David Ing @daviding@qoto.org
- Coevolving Innovations
- https://coevolving.com/blogs/
- Distractions, Reflections
- https://daviding.com/blog/
- David Ing. In brief
- https://ingbrief.wordpress.com
- Systems Community of Inquiry
- http://stream.syscoi.com
Systems change researcher resident in Toronto, Canada. Past president, International Society for the Systems Sciences. Author of Open Innovation Learning book. Research fellow, CSRP Institute. Alumnus of IBM after 28 years.
Joined Oct 2018
Peer reviewed article on "Rethinking work, with the pandemic disruption: Metatheorizing with world hypotheses and systems changes” with #SusuNousala published in International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, after 2 years in revisions, #RyanArmstrong editor
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/rethinking-work-with-the-pandemic-disruption/
Thinking about #SystemsThinking contribution for March 15, towards October in Toronto.
> The intent-to-submit period for papers closes on March 15, 2025. This is a two-stage process: no new submissions will be accepted after March 15, and final submissions are due by 23:59 GMT on April 30.
https://rsdsymposium.org/call-for-systemic-design-contributions/
Audio recordings + 2 GenAI summaries of Evolving Styles for Learning Systems Thinking at #SystemsThinking Ontario @ocad with #StephenDavies @daviding@daviding.com , moderated by #ZaidKhan
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/evolving-styles-for-learning-systems-thinking/
Types of use of Gen AI cites poster session by IBM Research.
> We describe current LLM usages across three categories: creation, information, and advice.
Michelle Brachman, Amina El-Ashry, Casey Dugan, and Werner Geyer.
2024. How Knowledge Workers Use and Want to Use LLMs in an Enterprise
Context. In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems (CHI EA ’24), May 11–16, 2024, Honolulu, HI, USA. ACM,
New York, NY, USA, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650841
Maybe Gen AI is better for those who trust it the least.
> Specifically, higher confidence in GenAI is associated with less critical thinking, while higher self-confidence is associated with more critical thinking. Qualitatively, GenAI shifts the nature of critical thinking toward information verification, response integration, and task stewardship. Our insights reveal new design challenges and opportunities for developing GenAI tools for knowledge work.
"The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers", Hao-Ping (Hank) Lee, Advait Sarkar, Lev Tankelevitch, et al. | Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems | April 2025 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-critical-thinking-self-reported-reductions-in-cognitive-effort-and-confidence-effects-from-a-survey-of-knowledge-workers/
A retired IBMer goes shopping at Costco in Toronto, Canada:
> Standing in front of a freezer filled with riced cauliflower on Monday, Michael Orr squinted at an $11.49 bag of frozen vegetables. He was trying to decipher, from the tiny print on the bag, whether it had been produced in the United States. He and his wife had agreed before coming to the store that they would adopt a Buy Canadian approach.
> “I’m very angry about the actions the U.S. is taking,” said the otherwise mild-mannered retiree, leaning against the handle of his cart. Mr. Orr had been following the news closely, and U.S. President Donald Trump had not yet announced a pause on his threat of tariffs on Canadian imports.
> Mr. Orr said he doesn’t consider himself anti-American. He worked for IBM – even lived for a time in the U.S.
> “If anything, I’m quite pro-American. But the situation right now, I just find intolerable.”
> In his cart was a two-pound bag of Balzac’s coffee – an Ontario-based company. He’d chosen it over his usual Kirkland brand beans, which are roasted in the U.S. He’d also chosen crackers made in B.C. Melatonin tablets made in Canada. He’s even sworn off his favourite Napa Valley wine for the time being, opting instead for Italian.
> The contradiction of shopping at Costco was not lost on him. It is, of course, an American company, headquartered in Washington State. And, as a symbol, Costco is about as synonymous with the American dream as it gets: a car in every garage – because you need a car to get to Costco – and a (bagged) rotisserie chicken on every table.
> “I did think, ‘Should I be coming here?’ ” Mr. Orr said. But the store, he rationalized, supports Canadian jobs. And many of the products it carries are Canadian.
> (And, as a company, Costco has in fact pushed back against some of Mr. Trump’s policies, doubling down in recent weeks on its commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.)
> Across the concrete warehouse space was evidence of the inextricable links between the two countries – the extent to which the American dream and the Costco dream have also become the Canadian dream. Bags of Tim Hortons coffee. Denim in bulk. Poutine at the snack bar.
"The trade war is running hot in the Costco frozen food section" | Ann Hui | Feb. 5, 2025 in The Globe and Mail
Web video of #OCADU #SFI Understanding Systems week 2 lecture on Systems Approaches. Incorporates doing literature reviews aided by Gen AI. #PatternLanguage #OpenSource #RussellAckoff #EricTrist #SystemsThinking
Web recording of "Generative AI and Inquiring Systems: Ways of Patterning and Ways of Knowing" from #SystemsThinking Ontario. Leisurely dialogue and live challenge demos with ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Mistral LeChat, NotebookLM, Perplexity.
