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CALL: Annual Review (2020–2021)

Oliver Ding
CALL4
Published in
17 min readOct 31, 2021

When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one,but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either — Leo Burnett

Leo Burnett (1891–1971) is a creative hero who founded an American advertising company in 1935. He is one of my “symbolic mentors” in my early career.

I have over twenty years of work experience which can be divided into three stages: creative stage, strategic stage and innovative stage. At the creative stage, I worked for the advertising and media industry as a creative copywriter and designer.

Though I am not working in the field of advertising now, the above quote still encourages me to work hard in order to achieve a creative life.

CALL stands for Creative Action Learning Lab. I started it as a digital garage on Medium in Oct 2019. You can find the 2019–2020 annual review here: The House of Boundary Innovation.

In the past one year, CALL became a Knowledge Curation Studio which produces a set of knowledge frameworks and builds an ecology of ideas. I also wrote seven books which are drafts. In addition, I worked on four independent research projects in order to test concepts and frameworks.

This is an amazing journey! I’d like to share the story with you.

Contents

1. Appropriating Theory

2. The Knowledge Curation Studio

3. An Ecology of Ideas

3.1 CALL for ECHO → Boundary Innovation
3.2 CALL for LIFE → Creative Life
3.3 CALL for NICE → Creative Action
3.4 CALL for NEST → Part — Whole
3.5 CALL for DEEP → Supportive Development
3.6 CALL for NEXT → Present — Future
3.7 CALL for META → Meta-knowledge

4. Seven Books

4.1 Activity U
4.2 Project-oriented Activity Theory
4.3 Platform for Development
4.4 The ECHO Way
4.5 Themes of Practice
4.6 Career Curation
4.7 Diagram Blending

5. Four Independent Research Projects

5.1 Self-installation Activity and Customer Service
5.2 Once Upon A Whiteboard
5.3 Online Adult Development
5.4 Diagramming and Knowledge Building

6. Opportunity and Hope

1. Appropriating Theory

The mission behind CALL is connecting Theory and Practice.

In 2021, the most significant achievement is the Ecological Practice approach (v3.0). I started the long journey of developing the theoretical approach in Oct 2019. On Sept 30, 2021, I published Lifesystem: Modeling Ice Skating and Other Social Practices which is the final piece of the approach. The theoretical work is done.

I also completed the Activity U project (phase I) with three books:

  • Activity U
  • Project-oriented Activity Theory
  • The Echo Way

Now I can detach from the above two theoretical projects and attach to a new journey of exploring new theories.

  • I started learning Robert Rosen’s Anticipatory System theory by working on the iART Framework in August 2020.
  • I started reading the Austrian philosopher and social phenomenologist Alfred Schutz’s books in August 2020.

I also started working on a new theory about Domain. On July 4, 2021, I finished a 64-page thesis titled The Epistemology of Domain which offers a brand new theory about Domain. This thesis is just a seed.

2. The Knowledge Curation Studio

I have been working in the curation field for over ten years. I was the Chief Information Architect of BagTheWeb which was an early tool for content curation (We launched the site in 2010). This experience inspired me to make a long term commitment to the Curation theme. After having 10 years of various curation-related practical work experiences and theory learning, I coined a term called Curativity and developed it as Curativity Theory.

In the past one year, CALL became a Knowledge Curation Studio. I used the following tools to guide the knowledge curation activity.

  • Theory: Curativity Theory
  • Field: Knowledge Curation
  • Framework: The ECHO Way / The HERO U Framework /…
  • Methods: Diagramming as Thinking / Concept Development /…
  • Canvases: The Echozone Canvas / The Themes of Practice Canvas / The Developmental Project Canvas / …

A core idea of my knowledge curation approach is Cognitive Containers. Books and courses are typical cognitive containers, however, there are more types of cognitive containers. I highlighted six types of cognitive containers in my book Curativity:

  • Knowledge Card
  • Knowledge Framework
  • Knowledge Diagram
  • Knowledge Chart
  • Knowledge Workshop
  • Knowledge Sprint

This is not an accurate classification, but a rough recommendation. Also, I suggested that we not only adopt existing types of cognitive containers, but also create new types of cognitive containers. Actually, this is the essential point of Curativity Theory. We are shaped by containers and we can make containers too.

