UBUNTU … and how the Power of the Crowd is Transforming the

Shape of Business

Presentation by Ian Falcon Bentleyto the

5th South African Innovation Summit

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert von Szent-Gyorgy

Challenges

• Classic “Capitalism” has been manipulated and twisted to serve only the needs of the corporate sector;

• The playing field is NOT level … the small entrepreneur is NOT free to enterprise;

• Disruptive Innovation threatens the status quo … countless initiatives are ‘nipped in the bud’ by corporations and other major players.

Shifting Paradigms

Wikispeed is an amazing automobile developed by Joe Justice’s team that achieves 100 Km on a mere 1.5 litres of fuel.

Like Wikispeed … SENSORICA shakes the very foundations of conventionality. The tenets of Commons-based peer production are open knowledge and standards, transparent processes and low barriers to entry.

SENSORICA is an open value network … an expanding collaborative enterprise designed for a rapidly changing environment on the cutting edge of the New Economy.

http://www.sensorica.co/home

SENSORICA and CAPRICORN

• SENSORICA is a VALUE NETWORK … committed to the design and deployment of intelligent, open sensors and sensemaking systems, which allow our communities to optimize interactions with our physical environment and realize our full human potential.

• CAPRICORN is an independent project under the SENSORICA umbrella, embracing all the amazing system T!b! and the Team have developed … the architecture of the collaboration economy

SENSORICA’s Systems

• The open and decentralized Communication Infrastructure allows free exchange of information both within the SENSORICA network and with the global environment.

• The Value Accounting and Exchange System allows value to flow freely among contributing members and between the network and the environment … including the market.

• The contribution-based Reward Mechanism redistributes revenues according to the contributor’s value-add.

• Peer Evaluation monitors and motivates progress.

The Mosquito

An optical fiber-based force/displacement sensor device.

The Mosquito is a miniature ultra-precise force sensor, used by researchers in biology and physiology. It allows tactile sensing of living cells to determine the effects of experimental treatments, or to determine if cells are healthy. The Mosquito is used in research on muscles, on cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive diseases, as well as on cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases. The Mosquito, currently being tested in two hospitals in Montreal, will be distributed worldwide. It is the first member of a future lineage of displacement and force measuring devices.

Populating OUR Crowd

• Great ideas have no value until they are implemented;• For us the Visionaries and Innovators are far more

critical to success than the conventional experts and implementers;

• We harnesses the connective power of social networking … using Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn to connect to the ‘like-minded’ on a global scale

• We precision-target and hone in on OUR Crowd, engaging them and making strategic connections ... through a broad spread of related groups across these platforms.

Exploring solutions

NEEDED: An ALTERNATIVE business environment … offering DIFFERENT incentives to stimulate SUSTAINABLE solutions to the pressing problems of the world;COLLABORATION is the emerging new economic paradigm: cooperation instead of competition, distributing wealth instead of concentrating it. … in essence, the ancient African ethos of UBUNTU.

UBUNTU-nomics

An alternative free-enterprise entrepreneurship model that is neither CAPITALIST or SOCIALIST-

based

… but “COLLABORATIONIST”

UBUNTU … “I AM because we ARE”

What is UBUNTU?

“Your pain is my pain, your prosperity is my prosperity, your salvation is my salvation”.

• UBUNTU builds ‘community’ through compassion, reciprocity, dignity, harmony, and humanity … helping one another overcome our challenges and hardships together;

• UBUNTU encourages participation, consensual decision and the development of a common vision acceptable to all who are involved.

• UBUNTU asks us to consider the individual in RELATION to the rest of creation ... our interconnectedness, our common humanity and our shared wisdom and know-how.

UBUNTU and CAPRICORN

At CAPRICORN, we believe that UBUNTU offers us the philosophical basis for a collaborative entrepreneurial model rooted deep in the indigenous African tradition …

• A collaborative enterprise designed for a rapidly changing environment and tuned to the know-how economy;

• an open, decentralized, and self-organizing value network ... a living, evolving organism rather than a static, unresponsive monolith.

Water … our CAUSEWater is finite resource and supply is shrinking at an alarming rate. Expert opinion says that South Africa will be reduced to just 30% of currently available resources by 2025.

• A prime cause: Our inability to effectively address the issue of sewage and wastewater management.

• Infrastructure is poorly maintained and inadequate to address the world’s constantly growing demand.

• We are sitting on an ecological time-bomb, and the answer we believe lies in using what nature has provided to correct the problem.

• CAPRICORN is a product designed to address the pressing global problem of access to potable water.

