of resources. In fact, of greater significance than the
associated funds, are the human resources expended upon initiatives, as partly indicated
by time. Current budgeting experiments therefore make provision for distinct resource
categories (such as funds or time) without making the conventional assumption that these
can all be expressed in terms of funds. Attention time often proves more valuable than
money.
In one way or another the budgeting experiments tend to pursue the goal of organizational
"controlled spontaneity". This isenvisaged as a condition in which all resources
can be refocused very rapidly onto emerging initiatives, even if only for short periods of
time - without jeopardizing the resources necessary to nourish alternative
responses.
The ideal budgeting solution is not expected to be logically definable. For this reason
budgeting is partly defined as a complex game with many players attempting to optimize
their resource allocations at the expense of others. The conventional "under the
table" practice of budgeting "deals" is incorporated as much as possible
into the dynamics of the game.
The great flexibility in the approach to budgeting is only made possible by the use of
real-time computer systems. These permit a variety of experiments to be conducted
simultaneously, as alternative ways of perceiving the budget picture, without any loss of
control. They also facilitate the dealing process which is essential to budget
gaming.
The main expenditures of the University are detailed in the annex.
It is the information system which provides the necessary continuity between the
shifting patterns of organization. It is therefore vital to the development of the
University. The main features and functions of the information system may be grouped as
follows:
Resource and contract management: As a "conceptual holding company",
there are a multitude of ways in which the University maintains contact with people,
groups and resources which are part of its network. This calls for complex budgeting
techniques which are only really possible with computer assistance.
Programme initiative management: To increase the flexibility with which initiatives
can emerge, and to reduce the administrative burden, special software has been developed.
This reduces considerably the delays in fund reallocation.
Profiles: In contrast with conventional university practice, profiles on
individuals and groups are actively maintained in order to improve the patterns of
communications rather than to evaluate performance secretively. It is in the interests of
all concerned to refine profiles, since it is on the basis of these that other software
channels many of the flows of information, requests and initiative proposals. Profiles
have also acquired a very important symbolic function as a consequence of the de-emphasis
of publication production (see below). In the conventional academic world an individual's
list of books, articles and functions is the basis on which personal advancement is
signalled and decided. This function is integrated here into an active profile which
signals accomplishments and progress. Developing interests and long-term visions may also
be signalled as an invitation for interaction. This approach has also given a more
constructive context for the territorial behaviour and possessiveness frequently
associated with creativity and innovation.
Pathway mapping: At any one time the University's organization is most apparent
from the patterns of information flow. Software has therefore been developed to map such
flows on a short or long-term basis and in greater or lesser detail. These maps are as
much a focus of attention as conventional weather charts. Not only do they indicate how
information is being selectively distributed, they can also be adapted to function as
learning pathways. Careful attention is given to the balance between confidentiality and
openness and how these may be reflected on maps. There are many fragile stages in the
initiation of change when complete openness must be postponed.
Reflection aids: Considerable attention has been given to the ways in which
software can effectively augment individual thinking capacity. Much of this has focused on
ways to help an individual marshal ideas and discover new ways to interrelate them.
Individuals have access to environments in which these processes are facilitated and some
use such facilities during most of their working day. The facilities range from
conventional statistical packages through mental mapping aids, to what are virtually
visual and auditory aids to meditation. Users often adapt the packages to functions with
their own private jargon, coding schemes or visual preferences. Some of the latter are art
forms in their own right.
Knowledge elements: The research approach of the University is organized around the
production and ordering of "knowledge elements". These take the form of short
statements, whether text, equations or occasionally diagrams. The format is designed to
contain whatever is likely to emerge from creative insight into any problem situation.
Such statements may refer to back-up data but any such material is usually stored
separately. The statements are subject to extensive processing by a variety of software
packages. This ensures that they are appropriately related to other knowledge elements and
can be made the focus of critical or supportive comments. The information system is
designed so that individual knowledge elements can be readily revised and drawn into
relationships with new knowledge elements whose emergence they help to render possible.
Since authorship of knowledge elements is usually clearly signalled, authors usually
"register" their insights within hours, if they are not derived while working
with the system directly. Insights may however be held in a working file when premature
release is inappropriate.
Publication: The immediate registration of knowledge elements changes the whole
approach to publications. These are considered secondary to the research process and
unsatisfactory in relationship to the up-to-the-minute status of the pattern of knowledge
elements. It is the latter which are eagerly scanned for stimulus, inspiration and mutual
citation. Publications are usually only produced for physical convenience when the
pencil-and-paper mode is preferred. Even then they bear very little resemblance to
conventional academic papers. For example, preliminary arguments or introductory
explanations are taken verbatim from classic texts, whenever possible minimizing the
amount of new material contextual to the new insights. Suchstandard texts may themselves
be slowly amended in the light of new knowledge, thus making it appropriate for them to be
embodied in learning sequences whenever required.
Non-computer action: There is deep concern within the University at the dependence
on sophisticated information processing initiatives. A variety of activities have emerged
to counter this trend and to explore alternatives. A significant number of people
completely refuse to make direct use of these facilities in their work. Many claim with
justification that the human brain is in many ways superior as a data processing device
and improving its use should be a preferred focus of attention.
Frame-working: Whether using the information facilities or not, considerable
attention is given to the design of "frames" to interrelate knowledge elements.
The ever-present challenge is how to increase the perceived significance of such patterns
of knowledge. There is much interest in frames which hold together elements, seemingly
unrelated to each other, in such a way as to indicate valuable new patterns for
information flow. Considerable use is made of both software and artistic insight in
generating more powerful frames. One aspect of this work is the generation of frames for
problem complexes, especially as a means of drawing attention to subtle
meta-macro-problems whose existence could otherwise not be comprehended. A special feature
of frame-working is the use of dimensions which generate seemingly empty cells suggesting
the existence of problems and phenomena hitherto unsuspected.
