Today we find ourselves confronted by an overwhelming frequency of radical transformation and information overload. Extracting meaning from this paradigm and accordingly, addressing opportunities and challenges arising through ubiquitous connection and socialisation, has become the conversation of our time. The Third Place Manifesto addresses this change with a view to 'rediscovering' context within persistently disruptive and emergent social ecosystems. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

1. The ‘Third Place’ Manifesto: Discovery of Community, Value and
Context within Persistently Disruptive, Emergent Social Ecosystems.
Overview
One of the most compelling aspects of emergent trends and the global super brain
is that information is overflowing on a scale beyond that which we can physically
comprehend. As technology fellow and evangelist Jason Silva surmises: “The
electronic, collective, hive mind that we know as the Internet produces so much
information that organizing this data -- and extracting meaning from it -- has become
the conversation of our time.”1
Silva invokes Canadian-born architectural theorist and writer Sanford Kwinter’s Far
From Equilibrium – a book that tackles everything from technology, to society, to
architecture on the premise that “creativity, catharsis, transformation and progressive
breakthroughs occur far from equilibrium.”2
This is where we find ourselves today – confronted by an overwhelming frequency of
radical transformation and information overload.
Sanford asserts: “We accurately think of ourselves today not only as citizens of an
information society, but literally as clusters of matter within an
unbroken informational continuum: “We are all,” as the great composer
Karlheinz Stockhausen once said, ‘transistors, in the literal sense. We send, receive
and organize [and] so long as we are vital, our principle work is to capture and artfully
incorporate the signals that surround us.”
The evolution of ‘social capital’
Let us examine these signals. In a few short years our online experience has shifted
beyond mere two-way dialogue into a ‘social capital’ phase. Here, community has
become currency, exercising great power and influence over the way we build brands,
innovate products and services, solve complex problems and manage or destroy
reputations.
These signals usher us toward a world where knowledge, power and productive
capability will be more dispersed than at any time in our history – a world where value
1
Silva,
J.,
‘Connecting
All
The
Dots’,
(Imaginary
Foundation
blog,
2010)
2
Kwinter,
S.,
Far
From
Equilibrium
–
Essays
on
Technology
and
Design
Culture,
(Barcelona:
Actar,
2008)
1

2. creation will be fast, fluid and persistently disruptive.
To understand the nature of social capital and its impact on society, commerce and
culture, we must return to the pre-Internet era. Can you remember how you
researched ideas before Google; garnered the support of friends and peers around
important issues before social networks like Facebook existed? Many argue life was
simpler, whilst early adopters describe the ‘old world’ as one-dimensional;
characterized by static, linear transaction where ideas were conceived, packaged,
dispatched and consumed, often without interpretation or input.
Consider that marketing in the early 21st century is dominated by two approaches,
neither of which is visible to the naked eye. Firstly, “The use of data to define and
shape human affairs into machine-readable form; and secondly, the effort to create
and sustain ongoing two-way relationships with consumers. The former is arguably
one way in which human life is subjugated to the regime of the machine, whilst the
latter is a sign that the individual may one day emerge from within the dataverse.” 3
These insights from social scientist and communications strategist, Len Ellis, suggest a
“post-modern perspective is needed to reveal both the 'kaleidoscope' of data and the
'raw immaterials' of relationships.”
Facebook’s partnership in 2009 with the World Economic Forum in Switzerland
signaled that this post-modern future is upon us. The event transposed online thought
and content once relegated to a small physical setting to a world stage, unencumbered
by demography or geography, enabling delegates to poll random segments of
Facebook’s then 150 million user-base. The result was a real-time pulse of what
millions of people around the world were thinking and feeling at that precise moment,
directly connected to planetary level question of import.
This act extols the ‘strength of weak ties’ – a theory first presented by Mark
Granovetter in 1983, whereby networks of connected strangers can become a crucial
bridge between clusters of strong ties (the people we know), thus highlighting how
people react when healthy social reinforcement is in place. 4 It is a paradigm shift
toward community where everyone participates, everyone contributes -- everyone
belongs. Importantly, it reinforces the relevance and power of social networks to
connect people, resources and ideas to drive creativity and innovation forward. In
3
Ellis,
L.,
Marketing
in
the
In-­‐Between:
A
Post-­‐Modern
Turn
on
Madison
Avenue
(Booksurge,
2006)
4
Granovetter,
M.,
‘The
Strength
of
Weak
Ties:
A
network
theory
revisited’,
Sociological
Theory,
Volume
1,
201-­‐233
(1983)
2