CAPRICORN approaches business in a very unconventional way. Key areas of focus are …

• Harnessing social media to unlock the Wisdom of Crowds; • Unconventional networking methods to source and tap into

disruptive innovation; • Transcending market boundaries and ‘connecting the unconnected’

to find outside-the-box answers to perplexing technical problems; • A modified version of ‘Crowdsourcing’ to source collaboration

partners with unique skills and attributes; • Crowdfunding to unlock financial resources … and activists for the

cause;• ‘Extreme manufacturing’ to revolutionise production methodology.

… all tied together by the collaborative ethos of UBUNTU …

Precision Targeting

• We favour QUALITY, not QUANTITY;• We use the “sniper rifle approach”, NOT the

shotgun;• Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” guides

us in finding the rare personality types we need to successfully grow a disruptive and ground-breaking new venture … specifically: MAVENS, CONNECTORS and SALESMEN.

Mavens are …

• The “Information specialists“ we rely on to connect us with new information.

• Intense gatherers of information and impressions … often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends.

• Experts who are unselfish with their knowledge and love to share it.

A Maven is an individual who has a disproportionate influence on other members of a network. The role of Mavens in propagating knowledge and preferences has been established in various domains, from politics to social trends.

Connectors are …

• “People with a special gift for bringing the world together“;

• Exceptionally well-networked members of a community who know MANY people and are in the habit of making introductions;

A connector is the HUB of a network. Connectors usually know people across an array of social, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different spheres.

Salesman are ….

• The "persuaders“ … charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills;

• Able to easily establish physical and conversational harmony with others;

• Able to generate a high degree of empathy and synchronicity that ensures that keeps others interested, enthusiastic and happy.

Salesmen have an indefinable trait that goes beyond their obvious eloquence that makes others WANT to agree with them.

Our UNIQUE methodology ‘filters-out’ categories of special individuals and allows us to manage the interaction dynamics of 'our' Crowd 'organically' …

The Dynamics of Innovation

• The interaction of these special individuals … vertically, horizontally and laterally, produces a melting pot of creative thought and cross-pollination of ideas;

• New product concepts of vast value potential continuously bubble to the surface …

Cause and Effect …

• We select projects that match our exacting criteria for success and profitability … and adhere to our organisational principles and code of ethics;

• We believe in the principle of “CAUSE and EFFECT”. For a disruptively innovative new product to gain rapid traction, the CAUSE is our Catalyst;

• We recruit and rally our ACTIVISTS by identifying a CAUSE that resonates;

• Their financial contribution to our Crowdfunding Campaign makes them ‘part of the team’ and buys them a stake in our success

Crowdfunding

A Crowdfunding Campaign sows the seeds of a viral networking phenomenon … allowing us access to the NUCLEUS on which to build our Crowd. From here our crowd will rapidly expand to include most of the collaboration partners required to implement the project, including core marketers and distributors … as well as identifying the “early adopters” who represent our initial customer base.

CAPRICORN – Our MODULAR System?

CAPRICORN - Unique Selling Proposition

• A product that is 100% energy-efficient and self-sustaining;• An eco-friendly solution exceeding international standards

… zero carbon footprint with all by-products recycled;• A high-tech, state-of-the-art product that wins design

awards in every category from aesthetics to performance;• Ground-breaking new pump and aeration technologies;• Risk mitigation via robust high-tech SENSORICA sensor

system;• A global network of independent marketers, distributors

and installers to define and dominate a critical global market within a 3-year time-frame.

The Business Model

• Inclusive and democratic;• All participants receive proportionate stake in

the venture and a share in the profits;• Shares are allocated in proportion to

investment … be it time, intellectual capital, labour or whatever.

• Shareholding is risk-weighted … the earlier in the process an investment is made, the more valuable it is deemed to be.

Crowdfunding as CatalystA Crowdfunding campaign will: • Attract the seed funding

necessary to develop the initial prototype;

• Be the catalyst for incremental growth by identifying ACTIVISTS for our CAUSE;

• Identify the key collaborators mentioned previously: MAVENS, CONNECTORS and SALESMEN; and

• Shape and define and our Crowd … and the future of CAPRICORN.

The Internet, social networking and our ability to tune into Wisdom of the Crowd on a global scale are poised to trigger radical advances in technology.

Joe Justice’s Extreme Manufacturing has massively reduced the time it takes to get a concept to market.

Rod King’s Lean Start-up Management strategies position the product for the great forward thrust Revolutionary Sales and Marketing methodology will render conventional wisdom obsolete.

CAPRICORN, along with SENSORICA’s other ground-breaking collaborative initiatives are strategically positioned to lead product innovation in our market sector … and way beyond.

UBUNTU, and the Power of the Crowd, is changing the shape of business.

We believe that things will never be quite the same again!

Thank you!