The Liminal Learning Portal

From LinkedIn Profile:

Executive Chair & Co-founder of Neurohacker; Chief Ratiocinator and investor at NameBackfeed; co-founder of the Game B ideas

Worked at mp3.com and co-founded DivX

“After my exit from DivX, I have continued to influence and lead organizations using the corporate form as a dynamo to deliver social change. One of those organizations is the Neurohacker Collective, where we are applying complex systems science to neuro-technology to provide people with the tools to become maximally capable and fully responsible. Another organization is Backfeed.cc, where we are innovating the 3rd generation of blockchain technology – building a stigmergetic framework to allow collective intelligence to scale.

In my part time, I write here: https://medium.com/@jordangreenhall/”

From the Cocreation Foundation site:

I am a theory artist and wordsmith who is developing a new cultural code to foster social and cultural change towards a more inclusive and listening society.

For the past many years I’ve been working as a writer and developmental editor. I’m one of the co­-founders of the think tank project Metamoderna and have helped the great Hanzi Freinacht publish The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book Two (2017) and its sequel, Nordic Ideology (2019).

I have also been working as a developmental editor for the writer, philanthropist and ex­financier Tomas Björkman on the books Världen vi skapar (2017) and the new and updated English language edition titled The World We Create (2019). Currently, I’m working on a new secret book project together with Hanzi Freinacht and his close ally Daniel Görtz.

Joss is a founder of Systems Innovation.

From Joss Colchester’s LinkedIn profile:

I am interested in how to use new ways of thinking (systems and complexity theory) and new ways of organizing (networks) combined with new technologies (decentralized web) to enable systems-level change (systems innovation).

In general, I help people and organizations to understand and use the ideas from complexity theory and systems thinking to better model, analyze and design complex systems towards enabling systems-level change.

In 2014 I started an eLearning website for systems thinking and spent the next 4 years mass-producing video courses that have been watched millions of times and used daily by universities and enterprises small and large around the world.

Derived from Kate’s personal website:

Kate Raworth (sounds like ‘Ray-worth’) is a renegade economist focused on exploring the economic mindset needed to address the 21st century’s social and ecological challenges, and is the creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries.

She is a Senior Research Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, where she teaches on the Masters in Environmental Change and Management. She is also Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

Her internationally acclaimed framework of Doughnut Economics has been widely influential amongst sustainable development thinkers, progressive businesses and political activists, and she has presented it to audiences ranging from the UN General Assembly to the Occupy movement. Her book, Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21^st century economist was published in 2017 and has been translated into 18 languages.

From George’s profile on Community Intelligence:

I’m a mentor and strategic learning partner to visionary leaders in business, government and civil society. I find joy in generative conversations that transforms both parties and leave our lives enriched. I guess that’s the underlying, more personal reason why I founded Community Intelligence, the transformation agency whose site you’re visiting.

I’m also a veteran researcher of “collective intelligence,” “innovation ecosystems,” and “communities of practice,” which are key disciplines for the future of organization design. I’m a faculty member at Meridian University, and my academic posts included the University of Paris, UC Berkeley, INSEAD, and London School of Economics.

But organizational theories interest me only if they can be tested in practice and are improving the lives of people while moving the organization that they work with to its next stage of capabilities. To keep a finger on the pulse of the emergent, next-stage practices, I founded Enlivening Edge, the online magazine that became the go-to place for future-responsive organizational professionals.

Psychology and Cognitive Science Professor at University of Toronto | Integrating science and spirituality to solve the meaning crisis

From John’s LinkedIn Profile:

I teach course for three programs. I teach courses in cognitive psychology on thinking and reasoning, higher cognition, and cognitive development. I also teach courses in the cognitive science program on integrating the work done in psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguists, and philosophy to try and tackle central problems about the nature of cognition. Finally, I teach in the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health program on the intersection between Buddhism and Cognitive Science, and on the scientific basis of mindfulness meditation.

Roman Krznaric is a public philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to change society. His books, including Empathy, The Wonderbox and Carpe Diem Regained, have been published in more than 20 languages. His new book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short Term World, will be published in July 2020, and has been described by U2’s The Edge as ‘the book our children’s children will thank us for reading’.

After growing up in Sydney and Hong Kong, Roman studied at the universities of Oxford, London and Essex, where he gained his PhD in political sociology. He went on to found the world’s first Empathy Museum and the digital Empathy Library, and was also a founding faculty member of The School of Life. He is currently a Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation.

Derived from Wikipedia:

Charles Eisenstein is a public speaker, philosopher and author. His work covers a wide range of topics, including the history of human civilization, economics, spirituality, and the ecology movement. Key themes explored include anti-consumerism, interdependence, and how myth and narrative influence culture.

According to Eisenstein, global culture is immersed in a destructive “story of separation”, and one of the main goals of his work is to present an alternative “story of interbeing”. Much of his work draws on ideas from Eastern philosophy and the spiritual teachings of various indigenous peoples. Eisenstein has been involved in the Occupy, New Economy, and permaculture movements. 

An advocate of the gift economy, he makes much of his work available for free on his website.

Derived from his bio on the Global Leadership Associates website:

Positions: Principal, Action Inquiry Associates LLC | Co-Founder and Director Emeritus, Global Leadership Associates | Director, Amara Collaboration | Founding Member, Action Inquiry Fellowship | Fellow, Organizational Behavior Teaching Society | Professor Emeritus, Carroll School of Management, Boston College

Bill’s groundbreaking work on Developmental Action Inquiry is the foundation for the work of Global Leadership Associates.

He is probably best known as the author of  Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership (Berrett-Koehler, 2004). He also wrote Seven Transformations of Leadership, selected as one of the top ten Harvard Business Review leadership articles of all time.