3. many ways it is a declaration of interdependence.
In 2008 Forrester’s Mary Beth Kemp challenged the advertising industry in her
whitepaper titled ‘The Connected Agency’, predicting that the survival of agencies
would be determined by their ability to evolve from “pushing advertising campaigns
to nurturing communities of consumers and matchmaking them with brands.”5 In
what has largely been realised, Kemp hypothesised that the business of the future will
have “learned to connect itself” with defined communities of consumers and by
cultivating insights into their behavior as they interact. Likewise, as social technology
continues to advance, our transactional relationships with communities will evolve.
Thus, the evolution of the Internet toward a more socialised experience gave rise to a
‘second place’, forever changing the ways we engage, create and share online. Along
with the many opportunities that followed, came challenges and questions. In a world
that is no longer command-and-control but non-hierarchical -- more peer-to-peer --
how do you orchestrate the right set of people and circumstances at the right moment
to create value? What is its design? Is it static, or a continuum? And what
technological and human skills are required to make things happen? Community
Engine Product Manager and uber-comrade, Jim May, puts it perfectly: “when we
moved to the city, and the Internet, we lost the benefit of the village.”
It presents us with an interesting dilemma. Is ‘being connected’ and having
conversation really enough? Whilst it is difficult to contest the half a billion people on
Facebook, consider for a moment that its 600 million users reject commercial
intrusions into a place they consider ‘very personal’. Thus, despite its ubiquitous
benefits, it fails to capture the overlapping, asymmetrical, semi-public nature of ‘real
life’ in our local community -- the community of our passions. Another way to distil
this argument is to ask where is the value in environments that serve us content based
on preferences and attributes of people to whom we have arbitrary connections, yet
nothing in common?
Another way – (re) discovering the ‘third place’
It seems clear we are moving toward another sociological tipping point – one that
demands context and meaning. It highlights the existence of a ‘third place’; an
ecosystem of overlapping communities of passion; a mix of social and commercial
transactions that is semi-public, semi-familiar and a different experience for everyone.
The challenge and opportunity born of this environment is to understand the
capacity, emotions and activities of a situation (the context). It is real life, in real time
– an acute relevance delivered through personalisation and location logic,
5
Kemp,
M.
&
Kim,
P.,
‘The
Connected
Agency
–
Agencies
Who
Listen
Instead
of
Shout’
(Forrester
Research,
2008)
3