3. An Ecology of Ideas

I only work on one framework: the Knowledge Curation framework.

However, it is a meta-framework. The purpose of the meta-framework is producing more knowledge frameworks.

Eventually, I developed a set of knowledge frameworks which form an ecology of ideas. In order to visualize this complicated network of ideas, I use Big Dipper as a metaphor to design the following diagram.

Inspired by Howard E. Gruber’s Evolving Systems Approach to the study of Creative Work (1974,1989), I use his idea “Network of Enterprise” to manage my creative work.

According to Gruber, “We use the term enterprise to stand for a group of related projects and activities broadly enough defined so that (1) the enterprise may continue when the creative person finds one path blocked but another open toward the same goal and (2) when success is achieved the enterprise does not come to an end but generates new tasks and projects that continue it.” (1989, p.11)

I sort my frameworks into seven enterprises. Each enterprise has a short nick name.

  • CALL for ECHO → Boundary Innovation
  • CALL for LIFE → Creative Life
  • CALL for NICE → Creative Action
  • CALL for NEST → Part — Whole
  • CALL for DEEP → Supportive Development
  • CALL for NEXT → Present — Future
  • CALL for META → Meta-knowledge

Each enterprise has its primary theme. Each theme refers to a core framework and a set of related concepts, diagrams, and sub-frameworks.

3.1 CALL for ECHO

The ECHO Enterprise refers to the Boundary Innovation theme. The core framework is the ECHO Way. Originally, it was just a diagram called When X Meets Y (WXMY) designed in 2019. In 2020, I adopted the WXMY diagram to develop the HERO U framework for discussing knowledge curation and boundary knowledge work. In 2021, I wrote a book titled The ECHO Way (v1.0) to reflect on my work of connecting Theory and Practice. Later, I upgraded it to v2.0 and expanded it to general boundary innovation.

3.2 CALL for LIFE

The LIFE Enterprise refers to the Creative Life theme. As a serial creator and a lifelong thinker, I am passionate about intellectual development and life reflection. Initially, I was influenced by Chris Argyris’ Action Science and Donald Schön’s Theory in Practice and The Reflective Practitioner. I wrote my first learning autobiography in 2015 and was attracted to biographical studies. You can find more details about this journey here.

In the past one year, I was inspired by Activity Theory, Ecological Psychology, and other psychological theories. Eventually, I developed the Life-as-Activity Framework and related tools.

3.3 CALL for NICE

The NICE Enterprise refers to the Creative Action theme. It offers a “Process as Product” approach to creativity study.

Though I connected this enterprise with the Ecological Practice approach with the concept of “Possible Practice” in 2020, I didn’t figure out the link between it and the LIFE enterprise.

In Aug 2021, I found a solution which could connect it with the LIFE enterprise by building a three-timescale notion of “Moment (Creative Action)— Project (Creative Work) — Life (Creative Life)”.

This is the most important aha moment of my creative work in 2021. It suddenly connected several projects together and formed a new whole. Later, it led to the Life-as-Activity framework (v2.0) and the Creative Work Canvas.

3.4 CALL for NEST

The NEST Enterprise refers to the “Part — Whole” theme. It offers a meta-diagram called the NEST Way which is inspired by Anticipatory System Theory.

The NEST Way offers a structure of hierarchical loops which is adopted to develop “Affordance — Supportance” and “Lifeway — Lifeform” for the Ecological Practice approach.

3.5 CALL for DEEP

The DEEP Enterprise refers to the Supportive Development theme. It focuses on the relationship between adult development and social contexts.