From Adam’s web page:

I run a publication called The Side View. We are an independent publisher that integrates theory and practice, while running parallel to academic and public conversations. We publish a journal, online and in print, and a podcast that explores the nature of perception and attention by having conversations with architects, cognitive scientists, athletes, philosophers, contemplatives, and more. We have an online shop, and you can learn more about us here, or on Twitter, Facebook, Patreon, and most podcast platforms. 

I am also a philosopher by training. My first book is contracted with Revelore Press, and will be finished in the fall of 2020. The book is about askēsis (exercise) and its relation to perception. Askēsis aims at a transformation of perception through a variety of exercises, including contemplative practice, philosophy, athletics, art, and more. These practices are concerned with the development of our inner and outer senses. You can read a draft excerpt here. I write about these themes on my blog, on Medium, and on Twitter.

Jim has held many senior roles in tech organization, including CEO of Network Solutions, which operated the .com, .net, and .org domain namespaces on the Internet until its acquisition by Verisign in 2000, and was the first CTO of Thomson-Reuters. He was also a past Chairman of the Santa Fe Institute.

He was instrumental in formulating the original ideas behind Game B. He hosts the Jim Rutt Show Podcast.

A fuller bio is available on the Santa Fe site.

From The Long Now website:

Stewart Brand is co-founder and president of The Long Now Foundation and co-founder of Global Business Network. He created and edited the Whole Earth Catalog (National Book Award), and co-founded the Hackers Conference and The WELL. His books include The Clock of the Long Now; How Buildings Learn; and The Media Lab. His most recent book, titled Whole Earth Discipline, is published by Viking in the US and Atlantic in the UK. He graduated in Biology from Stanford and served as an Infantry officer.

From the Otto Scharmer website:

Otto Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Management Sloan School and co-founder of the Presencing Institute. He chairs the MIT IDEAS program for cross-sector innovation and introduced the concept of “presencing”—learning from the emerging future—in his bestselling books Theory U and Presence (the latter co-authored with P. Senge et al). He is co-author of Leading from the Emerging Future, which outlines eight acupuncture points for transforming capitalism. His most recent book, The Essentials of Theory U, summarizes the core principles and applications of awareness-based systems change.

In 2015, Otto co-founded the MITx u.lab, a massive open online course (MOOC) for leading profound change, which has since activated a global eco-system of transformational change involving more than 160,000 users from 185 countries. In March 2020, Otto and his colleagues at the Presencing Institute launched GAIA (Global Activation of Intention and Action), a free, online, deep learning journey, geared toward profound personal, societal, and planetary renewal.  

Otto earned his diploma and PhD in economics from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany. He received the Jamieson Prize for Teaching Excellence at MIT, the European Leonardo Corporate Learning Award and is a member of the World Future Council. The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General appointed him to the UN Learning Advisory Council for the 2030 Agenda. 

From Guy Sengstock‘s website:

I am someone who has no idea how the fuck to answer the question “Who am I?” Yet, I seem to be someone who has dedicated his life to radically elucidating this very question.

I am someone who is very difficult to describe. Even my closest friends who know me inside and out have a hell of a time “summing me up”.

I like this about myself. What this tells me is I am truly embodying and living my life at the level of depth that I can’t help but choose.

I am someone who is fortunate enough to realize that it really doesn’t matter who I am to myself. The real question is: “Who am I to you?”

I am someone who truly gives a shit about you. I am someone who will truly see who you are in a way that perhaps no one ever has in your entire life.

I am someone who can sit next to a stranger and have a conversation with them such that the stranger walks away living inside a completely different world.

And I am someone who pays attention in such a way that will allow you and I to see and hear those things which have always been present yet have never occurred to you.

I am someone who truly does not, nor ever has, taken life for granted. I wake up in the morning with an insatiable craving and thirst to discover the source of life’s novelty.

Dr. Jonathan Rowson is co-founder and Director of Perspectiva. He was until recently Director of the Social Brain Centre at the RSA where, over the course of six years, he authored a range of influential research reports on behaviour change, climate change and spirituality, and curated and chaired a range of related events.

​Jonathan is an applied philosopher with degrees spanning a range of humanities and social sciences from Oxford, Harvard and Bristol Universities. In a former life he was a chess Grandmaster and British Champion (2004–6) and views the game as a continuing source of insight and inspiration. His book, The Seven Dimensions of Climate Change: rethinking the world’s toughest problem will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in early 2017.

He lives in Putney, London, with his wife Siva, an academic lawyer from South India and their two sons, Kailash and Vishnu.

​His recent work includes Money Talks: Divest Invest and the Battle for Climate Realism and Spiritualise: Revitalising Spirituality to address 21st Century Challenges.

From Theo’s LinkedIn profile:

I’m the CEO of Lectica®, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to helping the world think better by producing and distributing sophisticated learning tools that support the kind of learning that matters. 

Our non-profit mission is to deliver our learning tools free of charge to individual K-12 teachers everywhere. We support this mission through donations and our for-profit arm, the Developmental Testing Service (DTS). All of the profits from DTS are donated to Lectica.

Lectica makes diagnostic and formative learning tools for schools, colleges, and the workplace. These tools measure how well people work with their knowledge in real-world contexts, identify “what comes next”, and provide personalized learning recommendations. 

It’s taken over 20 years and a fair bit of struggle to develop the technology and methods we use here at Lectica. For me, it’s a sandbox. But I do have a bit of a life outside of the “nonprofit that owns me”. I have 3 children and 3 grandkids to play with, and I spend a fair bit of time on the trail, on my bike, or in the garden.