Where: Ft. Meyers to New York City to Palo Alto to Dallas to Chicago to Cambridge to Kalamazo to Palo Alto to Geneva to Utrecht to Palo Alto.

At: CAMELOT to the New York ASE, CHP NavCenter to the Palo Alto knOwhere Store to the Dallas, Chicago, Cambridge ASEs to the Borgess Navigation Center (Giovanini Commons 7 Domains Audit) the WEF headquarters (co-facilitate the GLT Summit) to a gathering of the European ASE facilitators and KnowledgeWorkers - then, back to the knOwhere Store for my Birthday Party.

Mission: Building relationships. Success or failure during this period will depend solely on this. It is in this period that we will discover if the ENTERPRISE has accumulated enough critical mass to transform into a true ValueWeb system. What this means in concrete terms is if the last 22 years of work can progress beyond the level of a good experiment and demonstration (something in itself) and move to an organization that has long term legs and investor value.

In other words, this is the beginning of the crunch period of the first real transformation of MG Taylor (et. al.) to a long lasting, 21st Century enterprise that has moved beyond the personality of it’s founders.

This transformation is taking place - along with all the activities associated with it - just as we are moving out of a 9 month slow period associated with the recent economic “slow down.” It is happening in mist of a resurgence of client and partner work. Consequently, I am running at about 140% time utilzation! Fortunately, is a good mix of work: facilitation, teaching, designing, writing, alliance design sessions making losts of travel (that can be a pain but also a sourse of stimulas) and even a few great new product brain-stormes.

Syntopical: Sir James Goldsmith The Trap; Kim Stanley Robinson Escape from Kathmancu; Julia Meech Frank lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan - The Architect’s Other Passion; Edmund Blair Bolles The Ice Finders - How a Poet, A professor and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age; Keith Hart and his memory bank Money in an Unequal World; G. Bruce Knecht The Proving Ground; Peter Hoffmann Tomorrow’s Energy - Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet;

Between now and mid September, I will be involved in a wide variety of activities: the ongoing transformation of the MG Taylor enterprise (of which I have, now, only a minor role); development of an interactive, collaborative leaning “commons” for a Business School; development of the SETI Visitor Center Program; ongoing visits to the various CGEY ASE installations; facilitation (with Gail) of the WEF Global Leaders Conference in Geneva; Facilitating a Taliesin/SFIA design class; starting the Fall semester (at the PA knOwhere Store) of my Architectural Practice Course for SFIA; engaging in a number of dialogs with consulting, business and academic organizations seeking ways to lever each other’s capacities into greater ValueWeb enterprises. In addition to all this, another health care focussed NavCenter seems to be in the making and a totally fascinating project for a multimedia work commons in the NY SOHO district.

All this will require a great deal of travel and time away from Palo Alto - an exercise in the virtual office and verification of why a mobile work environment is necessary.

All this ends up back in Palo Alto and my Birthday party which this year I am going to celebrate with a happening of some kind that “reviews” progress made on a very long term and complex work and social agenda. It seems, some progress is being made.

The exciting thing about periods of convergence is that many “old” ideas and objectives suddenly get re-mixed with new opportunities. All this is in the nature of a harvest. What in the past were separate ideas and projects start to thread together. This is now happening in a variety of ways for me but most notably in the realm of architecture and real estate development. At the same time, new alliances are emerging that provide the leverage and resources necessary for getting the work done. Once started, ValueWeb architectures tend to grow organically keeping themselves in a rough balance between supply and demand. Our business is starting to grow again but in an entirely new way. It is not just the core “business” but the web of activities around it that is going to the next level of expression.

Potential in New York

John McGann is developing several floors of loft in the SoHo for free agents. Many businesses are now incubating there. His vision is to create a multimedia studio and event PLACE where music and art can be created, shared and streamed to the Internet. John combines a background in music, music studio work and computer programming and systems with, now, workplace development. Check out his web site.

Where: Palo Alto to Atlanta to Palo Alto to Atlanta to Geneva to Palo Alto to Kalamazoo to Palo Alto to South Bend to Palo Alto to Hat Creek to Ft Meyers.

At: The Palo Alto knOwhere Store to the CGEY Atlanta ASE to knOwhere to the Atlanta ASE to the World Economic Forum headquarters and back to knOwhere to the Borgess NavCenter to knOwhere to Notre Dame and back to knOwhere. Then to the Hat Creek Radio Telescope facility and the red-eye to CAMELOT.

Mission: Searching for the missing link - what is the “piece” that makes everything transform into the next story... the next idea... the next order? The market is without definition now. It is at pause. There exists no driver - no compelling reason. A good time to reflect. What will emerge from this period? What can be a new business paradigm? Is it still too early?

This June 16th market the end of my 45th year in the workplace. I have been compiling a list of my various architectural projects - this has turned out to be a considerable task that will continue for some time. The work, taken as a whole, however, reveals some interesting things.

Syntopical: Steven Johnson Interface Culture - How Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate; Jim Marrs Rule By Secrecy; Kim Stanley Robinson Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars; Thomas Powers Heisenberg’s War - The Secret History of the German Bomb; Peggy Landers Rao and Jean Mohoney Nature On View - Homes and Gardens Inspired By Japan;

This period’s activities involve trips to the CGEY Atlanta ASE, the headquarters of the World Economic Forum and Borgess NavCenter. After a two and one-half year absence, I am visiting many of the CGEY ASE environments for a few days of “remembering.” Gail and I are working with the WEF on some future events. Members of the SETI Team visited the Palo Alto knOwhere Store to define the criteria for the ATA Visitor Center. Lisa, Todd and I worked at Borgess with Notre Dame who is adapting highly interactive, collaborative processes to their MBA program and other business educational programs. At knOwhere, dialogs with a variety of organizations continued aimed at finding ways for all of us to combine and to share and lever our processes, technologies and market presense into powerful new ValueWeb enterprises. A time of rich experiences - all these activities taken together.

Also, the “feel” of these experiences is substantially different than similar moments in the past. There is a “shift” going on. I cannot say for sure just what it is or how significant or deep it is - however, there is no doubt that many are looking at their work with new eyes and within a new framework. It is also true that many more are still drifting - doing work that has no meaning to them. We see organizations struggling to hold on to what they have yet lacking a vision of what they could be beyond not failing. We see individuals holding a job for only financial reasons. Economics as a cause instead of a means and a result. These are not sufficient reasons to focus work in a knowledge economy. Passion and economics have to go together.