❤️ Sociocracy 🐭

"Sociocracy, also called dynamic governance, is a system of governance which seeks to create harmonious social environments and productive organizations. It is distinguished by the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in decision-making, and of discussion by people who know each other. The Sociocratic Circle-Organization Method (SCM) was developed in the Netherlands by electrical engineer and entrepreneur Gerard Endenburg and is based on the work of peace activists and educators Betty Cadbury and Kees Boeke and is a recent instantiation of the approach. Origins The word 'sociocracy' is derived from the Latin socius meaning companions, colleagues, or associates; and cratia which refers to the ruling class, as in aristocracy, plutocracy, democracy, and meritocracy. It was coined in 1851 by French philosopher Auguste Comte, as a parallel to sociology, the science that studies how people organize themselves into social systems. Comte believed that a government led by sociologists would use scientific methods to meet the needs of all the people, not just the ruling class. American sociologist Lester Frank Ward in an 1881 paper for the Penn Monthly was an active advocate of a sociocracy to replace the political competition created by majority vote. Ward expanded his concept of sociocracy in Dynamic Sociology (1883) and The Psychic Factors of Civilization (1892). Ward believed that a well educated public was essential for effective government, and foresaw a time when the emotional and partisan nature of contemporary politics would yield to a more effective, dispassionate, and scientific discussion of issues and problems. Democracy would thus eventually evolve into a more advanced form of government, sociocracy. 20th century The Dutch pacifist, educator, and peace worker Kees Boeke and his wife, English peace activist Beatrice Cadbury, updated and expanded Ward's ideas in the mid-20th century by implementing the first sociocratic organizational structure in a school in Bilthoven, Netherlands. The school still exists: the Children's Community Workshop (Werkplaats Kindergemeenschap). Boeke saw sociocracy (in Dutch: Sociocratie) as a form of governance or management that presumes equality of individuals and is based on consensus. This equality is not expressed with the 'one man, one vote' law of democracy but rather by a group of individuals reasoning together until a decision is reached that is satisfactory to each one of them. To make sociocratic ideals operational, Boeke used consensus decision-making based on the practices of the Quakers, which he described as one of the first sociocratic organizations. Another is his school of approximately 400 students and teachers in which decisions were made by everyone working together in weekly "talkovers" to find a mutually acceptable solution. The individuals in each group would then agree to abide by the decision. "Only when common agreement is reached can any action be taken, quite a different atmosphere is created from that arising from majority rule." Boeke defined three "fundamental rules": (1) That the interests of all members must be considered and the individual must respect the interests of the whole. (2) No action could be taken without a solution that everyone could accept, and (3) all members must accept these decisions when unanimously made. If a group could not make a decision, the decision would be made by a "higher level" of representatives chosen by each group. The size of a decision-making group should be limited to 40 with smaller committees of 5-6 making "detailed decisions". For larger groups, a structure of representatives is chosen by these groups to make decisions. This model placed a high importance on the role of trust. For the process to be effective, members of each group must trust each other, and it is claimed that this trust will be built over time as long as this method of decision-making is used. When applied to civic governance, people "would be forced to take an interest in those who live close by". Only when people had learned to apply this method in their neighborhoods could the next higher level of sociocratic governance be established. Eventually representatives would be elected from the highest local levels to establish a "World Meeting to govern and order the world." "Everything depends on a new spirit breaking through among men. May it be that, after the many centuries of fear, suspicion and hate, more and more a spirit of reconciliation and mutual trust will spread abroad. The constant practice of the art of sociocracy and of the education necessary for it seem to be the best way in which to further this spirit, upon which the real solution of all world problems depends." In contemporary practice In the late 1960s and early 1970s Gerard Endenburg, an electrical engineer and former