CALL: The Launch Day of Curativity Center
CALL will return to its original focus: Creative Action
Today is a big day for my studio CALL which stands for Creative Action Learning Lab.
In the past three years, CALL has been working on several projects. One of the projects is the Knowledge Curation Project which is an application of my 2019 book Curativity: The Ecological Approach to General Curation Practice.
The Knowledge Curation project has been producing several books (drafts) and a set of tools. It grew to a large knowledge enterprise.
I tended to write articles about Curativity Theory and the Knowledge Curation Project on CALL’s publication on Medium.
Now it’s time to find a new home for the “Curativity” enterprise. This morning, I renamed an old publication on Medium and relaunched it as Curativity Center. See the above screenshot and the link below.
You can also find Curativity Center on Milanote:
I will use the new publication on Medium to share new ideas about Curativity Theory and the Knowledge Curation Project.
The Next Challenge
On May 6, 2022, I shared a model of Building Knowledge Enterprise Activity in a long article. Originally, I developed the following model for the Activity Analysis project. Later, I realized that it can be a general model for building knowledge enterprise activity. The model aims to answer a related question:
How to grow a knowledge enterprise?
The model is inspired by Project-oriented Activity Theory. Each phase refers to a focus. The model also mentions three knowledge frameworks I am working on:
Each knowledge framework could be adapted to support one phase of the Building Knowledge Enterprise (BKE) Activity.
CALL has passed phase I of the model in the past three years. It produced 12 possible books. See the link below.
The next challenge is building knowledge centers which refer to running collaborative projects.
Activity Analysis Center
The Activity Analysis Center has been launched as a demo of the idea of “Knowledge Center”. It is phase II of the Activity U project.
I started the Activity U project on August 19, 2020. Initially, I just made a diagram called “Activity U” which is a test of the “HERO U” framework. I wrote a post to explain the diagram “Activity U”. Later, I expanded the post to a series of articles. Eventually, I edited these articles into two books (draft).
- Activity U: How to Think and Act Like an Activity Theorist (2020)
- Project-oriented Activity Theory (2021)
Based on Project-oriented Activity Theory, I develop the Project Engagement Toolkit which is a project-oriented toolkit for theory-based reflection and study. A significant aspect of the toolkit is it connects the following two theoretical approaches of Activity Theory together and offers a series of tools for practitioners in the age of projectification.
- The Activity System Model (Yrjö Engeström, 1987)
- Activity as Formation of Concept (Andy Blunden, 2010, 2012, 2014)
While Engeström’s model is perfect for dealing with traditional work projects, Blunden’s approach considers collaborative projects as the foundation of social movements and cultural innovation.
By curating the above two approaches together, the toolkit offers a cross-boundary solution for achieving a balance between individual impact and collective impact. In this way, the toolkit could lead us to an innovative way of connecting personal life themes and cultural themes in order to build a sustainable society together.
You can find Project-oriented Activity Theory and other ideas about Activity Theory on the following website.
You can also find the historical development of the Activity U project on Milanote.
You can follow Activity Analysis on Twitter too: @ActivityCALL
Platform Ecology Center
The Platform Ecology Project will be hosted by Platform Ecology Center.
In 2019, I worked on the early version of Platform Ecology and applied some ideas of the Ecological Practice Approach to platform-based social practice.
In 2020, I wrote a book titled Platform-for-Development: The Ecology of Adult Development in the 21st Century.
The Platform-for-Development framework adopts the perspective of adult development. It is one idea of the Platform Ecology project.
In the past few weeks, I returned to the original Platform Ecology project and started working on the Platform Genidentity Framework.
In 2019, I use the concept of Platform Genidentity to describe a process of keeping the uniqueness of a platform within a long-term duration. For example, Google.com (a Search Engine), Wikipedia.org, and YouTube.com, these three websites keep their original core design without major changes.
The Platform Genidentity framework emphasizes the perspective of platform owners. It echoes my experience in digital platform development and design.
- Homepage: PlatformEcology.org
- Twitter: @PlatformEcology
- Linkedin: Platform Ecology
Life Strategy Center
The Life Discovery Project, the AAS (Anticipatory Activity System) project, and the AAS4LT 1:1 life coaching program will be moved to the Life Strategy Center next month.
The above screenshot is the private doc of the Life Strategy Center on Coda.
The Life Strategy Center has developed a series of tools for life development. For example:
- Life Discovery Toolkit (v1.0)
- Life Discovery Canvas (v1.0)
- The Life-as-Project approach
- The Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework
- The AAS4LT 1:1 life coaching program
I am editing a new possible book titled Life Discovery: The Life-as-Project Approach.
The AAS4LT 1:1 life coaching program is based on the Anticipatory Activity System (AAS) framework. LT refers to Life Transitions. The program is both a test of the AAS theoretical framework and a test of a practical service: a 1:1 life development coaching program.
Creative Action Learning Lab (CALL)
Finally, CALL (Creative Action Learning Lab) will return to its focus “Creative Actions” which refers to the Ecological Practice Approach, Lifesystem framework, and Possible Practice.
The new version of CALL will focus on Ecological Practice Design and the Lifesystem Approach. The name of the above book refers to the following keywords:
- Ecological: It refers to the original source of the Ecological Practice Approach approach: Ecological Psychology.
- Practice: It refers to a major theoretical resource of the Ecological Practice Approach: Activity Theory and social practice theories in general.
- Design: It refers to a social practice of making something new creatively.
- Lifesystem: It refers to the Lifesystem Framework.
- Approach: It refers to a knowledge enterprise that contains theoretical concepts, operational concepts, frameworks, methods, etc.
- Everyday Life Innovation: It refers to the innovation of improving the quality of individual daily life.
The above six keywords define the boundary of the new book and the focus of the new version of CALL.
Curativity Center as a Meta-center
For the past three years, CALL was the incubator of the above five knowledge centers. Curativity Center was born from CALL.
Today, CALL and Curativity Theory exchange their positions. In the future, Curativity Center will be the meta-center for building the network of knowledge centers.
Knowledge Curation is the primary project of Curativity Theory. However, it is one of the possible applications of Curativity Theory.
Curativity Center will work on other projects such as Platform Curativity, Startup Curation, Career Curation, Curated Mind, etc.
Curativity Center will support the following four knowledge centers:
- Creative Action Learning Lab (CALL)
- Activity Analysis Center
- Platform Ecology Center
- Life Strategy Center
All the five knowledge centers will be hosted with a set of non-code collaborative digital platforms. In this way, they will be run as collaborative projects.
You are welcome to join Curativity Center or other knowledge centers.
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
