Introducing the mycoPLACES Ecosystem
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What if we had a scalable, bio-inspired way to enhance and draw upon the talents of the billions of us who live on this planet?
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Join with us to explore this infrastructure and build it into our communities.
mycoPLACES EcosystemTM INGREDIENTS & FEATURES.
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At MycoMesh, we believe that focusing on the symptoms of people's lack of power has led to tens of thousands of scattered initiatives---each one of which requires infrastructure, resources and energy. Many are critical and need our support. However, in these times, humanity desperately needs a r)evolutionary platform, such as the mycoPLACES Ecosystem, which focuses exclusively on empowerment---from the ground up---not top-down. It trusts that empowered and enabled humans will survive and thrive alongside the other species who inhabit our planet .
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The mycoPLACES EcosystemTM has three core ingredients (mycoPLACE, micoMIXER, and mycoMORPH) and two enabling features (mycoDESIGNERS and mycoCONSTITUTION). Working together, as a bio-inspired infrastructure, they empower and enable people to thrive and they insure that the mycoPLACES Ecosystem itself is sustainable and regenerative.
mycoPLACETM, individual, bio-inspired places and spaces that promote and support localized collaboration and action
MycoMesh collaborates with existing, traditional brick-&-mortar locations and public spaces to layer in an equal-access, bio-inspired, virtual and physical ecosystem.
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Traditional places and spaces become 21st-century mycoPLACEs that support local collaboration, action and, commercial and public interest functions, while enhancing their original identity and purpose.
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mycoMORPHTM, an experiential learning tool set and environment to inform, inspire and guide individuals and groups in making their own decisions
MycoMorph is a piece that is missing from traditional places and gives MycoMesh members (and visitors to a mycoPLACE) a participative, bio-inspired learning environment to improve their connection, collaboration and cooperation skills.
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MycoMorph informs, inspires, and supports individual and collaborative action both inside mycoPLACEs and remotely.
mycoMIXERTM, an app and software platform that will connect, support and scale local efforts, insights and actions into regional and global collaborations
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On the ground, MycoMIXER encourages and supports human connection, and builds trust and action within each mycoPLACE.
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In the cloud, MycoMIXER supports organic, multi-directional connections among local, regional and global collaborators and action-oriented individuals and communities.
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MycoDESIGNERSTM are people who are trained and, in some cases, certified, by MycoMesh to assist individuals or groups who wish to create, or help create, their own local, bio-inspired mycoPLACES Ecosystem.
MycoDESIGNERS are based in, or near, the communities where a mycoPLACES Ecosystem will be built.
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The mycoDESIGNERS component reflects two of our core organizing principles---bottom-up design and operation and self-management. We will supplement, not supplant, local efforts.
MycoCONSTITUTIONTM sets out MycoMesh's core principles, vision, mission and values.
It describes our purpose, our role in the world, and the way we (and our colleagues) operate. It also establishes the basic ground-rules for people to fully participate in the MycoPLACES Ecosystem.
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Not everyone will accept MycoMesh's Constitution and anyone is free not to collaborate with us or to opt-out of full participation in the mycoPLACES Ecosystem.
mycoPLACEs
mycoPLACEs, individual, bio-inspired places and spaces that promote and support localized collaboration and action
Many of us feel the loss of living public spaces---places where we can ‘meet, play, and do’ together. Many of us also feel the sterility of purely commercial places that make consumption their only god. We believe that humans can and must do better in this 21st century.
MycoPLACE re-imagines our threatened built-environment and open spaces, infusing them with bio-inspired design to regenerate the businesses, organizations and communities that live and work there and to empower the people who visit them.
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MycoPLACEs "pop up" like the mushrooms (mycelium) they are designed to emulate. They promote and facilitate intelligent action by anyone who participates in its ecosystem. Each MycoPLACE becomes a local, action-oriented, leaderless, sense-and-respond “node” that includes:
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biologically-inspired interior and exterior features (mycoPLACE)
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a collection of supportive technologies and tools (mycoMIXER)
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a flexible, informal learning environment that respects the diversity and complexity of human goals, personalities, and cultures (mycoMORPH).