student of Boeke's, further developed and applied Boeke's principles in the electrical engineering company he first managed for his parents and then owned. Endenburg wanted to replicate in a business environment the atmosphere of cooperation and harmony he had experienced in the Boekes school. He also recognized that in industrial production with a diverse and changing workforce, he could not wait for workers to trust each other before they could make decisions. To solve this problem, Endenburg worked by analogy to integrate his understanding of physics, cybernetics, and systems thinking to further develop the social, political, and educational theories of Comte, Ward, and Boeke. After years of experimentation and application, Endenburg developed a formal organizational method called the Sociocratic Circle Organizing Method (Sociocratische Kringorganisatie Methode). It was based on a "circular causal feedback process", now commonly called the circular process and feedback loops. The method uses a hierarchy of circles corresponding to units or departments of an organization, but it is a circular hierarchy—the links between each circle combine to form feedback loops up and down the organization. All policy decisions, those about allocation of resources and that constrain operational decisions, require the consent of all members of a circle. Day-to-day operational decisions are made by the operations leader within the policies established in circle meetings. Policy decisions affecting more than one circle's domain are made by a higher circle formed by representatives from each circle. This structure of linked circles that make decisions by consent maintains the efficiency of a hierarchy while preserving the equivalence of the circles and their members. Endenburg began testing and modifying his application of Boeke's principles in the mid-1960s. By the mid-1970s, he began consulting with other businesses to apply his methods, and eventually began working with all kinds of organizations. In the 1980s, Endenburg and his colleague Annewiek Reijmer founded the Sociocratisch Centrum (Sociocratic Center) in Rotterdam, and began helping other organizations in the Netherlands to adopt the approach. = Essential principles = Endenburg's policy decision-making method was originally published as being based on four essential principles, all in order to emphasize that the process of selecting people for roles and responsibilities was likewise subject to the consent process. As explained below, however, it is now taught through the method of three principles, as Endenburg had originally developed: Consent governs policy decision making (principle 1) Decisions are made when there are no remaining "paramount objections", that is, when there is informed consent from all participants. Objections must be reasoned and argued and based on the ability of the objector to work productively toward the goals of the organization. All policy decisions are made by consent, although the group may consent to use another decision-making method. Within these policies, day-to-day operational decisions are normally made in the traditional way. Generally, objections are highly valued to hear every stakeholder's concern. This process is sometimes called "objection harvesting". It is emphasized that focusing on objections first leads to more efficient decision making. Organizing in circles (principle 2) The sociocratic organization is composed of a hierarchy of semi-autonomous circles. This hierarchy, however, does not constitute a power structure as autocratic hierarchies do, instead resembling a horizontal association, since the domain of each circle is strictly bounded by a group decision. Each circle has the responsibility to execute, measure, and control its own processes in achieving its goals. It governs a specific domain of responsibility within the policies of the larger organization. Circles are also responsible for their own development and for each member's development. Often called "integral education," the circle and its members are expected to determine what they need to know to remain competitive in their field and to reach the goals of their circle. Double-linking (principle 3) Individuals acting as links function as full members in the decision-making of both their own circles and the next higher circle. A circle's operational leader is by definition a member of the next higher circle and represents the larger organization in the decision-making of the circle they lead. Each circle also elects a representative to represent the circles' interests in the next higher circle. These links form a feedback loop between circles. At the highest level of the organization, there is a “top circle”, analogous to a board of directors, except that it works within the policies of the circle structure rather than ruling over