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/gen-ai-inquiring-systems/
Proceedings published for "Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” in CEUR-WS for STPIS 2024. More details than the 15-minute presentation in August.
From the 1982 publication of _Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems_, W. Richard Scott in 2004 reflected back on the history of organizational sociology.
> Before open system ideas, organizational scholars had concentrated on actors (workers, work groups, managers) and processes (motivation, cohesion, control) within organizations. Scant attention was accorded to the environment within which the organization operated.
Scott, W. Richard. "Reflections on a half-century of organizational sociology." Annu. Rev. Sociol. 30, no. 1 (2004): 1-21 at https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.soc.30.012703.110644
For those interested in detailed distinctions between systems approach, systems thinking, General Systems Theory, system science, etc, Aleksandra A. Nikiforova (Lomonosov Moscow State University) started an entry in the Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organization in 2022 that has been revised to 2024.
https://www.isko.org/cyclo/systems .
The International Society for Knowledge Organization is a “scholarly society devoted to the theory and practice of knowledge organization, bringing together professionals from different disciplines such as information science, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science, as well as special domains such as health informatics".
The Future of Life Institute Safety Index is criticized by Mark Daley as too narrow, with an implicit bias disfavoring open sourcing.
> The “Future of Life Institute” released their FLI Safety Index this week. [....]
> By celebrating only those models that impose rigid controls on allowable thought and scorning those that grant the user genuine choice, the FLI Safety Index risks becoming equally a barometer of cultural authoritarianism.
“The future of human thought”, Mark Daley, Dec.14, 2024 at https://noeticengines.substack.com/p/the-future-of-human-thought
In understanding the precursors to the Gunderson and Holling 2001 _Panarchy_ book, it's good to keep in mind that when ecologists refer to "Adaptive Management", the clearer longer label is "Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management".
Holling, C.S. (1979). Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management -- Current Progress and Prospects for the Approach: Summary Report of the First Policy Seminar, 18-21 June 1979. IIASA Collaborative Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: CP-79-009 at https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/1193/
In describing "go energy" and "stop energy", @pahlkadot approaches yang qi and yin qi, in a dyadic processual approach.
> This is a useful nuance as I develop a framework for building state capacity. One of my admittedly obvious and oversimplified tenets is that systems have both “go energy” and “stop energy,” much as a car has a gas pedal and a brake. You wouldn’t drive a car without a brake, but you also wouldn’t drive a car in which the brake was pressed all the time, even when you were trying to accelerate.
https://www.eatingpolicy.com/p/the-trump-appointment-that-could
Web recording of the 125th meeting of #SystemsThinking Ontario: A retrospective, introspective, and prospective discussion about systems convening, in coordination with #RSDSymposium .
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/systems-thinking-ontario-as-systems-convening-st-on-2024-10-21/
In which directions should #SystemsThinking advance? In 1985, Bela H. Banathy promoted engaging into systems inquiry in (i) systems theory, (ii) systems philosophy, and (iii) systems methodology, towards application and competence.
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/systems-theory-systems-philosophy-systems-methodology-banathy-1985/
From late September into October, researchers met for 5 intensive days for #CreativeSystemicResearchPlatformInstitute Banathy Conversation event in Lugano.
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/csrp-institute-2024-banathy-conversation-lugano/
Web video of launch of book "Seeing: A Field Guide to the Patterns and Processes of Nature, Culture, and Consciousness" by #LynnRasmussen. Joined by #LauraCivitello of #MauiInstitute, making Systems Process Theory of #LenTroncale accessible.
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/book-launch-seeing-a-field-guide_rasmussen-civitello/
Web video presentation complementing preprint of "Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms" for International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in IS (STPIS’24)
https://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/reifying-socio-technical-and-socio-ecological-perspectives-for-systems-changes-stpis/
Invited paper to International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in IS (STPIS’24) on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024, https://stpis.org/program/ online to Sweden.
Preprint at https://coevolving.com/commons/2024-08-reifying-socio-technical-socio-ecological-stpis
- Coevolving Innovations
- https://coevolving.com/blogs/
- Distractions, Reflections
- https://daviding.com/blog/
- David Ing. In brief
- https://ingbrief.wordpress.com
- Systems Community of Inquiry
- http://stream.syscoi.com
Systems change researcher resident in Toronto, Canada. Past president, International Society for the Systems Sciences. Author of Open Innovation Learning book. Research fellow, CSRP Institute. Alumnus of IBM after 28 years.
Joined Oct 2018