Data banks: The University has ready access through data networks to many data
banks. In addition efforts continue to be made to build up data banks on selected topics.
These are detailed in a later section.
Interaction context: A significant proportion of the message exchange between
participants is focused on the knowledge elements and is handled through that system.
Other messages, especially of an administrative nature, can also be handled by an
electronic mail type of service, particularly between distant locations or when it is
difficult to match schedules. When long-distances are involved a variety of techniques are
used to ensure that messages are discreetly carried "piggy-back" through
existing networks, often disguised as other kinds of traffic.
The orientation of the University is such that organization of the work programme into
faculties or subject areas would be a severe handicap. It is the very process of
distinguishing such categories, and rigidifying a structure in accordance with them, which
is called into question by the method of work. The work programme is therefore not
organized in terms of a particular pattern of disciplines or subjects. Nor is the other
favoured approach adopted, namely organization in terms of pre-defined issue problem
areas. Both approaches are seen as having become essentially unfruitful and repetitive in
response to the global problematique and are considered unlikely to engender
significantbreakthroughs. Part of the problem is believed to be inherent in the
organization of the research, irrespective of the substantive content of it.
Care has therefore been taken to de-programme the organization of work. This is viewed as
a way of increasing each participant's sense of responsibility in relation to the intent
of the University as a whole. Participants are not expected to define their work in terms
of an arbitrarily or abstractly pre-defined set of categories and thus avoid the
responsibility of establishing the relevance to the social problematique. A collective
programme too easily shifts the locus of responsibility away from the individual.
Participants are viewed as responsible individuals who are already highly committed to
discovering innovative responses to the problematique which, by definition, are unlikely
to be closely related to any existing pattern of categories.
The work programme is therefore not defined in terms of static macro-categories but in
terms of "initiatives". This carries a deliberately innovative and
action-oriented meaning. An initiative is what one or more participants consider as a
useful direction or mode of exploration. Each participant may be actively involved in many
initiatives, although the degree of interest and contribution to the work of each may vary
considerably. Similarly participants may have a passive interest in many other initiatives
to which they may contribute rarely, if at all.
The method of work encourages the emergence of new initiatives. This process is seen as
very closely related to the creativity of the University environment as a whole, but
especially to advances in an individual's own thinking. If an initiative attracts no
interest from other participants however, it is redefined as a private initiative, later
to be rendered public again or simply eliminated. There is considerable movement of this
kind, with a "morgue" as a final destination for "dormant" or
abandoned initiatives. (The range of initiatives and their position in their probable life
cycles are plotted for convenience on a map bearing some resemblance to the
Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams of stellar evolution.)
The emergence of initiatives is often a direct stimulus to other participants to define a
counter-initiative, namely one which explores an opposing dimension. This process is
viewed very positively as a means of sharpening the critical relationship between
initiatives. Initiatives thus emerge with a variety of complementary, opposing or
supporting relationships to each other. Much effort is devoted to facilitating participant
sensitivity to the balance of the whole pattern of initiatives. For it is from this
sensitivity that the overall significance of the work programme emerges.
The fact that there are several hundred shared initiatives active at any one time in the
University naturally raises the problem of how the whole is to be comprehended if
categorization is avoided. The point is however to avoid a frozen system ofcategories
precluding new understanding of the relationship between the parts. Classification and
reclassification of initiatives does therefore occur and is in fact very active, but in no
way is it permanent. At any one time there may be several classification schemes in use,
and in process of revision, for the full range of initiatives. There may also be radically
different alternative schemes advocated by particular groups of participants. Individuals
frequently develop one or more private schemes to enhance the significance of the whole in
their own terms. Each such scheme will tend to have different advantages for comprehension
of the whole or for highlighting strategic opportunities. They all have an important
function in determining the selective dissemination of information.
It is from these classification schemes that macro-initiatives emerge more or less
temporarily as categories through which the thrust of the University may be grasped. In
contrast to conventional classification schemes however, as much emphasis is placed on the
pattern of relationships of complementarity between categories as on the categories in
isolation. It is these patterns which highlight the need for new initiatives or for the
regrouping of existing ones. But by the same token a new initiative may well call into
question the whole pattern of categories currently favoured.
This degree of flexibility would be virtually impossible to handle within conventional
"top-down" programme budgeting procedures. The main factor making it possible is
that the University works on the principle of funding individuals in the present in
support of their emerging insights. It is the creativity of individuals, rather than
allocation of funds in the past for programmes defined in the past, which defines the
active initiatives at any one time. It is making that creativity possible which is the
main call on funds, however the person is related to the University. Given that the
research is in most cases not technology-intensive, the other principal expenses are
general costs relating to the information processing infrastructure of the work activity
as a whole.
Work on initiatives is monitored primarily to determine how resources are being allocated,
not to predetermine their allocation. Whichever classification scheme is used, a
corresponding resource allocation presentation is available. This is expressed in both
units of attention time and in fund units. The presentation also takes into account the
relationships between categories and the resources allocated to exploring them. Attempts
are being made to refine these presentations. For example, one inspired by geographical
maps, portrays movements of resources between categories in the same manner as river
systems. It is the frequent exposure to such presentations which helps participants to
reallocate their attention time if they detect an unfruitful degree of imbalance. From
them it is fairly apparent at which points constraints must be built into the pattern of
initiatives.
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