it. The members of the top circle include external experts that connect the organization to its environment. Typically these members have expertise in law, government, finance, community, and the organization's mission. In a corporation, it might also include a representative selected by the shareholders. The top circle also includes the CEO and at least one representative of the general management circle. Each of these circle members participates fully in decision-making in the top circle. Elections by consent (principle 4) This fourth principle extends principle 1. Individuals are elected to roles and responsibilities in open discussion using the same consent criteria used for other policy decisions. Members of the circle nominate themselves or other members of the circle and present reasons for their choice. After discussion, people can (and often do) change their nominations, and the discussion leader will suggest the election of the person for whom there are the strongest arguments. Circle members may object and there is further discussion. For a role that many people might fill, this discussion may continue for several rounds. When fewer people are qualified for the task, this process will quickly converge. The circle may also decide to choose someone who is not a current member of the circle. The "three principles" In the first formulations of the Sociocratic Circle-Organizing Method, Endenburg had three principles and regarded the fourth, elections by consent, not as a separate principle but as a method for making decisions by consent when there are several choices. He considered it part of the first principle, consent governs policy decisions, but many people misunderstood that elections of people to roles and responsibilities are allocations of resources and thus policy decisions. To emphasize the importance of making these decisions by consent in the circle meetings, Endenburg separated it into a fourth principle. Consent vs. consensus Sociocracy makes a distinction between "consent" and "consensus" in order to emphasize that circle decisions are not expected to produce "a consensus". It does not mean agreement or solidarity. In sociocracy consent is defined as "no objections", and objections are based on one's ability to work toward the aims of the organization. Members discussing an idea in consent based-governance commonly ask themselves if it is "good enough for now, safe enough to try". If not, then there is an objection, which leads to a search for an acceptable adaptation of the original proposal to gain consent. Sociocratisch Centrum co- founder Reijmer has summarized the difference as follows: "By consensus, I must convince you that I am in the right; by consent, you ask whether you can live with the decision". =Interdependence and transparency= The principles are interdependent and the application of all of them is required for an organization to function sociocratically. Each one supports the successful application of the others. The principles also require transparency in the organization. Since decision-making is distributed throughout the organization, all members of the organization must have access to information. The only exception to this is proprietary knowledge and any information that would jeopardize the security of the organization or its clients. All financial transactions and policy decisions are transparent to members of the organization and to the organization's clients. In addition to the principles, sociocratic organizations apply the circular feedback process of directing- doing-measuring to the design of work processes, and in business organizations, compensation is based on a market rate salary plus long-term and short-term payments based on the success of the circle. The operational practices of sociocratic organizations are compatible with the best practices of contemporary management theory. See also * Consensus democracy * Collaborative e-democracy * Collective intelligence * Consensus decision- making * Cooperative * Direct democracy * Double linking * Heterarchy * Holacracy * Inclusive democracy * Libertarian socialism * Mature minor doctrine * Open-source governance * Polycentric law * Scientocracy * Self- governance * Strategy Markup Language * Subsidiarity * Systems thinking References Sources * * External links Category:Cybernetics Category:Forms of government Category:Organization design Category:Types of democracy "

❤️ Gold (Starflyer 59 album) 🐭

"Gold is the second album by Starflyer 59. It was originally released in 1995. In 2005, it was reissued with five bonus tracks from the band's Goodbyes Are Sad 7 inch single and Le Vainqueur EP. As with Silver, the title of their second album matches the color of the album's cover. Track listing All songs written by Jason Martin. Personnel *Jason Martin – vocals, guitar, drums *Andrew Larson – bass guitar *Wayne Everett – vocal producing, backing vocals and drums on "When You feel Miserable" *Ed Giles Benrock – drums on "Stop Wasting Your Life", "Messed Up Over You" and "When You Feel the Mess" *Gene Eugene – hammond organ on "Messed Up Over You" References Category:1995 albums Category:Starflyer 59 albums Category:Tooth & Nail Records albums "