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Each mycoPLACE overlays and integrates with the diverse physical venues that host it, be it a café or restaurant or other retail business, a MakerPlace or a library, museum or art center, a college or other academic or research setting, or a neighborhood community center, park or other public space. It is an open-access framework, that is layered over and integrated with existing spaces. Like all parts of the mycoPLACES Ecosystem, mycoPLACEs are based on the deeply-rotted belief in the "power and wisdom of the crowd" when given the right tools and motivation.
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MycoPLACEs provide visitors with the active spaces, tools and learning that are usually available only to the most fortunate among us. MycoPLACEs are not private co-working spaces, nor restricted-access corporate campuses, nor traditional "look-but-don’t touch" museums. Rather places and spaces that use the mycoPLACE framework invite people to become an integral part of the place or space.
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Most importantly, the mycoPLACE framework does not interfere with the purposes of those venues or the people within them. Instead, MycoPLACEs enriches those venues and enhances the individuals who work, manage and own existing venues. They create and add new value for venue stakeholders and the community that surrounds them.
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mycoMIXER
MycoMIXER an app and software platform that will connect, support, and scale local insights and actions into no-boundaries regional and global collaborations. It will organically connect individual mycoPLACEs into an on-the-ground, global network of action-oriented communities-of-interest. Together, mycoPLACEs and mycoMIXER mimic the powerful and time-tested local-global, sense-and-respond action networks used successfully by other living beings.
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Walking into the most beautifully designed spaces while carrying our powerful existing personal technological tools does not insure connection, collaboration or cooperation. In fact, the vast majority of existing spaces and tools often encourage or support isolation---even in the midst of large groups of people. In the MycoMesh ecosystem, MycoMixer encourages and supports human connection and action within a particular mycoPLACE.
Together, mycoPLACEs and mycoMIXER mimic the powerful and time-tested local-global, sense-and-respond action mycelial (mushroom) networks. Our fun, ‘gamified’ platform systematically builds and tests trust between diverse personalities, worldviews, and work styles, while facilitating social interaction among them.
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MycoPLACEs and mycoMIXER transforms the idea of what is "commerce" in traditional brick-and-mortar places and spaces and supports an organic "invention-to-distribution" or "invention-to-market" process.
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Of course, not all users will want to contribute to, or be part of, the mycoPLACES Ecosystem. More importantly, parasites within all species have always tried to penetrate and hijack living networks! The mycoPLACES Ecosystem establishes ground rules, and maintains them the same way nature has for millions of years with immune-system-like and "lock-and-key" strategies.
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mycoMORPH
MycoMORPH is an extensible, hands-on, bio-inspired learning and support environment that informs, inspires, and guides participation and collaborative action. MycoMORPH is designed to guide and inspire its members---enabling them to fully access and benefit from the mycoPLACES Ecosystem.
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The vast majority of existing public places and spaces, and many private ones as well, incorrectly assume that real interaction will occur without a 21st century set of tools, learning and changes in mindset necessary to support interaction and collaboration.
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MycoMorph supplies one of the missing components that gives every visitor to a mycoPLACE a meaningful chance to learn how to connect, collaborate and cooperate. The MycoMORPH toolset that we are identifying, adapting or designing support hands-on, experiential learning that will inform, inspire, and guide individual and collaborative participation and action. It will also support on-going connection, collaboration and cooperation when people depart from a particular mycoPLACE.
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MycoMesh will be crowd-sourcing a range of bio-inspired mycoMORPH tools that complement the in-house tools such as:
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an introduction to the bio-inspired principles of effective collaboration as identified by Dr. Tamsin-Woolley Barker in her new book, Teeming: How Superorganisms Work Together to Build Infinite Wealth on a Finite Planet
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a proven approach for recognizing, respecting and re-framing attitudes toward different personalities and cultural perspectives
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a Free-Agent-EcosystemTM to help people build sustainable, crowd-based collaborative action teams
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a step-by-step framework for assessing commitment and for building trust
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a collection of bio-inspired self-help and crowd-learning tools.
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mycoDESIGNERS
MycoDESIGNERS are people who are trained and, in some cases, certified, by MycoMesh to assist individuals or groups who wish to create their own local, bio-inspired mycoPLACES ECOSYSTEM. MycoDESIGNERS are based in, or near, the communities where a particular mycoPLACES Ecosystem will be built.
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The mycoDESIGNERS component reflects on of our core organizing principles---bottom-up design and operation. We will supplement, not supplant, local efforts. Further, MycoMesh will license, and in some cases donate, core enabling tools for local use.