4. progressively transforming our binary interactions with the social web. It is a context
that beckons us to live our lives in a perpetual state of beta.
Social technological advancement is therefore, in ways not possible before now,
enabling us to become a value creator within context. It is an environment where
personal and professional participation culminate in a reconnection to what is timely,
relevant, and authentic. I often refer to this ecosystem as a new lens through which to
see and experience our environment, where opportunity and innovation are
interdependent, presenting us with new paths and narrative. Thus, we are writing the
future through and within this narrative, inspiring new stories and a sense of
belonging to something bigger than us – an ecosystem where contextual value is the
natural byproduct of our participation.
Understanding this fully is, in part, learning how we can authentically drive content
across platforms to create new experiences. Harnessed appropriately, this shift can
lead to seismic impact. It is learning how we can “transform from being content
producers to context producers”6 as we imbue reconnection in our products, culture
and people. By doing so, we foster trusted networks as our interaction and
consumption become more authentic.
The ‘third place’ ecosystem mirrors the inter-dependent actions of individuals like
you and I, striving to improve meaning in our lives, personally and professionally.
The result is a beautiful duality of shared and self-ownership which gives rise to niche,
contextual community – a frontier where creative and strategic partnership plays out
in a heroic celebration of the everyday, bound by a new currency that considers peoples’
lives.
As evidence of what this future holds, consider the sheer profundity of our ability to
galvanise people of diverse culture, geography, passion, interest and opinion -- to
create dynamic value and competitive advantage. This is more than an altruistic
pipedream. Hence, the value of such an ecosystem is for those who partake:
• Contextual reach: An ability to grow your consumer base through targeting,
hyper virality, overlapping communities, attractive offers, socialised search
and discovery
• Engagement: a potent relationship channel which increases lifetime customer
value through social and commercial transactional tools, and loyalty
• Management: The ability to manage relationships and business operations
with social CRM, contacts, followers, tiered customer loyalty management and
6
Tennø,
H.,
‘Context,
Value
&
The
New
Marketing
Economy’
(Slideshare,
2010)
4

5. transaction management
• Commerce: The ability to monetize interactions and increase revenue with a
range of transactional tools such as deals, membership, loyalty rewards and
more, all managed in one place
Social technology can -- and in many ways already is -- improving our human
condition by enabling contextually relevant, personal and commercial transaction.
The ‘third place’ connects us to the information and communities we need the most.
In conclusion, the words of lauded cognitive scientist Roger Schank, come to mind:
“Humans are not really set up to hear logic. People, however, like to hear stories"7 If
we contemplate this it is not so difficult to imagine a narrative future consisting of
more personal and more visceral social interactions which speak to us in unexpected
ways. Raymond Kurzweil, Director of The Imaginary Foundation positions this
context poignantly:
“We live in a society in which spurious realities are constructed by the media,
by governments and by big corporations. We are bombarded with pseudo
realities fabricated by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated
mechanisms. Perhaps for many designers irony is the only possible response to
a media space where it’s impossible to distinguish reality from manipulation.
We need to be future-focused and explore what comes after the darkness; revel
in the beauty on the other side of the looking glass. Living creatively and
joyfully requires dismissing gloom, defeatism, and negativism. We
acknowledge problems, but do not allow them to dominate our thinking and
our direction. The opportunity is to be for rather than against, to create
solutions rather than protest against what exists. There are things worth
believing in; there are things worth being passionate about; and so our action
must not be a reaction but a creation.”8
7
Advances
in
social
cognition:
Knowledge
and
memory:
the
real
story
(ed.
Wyer,
Roger
Schank
and
Robert
Abelson
(1995)
8
Kurzweil
,
R.,
The
Singularity
is
Near:
When
Humans
Transcend
Biology
(Penguin,
2006)
5

6. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Johnson
Founder & CEO – Altitud3
@Huxley
@Altitud3
LinkedIn
Facebook
Skype: altitud3
Mobile +61 407 569 537
Based in Melbourne, Australia
Stephen Johnson is the Founder & CEO Altitud3 – a decentralised digital agency and
social business incubator established on crowd-sourcing principles. He has more than
15 years experience as a brand architect and strategist advising global brands in their
use of social media and emerging technologies for growth and innovation. Stephen’s
accolades include Cannes Cyber Lion, AIMIA & Webby.
A passionate advocate for collaborative innovation, Stephen’s expertise as a
movement strategist is widely sought. His projects include the Alliance For Climate
Protection ‘Live Earth’ 2007; United Nations ‘Undercover’ insecticide-treated
mosquito net distribution movement; the California Public Utilities Commission
http://www.engage360.com; and One Girl’s http://doitinadress.com, providing
education scholarships to girls in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Stephen is an experienced keynote presenter and workshop facilitator. Events include
#SWARM Conference 2012, #SXSWi 2011, The Internet Show 2010, Connect Now
2010, 23rd Annual MEA Conference 2010 and London Festival 'Redesign' 2006.
6