❤️ Color organ 🐭

"The term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical devices built to represent sound and accompany music in a visual medium. The earliest created color organs were manual instruments based on the harpsichord design. By the 1900s they were electromechanical. In the early 20th century, a silent color organ tradition (Lumia) developed. In the 1960s and '70s, the term "color organ" became popularly associated with electronic devices that responded to their music inputs with light shows. The term "light organ" is increasingly being used for these devices; allowing "color organ" to reassume its original meaning. History of the concept In 1590, Gregorio Comanini described an invention by the Mannerist painter Arcimboldo of a system for creating color- music, based on apparent luminosity (light-dark contrast) instead of hue. In 1725, French Jesuit monk Louis Bertrand Castel proposed the idea of Clavecin pour les yeux (Ocular Harpsichord). In the 1740s, German composer Telemann went to France to see it, composed some pieces for it and wrote a book about it. It had 60 small colored glass panes, each with a curtain that opened when a key was struck. In about 1742, Castel proposed the clavecin oculaire (a light organ) as an instrument to produce both sound and the 'proper' light colors. A caricature of Louis-Bertrand Castel's "ocular organ" by Charles Germain de Saint Aubin In 1743, Johann Gottlob Krüger, a professor at the University of Hall, proposed his own version of the ocular harpsichord. In 1816, Sir David Brewster proposed the Kaleidoscope as a form of visual-music that became immediately popular. In 1877, US artist, inventor Bainbridge Bishop gets a patent for his first Color Organ.US patent #186298 The instruments were lighted attachments designed for pipe organs that could project colored lights onto a screen in synchronization with musical performance. Bishop built three of the instruments; each was destroyed in a fire, including one in the home of P. T. Barnum.Bainbridge Bishop, A Souvenir of the Color Organ, with Some Suggestions in Regard to the Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light. 1893 pamphlet In 1893, British painter Alexander Wallace Rimington invented the Clavier à lumières.Rimington, Alexander Wallace, Colour-Music The Art Of Mobile Colour. Hutchinson, London, 1912 Rimington's Colour Organ attracted much attention, including that of Richard Wagner and Sir George Grove. It has been incorrectly claimed that his device formed the basis of the moving lights that accompanied the New York City premiere of Alexander Scriabin's synaesthetic symphony Prometheus: The Poem of Fire in 1915. The instrument that accompanied that premiere was lighting engineer Preston S. Millar's chromola, which was similar to Rimington's instrument. In a 1916 art manifesto, the Italian Futurists Arnaldo Ginna and Bruno Corra described their experiments with "color organ" projection in 1909. They also painted nine abstract films, now lost. In 1916, the Russian Futurist Painter Vladimir Baranoff Rossiné premiered the Optophonic Piano at his one- man exhibition in Kristiana (Oslo, Norway). In 1918, American concert pianist Mary Hallock-Greenewalt created an instrument she called the Sarabet. Also an inventor, she patented nine inventions related to her instrument, including the rheostat. In 1921, Arthur C. Vinageras proposed the Chromopiano, an instrument resembling and played like a grand piano, but designed to project "chords" composed from colored lights. In the 1920s, Danish-born Thomas Wilfred created the Clavilux, a color organ, ultimately patenting seven versions. By 1930, he had produced 16 "Home Clavilux" units. Glass disks bearing art were sold with these "Clavilux Juniors." Wilfred coined the word lumia to describe the art. Significantly, Wilfred's instruments were designed to project colored imagery, not just fields of colored light as with earlier instruments. In 1925, Hungarian composer Alexander Laszlo wrote a text called Color-Light-Music ; Laszlo toured Europe with a color organ. In Hamburg, Germany from the late 1920s–early 1930s, several color organs were demonstrated at a series of Colour-Sound Congresses (German:Kongreß für Farbe- Ton-Forschung).Farbe-Ton-Forschungen. III. Band. Bericht über den II. Kongreß für Farbe-Ton-Forschung (Hamburg 1. - 5. Oktober 1930). Published 1931. Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack performed his Farbenlichtspiel colour organ at these congresses and at several other festivals and events in Germany. He had developed this color organ at the Bauhaus school in Weimar, with Kurt Schwerdtfeger. The 1939 London Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition featured a "72-way Light Console and Compton Organ for Colour Music", as well as a 70 feet, 230 kW "Kaleidakon" tower. From 1935–77, Charles Dockum built a series of Mobilcolor Projectors, his versions of silent color organs. In the late 1940s, Oskar Fischinger created the Lumigraph that produced imagery by pressing objects/hands into a rubberized screen that would protrude into colored light. The imagery of this device was manually generated, and was performed with various accompanying music. It required two people to operate: one to make changes to colors, the other to manipulate the screen. Fischinger performed the Lumigraph in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the late 1940s through early 1950s. The Lumigraph was licensed by the producers of the 1964 sci-fi film, The Time Travelers. The Lumigraph does not have a keyboard, and does not generate music. In 2000, Jack Ox and David Britton created "The Virtual Color Organ." The 21st Century Virtual Reality Color Organ is a computational system for translating musical compositions into visual performance. It uses supercomputing power to produce 3D visual images and sound from Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) files and can play a variety of compositions. Performances take place in interactive, immersive, virtual reality environments such as the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE), VisionDome, or Immersadesk. Because it's a 3D immersive world, the Color Organ is also a place—that is, a performance space.Ox, Jack, & Britton, Dave. (2000). The 21st Century Virtual Reality Color Organ. IEEE MultiMedia, Journal of IEEE Computer Society, 7(3), pp. 2–5. Further study California Institute of the Arts scholar William Moritz has documented color organs as a form of visual music, particularly as a precursor to visual music cinema. His papers and original research are in the collection of the Center for Visual Music in Los Angeles, which also has other historical color organ papers and resources. See also * Cymatics * Visual music * Laser harp * AudioCube – an electronic device capable of controlling as well visualizing sound and music through built in full colour RGB lighting * New Epoch Notation Painting * Light organ – an electronic device which automatically converts an audio signal into rhythmic light effects, which was popular in 1970s discotheques. * Jack Ox and David Britton's Virtual Color Organ – a computational system for translating musical compositions into visual performance. References ;Citations ;Bibliography * Thomas Wilfred's Clavilux. [Borgo Press, 2006] * Michael Betancourt, Mary Hallock-Greenewalt: The Complete Patents. [Wildside Press, 2005] * Michael Betancourt, Visual Music Instrument Patents Volume 1. [Borgo Press, 2004] * * Kenneth Peacock, "Instruments to Perform Color-Music: Two Centuries of Technological Exploration." [Leonardo, Vol. 21, No.4, 1988, pp. 397–406] * Tonino Tornitore, "Giuseppe Arcimboldi E Il Suo Presunto Clavicembalo Oculare." [Revue des Etudes Italiennes, Vol. 31, No. 1–4, 1985, pp. 58–77] * Austin B. Caswell, The Pythagoreanism of Arcimboldo. [The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 39, No. 2, Winter 1980, pp. 155–161] * Gregorio Comanini, "Il Figino, overo del fine della pittura." [Trattati D'Arte Del Cinquecento: Fra Manerismo E Controrifroma, Volume Terzo Giuseppe Laterza & Figli, 1962, pp. 238–379] * Klein, Adrian Bernard, 'Coloured Light An Art Medium' 3rd ed. The Technical Press, London, 1937 * Ox, Jack, & Britton, Dave. (2000). The 21st Century Virtual Reality Color Organ. IEEE MultiMedia, Journal of IEEE Computer Society, 7(3), pp. 2–5. * Ox, Jack. (2001). 2 Performances in the 21st Century Virtual Organ: Gridjam and Im Januar am Nil. Paper presented at the Seventh International Conference on Virtual Systems and MultiMedia: Enhance realities: Augmented and Unplugged, Center for Design Visualization, UC Berkeley. * Ox, Jack. (2002). The Color Organ and Collaboration. In L. Candy & E. A. Edmonds (Eds.), Explorations in Art and Technology (pp. 211–218, 302). London, UK: Springer. * Ox, Jack. (2002). Keynote speaker; Two Performances in the 21st Century Virtual Color Organ. Paper presented at the Creativity and Cognition, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK. * Ox, Jack. (2005). Gridjam. Paper presented at the Creativity and Cognition 2005, London, UK. External links * Visual Music and Early Colour organs. * Rhythmic Light Extensive timeline, history & bibliography * Light and the Artist 1947 Thomas Wilfed text (PDF) * Gridjam in the Virtual Color Organ * Category:Visual music "