Yesterday, I got a visit from Petter Braathen and �yvind Vada from Norway who founded the consultancy company Memetix, (http://www.memetix.se). Memetix teaches organizations to function better by applying various ideas inspired by systems theory and memetics. They basically introduce a collection of 123 simple models or "tools for thought" (memes) that help employees to better conceptualize how their organization functions or could function, allowing them to reduce the discrepancy between the present situation and the situation as they ideally would like it to be.
There seems to be quite some similarity between the Memetix philosophy and the one of ECCO, and therefore we were interested in exploring possibilities for collaboration. At the moment, there seem to be three possibly fruitful areas:
1) Memetix has started a non-profit foundation, using some of their income and subsidies from the Norwegian and/or European institutions, to support people from different countries who would like to make a PhD around the general themes of the Memetix approach, but they lack the academic framework that we can provide.
2) ECCO is interested to expand into some kind of consultancy/training service for organizations, applying our general ideas about the organization of complex systems to practical issues, but we lack business experience and contacts. This is where Memetix can help us.
3) Memetix gathers a lot of data on how the "memes" they introduce into a company take root (or fail to do so), but doesn't really use those data for basic research into memetics and organizational change. This is a subject in which we are interested, so that we could possibly analyse their data to test some of our hypotheses, to a mutual benefit.
These ideas are still very vague at the moment since this was a first contact, but it seems worth exploring them further...
Francis
At 22:34 +0200 4/12/05, Petter Braathen wrote:
My name is Petter Braathen, part of a partnership dedicated to deliver systemic consulting based on memetics, systems theory, evolutionary theory. We have offices in Oslo and Stockholm.
We have also formed an autonomous foundation, the Memetix Foundation where we have different initiatives with research and non-profit activities. We are in the process of setting up a doctoral program for a number of Phd students within this foundation. In this context we were hoping to make contact with relevant networks and entities that have common focus and interest. We are coming to Brussels in the beginning of May, scheduled for a meeting with the EU on the 2nd and 3rd of may. Will it be possible for us to have a meeting with you on either of these dates. We have read your work with great interest, and would be very interested in an open dialouge to explore common areas of focus.
Best regards,
Petter Braathen
--------------------------------- Petter Braathen Memetix AS Sandakerveien 24 C 0473 Oslo
tel: +47 67 59 15 59 Mob: +47 906 53 688 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] IM: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Francis Heylighen Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group Free University of Brussels http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