The core of the enterprise is the Platform-for-Development framework which combines my interests on Digital Platforms and Adult Development. I consider Digital Platforms as Developmental Platforms for people. The framework is inspired by Ecological Psychology, Activity Theory, and other theories. From the perspective of Ecological Psychology, Platforms are social environments. From the perspective of Activity Theory, I consider Developmental Projects as Activities.

Moreover, I offered the Infoniche Model as a framework for discussing opportunities from the perspective of the Ecological Practice approach.

3.6 CALL for NEXT

The NEXT Enterprise refers to the “Present — Future” theme. It focuses on anticipatory, performance, and complexity.

I started learning Robert Rosen’s Anticipatory System theory earlier this year. In August 2021, I developed the iART Framework by adopting some ideas from Activity Theory and Anticipatory System theory. The name iART stands for i +Activity + Relationship + Themes. The four key words of the framework are Self, Other, Present, and Future.

The iART project produced several new ideas. A major outcome is Anticipatory Activity System which is perfect for thinking about the complex of “Self, Other, Present and Future.” For example: Sustainable Business Development, Organizational Strategy, Startup Studio or Venture Studio, Technology Choices, Educational Strategy, Family Development, Intimate Relationship, etc.

Strategy is one of my favorite topics. From the perspective of Anticipatory Activity System, Strategy is a process of developing advanced predictive models in order to manage the complexity of anticipation and performance.

3.7 CALL for META

The META Enterprise refers to the Meta-knowledge theme. It focuses on highly abstract, cross-disciplinary, boundaryless theories and other thinking tools.

As mentioned above, one of my major theoretical projects is the Ecological Practice approach which was born from the process of writing Curativity during Sept 2018 to March 2019.

A major development of the Ecological Practice approach is the concept of Supportance. I have been searching for a concept for expanding Ecological Psychology from perception-centered psychological analysis to social practice analysis about two years after I finished the draft of Curativity.

It took about five months to develop the concept of Supportance. The concept of Supportance was born on Oct 27, 2020 after I wrote the Ecological Practice Approach Toolkit on Oct 19, 2020. Later, I had several round private discussions with my friends. On Dec 13, 2020, I published the Platform for Development (P4D) Framework (1.0). I applied the concept of Supportance to develop the framework. This is also a test of the concept of Supportance. From Dec 26, 2020 to Feb 3, 2021, I worked on Project-oriented Activity Theory. I returned to the P4D project on Feb 9, 2021. On Mar 12, 2021, I wrote a long article about the concept of Supportance.

The concept of Supportance means the Ecological Practice approach has transformed from a curated toolkit to an original theoretical framework. This is a major milestone of the approach.

Project-oriented Activity Theory is a by-product of the Activity U project.

Other two major milestones are Themes of Practice and Diagram Blending.

4. Seven Books

The above frameworks and ideas were presented by articles and books. Sometimes, I edit articles and turn them into books. Sometimes, I directly write drafts for books.

The above three books were written in English during August 2020 to March 2021. Activity U and Project-oriented Activity Theory were products of the Activity U project. Platform for Development was part of the Ecological Practice approach.

4.1 Activity U

I started learning Activity Theory in 2014 and started CALL (Creative Action Learning Lab) in 2019. The Activity U project is a case study of the HERO U framework which is based on the WXMY diagram. An interesting thing is that the WXMY diagram was born from my experience of reading papers around a debate between Jim Garrison who is a philosopher and Dewey scholar and Reijo Miettinen who is an Activity theorist and Vygotsky scholar. You can find more details about the Activity U project here.

4.2 Project-oriented Activity Theory

Project-oriented Activity Theory is a by-product of the Activity U project. To be honest, I didn’t know Andy Blunden’s account “An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity”. In order to develop the notion of “Project as a unit of Activity” as a theoretical foundation of the new interdisciplinary theory of Activity, Blunden adopts Hegel’s logic and Vygotsky’s theory about “Unit of Analysis” and “Concept” as theoretical resources. The process is documented in four books: An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity (2010), Concepts: A Critical Approach (2012), Collaborative Projects: An Interdisciplinary Study (2014), and Hegel for Social Movements (2019).