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MycoDESIGNERS
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The MycoDESIGNERS component was created because MycoMesh principals will not, and could not, travel to each and every mycoPLACE. More importantly, achieving sustainability within the mycoPLACES Ecosystem requires that resources primarily be locally developed and based. Also, the mycoPLACES Ecosystem is designed to encourage, enable and support balanced economic and social benefit---including sustainable commerce. MycoMesh is not anti-commerce.
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We expect MycoDesigners' backgrounds to be as varied as as the communities in which they are based. The primary requirements of MycoDesigners is that they are committed to the MycoMesh Governance principles; have the trust of the community that they work in; and, have experience in one or more aspect of the mycoPLACES Ecosystem.
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MycoMesh Partners
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For similar reasons, MycoMesh definitely will not design, produce and distribute every element of the MycoPLACES Ecosystem. In fact, such a top-down design and delivery approach would be inconsistent with the MycoMesh's guiding principles.
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Instead, MycoMesh is in the process of identifying others who are interested in providing bio-inspired tools, knowledge, connections that would become part of the mycoPLACES Ecosystem.
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MycoDesigners' and Partners' backgrounds can be as varied as the communities in which they are based. The primary requirements are that they are committed to the MycoMesh Governance principles; have the trust of the community that they work in; and, have experience with the tools, knowledge and connections needed in the mycoPLACES Ecosystem.
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mycoCONSTITUTION
The mycoCONSTITUTION sets out MycoMesh's core vision, mission, principles, and values. It describes our purpose, our role in the world, and the way we (and our colleagues) operate. It also establishes the basic ground-rules for people to fully participate in the mycoPLACES Ecosytem and provides the basis for identifying parasitic behavior that threatens the open MycoPLACE environment.
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Of course, not everyone will accept MycoMesh's Constitution and anyone is free to not collaborate with us, or to opt-out of full participation in, the mycoPLACES Ecosystem.
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In addition to MycoMesh's Vision and Mission statements, the mycoCONSTITUTION includes the following core principles and values.
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We will design and support approaches that reflect the following:
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individual and group capacity-building that empowers every person
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meaningful participation in, contribution to, and receiving benefit from the world’s social and economic processes
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access to tools, knowledge and mindsets that can be applied to meeting any challenge, to seizing any opportunity, and to removing any barrier (not just those that focus on symptoms)
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bottom-up approaches that, where feasible, are leaderless and encourage bio-inspired local-regional-global crowd-sourcing, trust-building, collaboration, and action
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regenerating, not just sustaining
- respecting, and learning from, other species in our shared habitat and acting in closer harmony with the other species on planet Earth
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using ecologically sound, bio-inspired tools and solutions
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using the principles of hybrid organization structure (i.e.,approaches that combine social purpose and for-profit)
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respecting and building upon the self-interest of individuals and groups (as long as those interests and actions are not opposed to these core principles and values)
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providing a forum for discussions, comments, etc. that respect these core principles and values.
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The role and importance of Purpose
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Although bio-inspiration permeates everything that MycoMesh does, we can not rely solely on the compelling evolutionary purpose that drives every living thing, i.e., "...nurturing the next generation and ensuring its success" (from our Biological Sciences Advisor, Tamsin Wooley-Barker's new book, Teeming: How Superorganisms Work Together to Build Infinite Wealth on a Finite Planet (and your company can too). In fact, this powerful evolutionary drive doesn't even ensure the success or survival of any particular species---including humans.
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MycoMesh is a human enterprise and we believe in the need for, and power of, a specific human purpose that lives alongside, and complements, this general biological drive. For MycoMesh, that specific purpose is to design a r)evolutionary platform that ​empowers every human being to thrive by ensuring that they:
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gain access to critical tools, knowledge and connections needed to achieve sustainable prosperity and well-being in the 21st-century; and,
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meaningfully participate in society's core social and economic processes.
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Join the mycoPLACES Ecosystem r)evolution
Please join the mycoPLACES Ecosystem r)evolution and help us turn the "wisdom of the crowd" into a powerful, intelligent action network on the ground, in the cloud, and in the mind and spirit of its members.
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Be a part of the network that designs, creates and support thriving 21st-century communities - the ‘pop up’ mushroom fruits of human endeavor - and the next stage of a sustainable, regenerative human evolution.
