Dear fellow changemakers and learners,
| Excerpts from an August 2006 interview by Morten Blaabjerg of Blue Oxen cofounder, Eugene Eric Kim, about the company and about collaboration. Conducted at WikiSym 2006 in Odense, Denmark. |
The story of Blue Oxen Associates starts with my mentor, Doug Engelbart, whose long list of technical accolades includes inventing the mouse and hypertext.
His motivation for inventing these technologies was entirely human. He realized that society’s problems were scaling faster than our ability to solve them, and that the only chance we have to change this is to learn how to collaborate with each other more effectively.
I worked closely with Doug from 2000-2002 and was strongly influenced by his conceptual framework for boosting collective intelligence, especially the notion that the tools we use and the ways we use them must co-evolve.
I was also heavily influenced by architect, Christopher Alexander’s notion of patterns. I felt certain that there was tremendous knowledge about how to collaborate effectively that was trapped in isolated pockets across different cultures and disciplines. We needed to tap these best practices and build on them through continuous, reflective practice.
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| Cofounders Eugene Eric Kim and Chris Dent introduce the company at our launch party on April 8, 2003. Photo by Dante Gulle. |
Since 2002, Blue Oxen Associates has been doing exactly that. After co-founding the company with kindred spirit and emeritus partner, Chris Dent, we immersed ourselves in helping groups — particularly those with social missions — collaborate more effectively.
We’ve helped all types of organizations: companies, nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, and government agencies. Our work has taken us all over the world: North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. We’ve also been active in a number of grassroot movements related to collaboration, including Wikis and social media, open source software and usability, and digital identity. (You can see a full list of projects, clients, and partners at our Projects page.)
From the beginning, we made a commitment to practice what we preach, partnering aggressively and sharing our knowledge openly and broadly. As we gain more knowledge from our practice and our peers, we are working harder than ever at fostering a learning community for disseminating and building on this knowledge.
We have had the great fortune of being part of a wonderful community and of having tremendous advisors. The more we work in this space, the more committed we are to helping groups thrive and maximize their collaborative intelligence. We look forward to working with you.
Yours,
Eugene Eric Kim
Cofounder and Principal
Blue Oxen Associates