I designed a series of diagrams to introduce Andy Blunden’s theoretical approach and expanded it to a practical framework by connecting Activity Theory and Ecological Psychology. Andy Blunden doesn’t use “Project-oriented Activity Theory” as an official name for his approach. Originally, I used this term to refer to Blunden’s approach. Later I realized the name becomes an issue because my articles present my interpretation of Blunden’s approach. I suggested that we adopt the name to describe the whole account which is initiated by Blunden.

4.3 Platform for Development

The Platform for Development framework refers to an intersection between digital platform and adult development. I have been paying attention to these two domains for over ten years. As a participant of digital platforms, I am both a user, a curator, and a maker. As a participant of adult development, I have founded several non-profit online communities which aim to support life development of university students and young professionals.

As an interdisciplinary concept, the term Developmental Platform refers to a social environment which could strongly support adult development in various ways. I adopted ideas from ecological psychology and developmental psychology to develop the Platform for Development framework. I use the concept Supportance to discuss the relationship between a person and social environments. I also adopted the Infoniche framework to explain the structure of the developmental platform. Both Supportance and Infoniche are core concepts of the Ecological Practice approach.

4.4 The ECHO Way

In April 2021, I reflected on the Activity U project and the HERO U framework. I shared some insights about connecting Theory and Practice with my Chinese friends when I was participating in an online workshop. Later, I wrote The ECHO Way in Chinese. In fact, I planned the book in April 2020 in order to introduce the WXMY framework. However, I stopped the project in May 2020. Later, I expanded the WXMY framework into the HERO U framework in June 2020 and started testing it with the Activity U project in August 2020.

4.5 Themes of Practice

I have read many books about the concept of Themes. I realized this is an interdisciplinary topic. The concept of Themes connects to Mind, Creativity, Action, and Practice. I realized the notion of “Theme” is a great tool for curating experience and actions. In 2019, I developed the idea “Themes of Practice” in order to discuss the “meaning” of the meaningful whole for my book Curativity: The Ecological Approach to Curatorial Practice. The purpose of the concept is to connect “life theme” and “culture theme”.

In April 2021, I started learning Genre Theory. I designed a new diagram for Themes of Practice and shared it on Twitter for discussing Genre Theory. Later, I turned the diagram into a framework. I collected all my writings about Themes of Practice in past years and edited a Table of Content for a possible book. To my surprise, I have written over 440 pages about the idea of “Themes of Practice”.

4.6 Career Curation

On July 4, 2021, I finished a 64-page thesis titled The Epistemology of Domain which offers a brand new theory about Domain. On July 5, 2021, I sent an email to a friend with my draft. The conversation led to a new book Career Curation: Curativity Theory for Personal Innovation. I have written 106 pages for the first draft in Chinese. However, I stopped the project on July 17, 2021. I summarized the core ideas of the draft in The Creative Work Canvas.

  • Diagram Blending: Diagramming, Tacit Knowledge, and Academic Creativity (Nov 2021, English)

4.7 Diagram Blending

Diagram is one of my essential three knowledge units. I love to dwell in thought with diagramming. I even wrote a 108-page thesis which develops a theory about diagrams and diagramming in 2018. The thesis considers two groups of ideas, the first group is “meta-diagram, diagram and diagram system” and the second group is “diagramming as an activity of knowing, theorizing and reflecting”.

In the past several months, I worked on the D as Diagramming project and wrote a series of articles. I’d like to edit a new book titled Diagram Blending.

5. Four Independent Research Projects

In order to test meta-theories and meta-frameworks, I developed the above frameworks. In order to test these frameworks, I also worked on the following independent research projects with diverse methods such as Ecological Observation, Participatory Research, Thematic Analysis, and Theory-based Reflection.

  • A project about Self-installation Activity and Customer Service design.
  • A project about Digital Whiteboard Platforms.
  • A project about an Online Adult Development program.
  • A project about Diagramming and Knowledge Building.

I used the lean approach to manage these projects. Since my primary goal is testing theoretical frameworks, I focused on collecting data and capturing insights, not writing final reports.

5.1 Self-installation Activity and Customer Service

I used the Ecological Observation method to guide this project. In May, I moved to a new house. During the past several months, we bought various new products and services. This new life ecology led to this independent research project. I collected data about my own experience of using products and services and reflected on the self-installation activity and consumer service from perspectives of both a real customer and an independent researcher.

5.2 Once Upon A Whiteboard

I used the Participatory Research approach and other methods to guide this project. This project is designed with a long-term program. The first sub-project of the program is about Milanote which is a digital whiteboard. In April, my friends hosted a two-month program for online discussions about a magazine: The Whole Earth Catalog. The host used Milanote, Wechat, and various Video meeting platforms for the program.

I joined the program as a researcher and collected various types of data such as all Milanote boards under the program, notifications from Milanote, Wechat group messages, and weekly meeting videos.

5.3 Online Adult Development

In June, one of my friends started an online adult development program. As a new product designer and founder, she hosted a monthly peer-support group on several social media platforms. The program aims to adopt the OKRs method and ideas from positive psychology to design a supportive development digital environment for young professional workers.

I applied Ecological Observation, Participatory Research, Thematic Analysis, and Theory-based Reflection to the project. I studied the design of the program and its real performance. I collected data about the program, for example, the weekly meeting videos. The research refers to the developmental process of a project. I used the thematic analysis method to discuss several potential tensions of the program.

5.4 Diagramming and Knowledge Building

The D as Diagramming project was inspired by the above digital whiteboard platforms project. The core of the project is about tacit knowledge and its transformation through diagramming with digital tools and social support from social media platforms. I use three approaches for the project:

  • Reflect on my own works
  • Interview others
  • Collect examples

This method could be considered roughly as a triangular method.

6. Opportunity and Hope

What’s the plan for the year ahead?

CALL has built a network of ideas. The next phase is building a network of projects.

As a one person studio, how can CALL achieve this goal?

The answer leads to a new primary annual theme for CALL: Organization for Opportunity. I have written several posts about this theme in the past three months.

I have introduced the version 2.0 of the Life-as-Activity framework on Sept 10, 2021. As an outcome of diagram blending and knowledge curation, this new framework should be considered as a Knowledge Portal of my ideas because its concepts link to other frameworks.

Some friends asked me what its starting point was. The answer is Opportunity. The concept of Opportunity is inspired by my work the Ecological Practice Approach which is based on Ecological Psychology.

Should I call the Ecological Practice Approach Opportunity Theory?

Opportunity is a general word. There is no general theory about Opportunity. We can find many theories about Opportunity from various disciplines and fields such as entrepreneurial studies. I think it is fine to claim that the Ecological Practice Approach is a theory about Opportunity because the approach takes Possible Practices seriously. The source of Possible Practices are Creative Actions in the daily life world.

The above diagram represents the new annual theme of CALL for the year of 2021 to 2022. The core concepts of the Ecological Practice approach are Affordance, Attachance, Supportance, and Curativity. Since I have written several books about these concepts, the next step is applying these concepts to develop more knowledge frameworks, guide case studies, and curate theory-practice dialogues.

I consider my frameworks as opportunities for other knowledge creators. Thus, the challenge for CALl is searching and finding an approach of organization in order to actualize the above opportunities of knowledge creation for a group of talents.

It’s time to achieve a creative life together!

You are most welcome to connect via the following social platforms:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliverding
Twitter: https://twitter.com/oliverding
Polywork: https://www.polywork.com/oliverding
Boardle: https://www.boardle.io/users/oliver-ding

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License. Please click on the link for details.

Opportunity
Development And Growth
Creativity
Creative Life
Annual Review

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Oliver Ding
CALL4

Written by Oliver Ding

878 Followers
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Founder of CALL(Creative Action Learning Lab), information architect, knowledge curator.

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