Sunderland University, April 30^th, May 1^st, 2004

Prof Alfredo Moscardini wrote:

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Thanks to all of you for attending the Metaphorum’s “Cybernetics of Government” Colloquium on the 30th April & 1st May 2004, at Sunderland University, UK.

This was Metaphorum’s first event. We wanted it to be different but in the spirit of Stafford Beer. We were moving away from the normal process of paper presentations followed by one or two questions from the audience. We opened each session with a very short intro by the authors ( 5-10 mins each ) followed by a debate/discussion on the cybernetic issues.

The agenda was as follows:

Friday the 30th April

9:00-9:30	Registration of participants.
9:30-10:00	Opening session. Prof Alfredo Moscardini.
10:00-12:00	Session One: Information Allenna Leonard, Ralf Tueke and Nick Green Allenna points out in her paper that there is a gap between momentum and control. Ralf explores the concept of e-Governance and Nick the use of the Web
12:00-13:30	Lunch.
13:30-16:30	Session Two: PhD workshop Leonie Solomons and Andrij Sergeyev Both Leonie and Andrij are writing up their PhDs and have problems that are of general interest. Leonie is how to produce a VSM of a whole country and Andrij is interested in answering the question “How did you validate your model?” It is hoped that the experienced Cyberneticists can help them.
19.00+	Dinner at the Tavistock Restaurant

Saturday the 1st May

10.00-12:00	Session Three: Democracy Luc Hoebeke, Angela Espinoza and Paul Stokes Luc discusses the meaning of Identity, Angela is talking about Democracy in the Knowledge Age. Paul has a paper on the Cybernetics of Governance
12:00-13:00	Lunch.
13:00-15:00	Session Four: Transnational Issues John Clarke and Patrick Hoverstadt John’s paper is on an Eudemony Index which is illustrated by his work on AIDS//HIV and Patrick’s paper is on the problems of Nuclear Waste Disposal.
15:15-17:15	Session Five: Education Steve Brewis, Susan Jones and Rod Thomas This session explores three different aspects of education. Susan looks at using multimedia to teach the VSM, Rod takes a cybernetic view of universities managers in the VSM. Steve looks at Management Structures
17:15-17:30	Plenary Session

Abstracts Received

1. Angela Espinosa and Jon Walker- Democracy in the Knowledge Age, Some experiences on applied cybernetics in Columbia
2. Leonie Solomons- Mapping Sri Lanka in VSM terms and diagnosing its devolution implications arising from fiscal equalisation
3. Rod Thomas – Stafford Beer in memoriam-“An argument of change” three decades on
4. Patrick Hoverstadt – National Decision Making in Nuclear Waste Management
5. Ralf-Eckhard Tuerke – e-Goverance: An integrated framework to promote Governance
6. Luc Hoebeke – The Identity Function (S5) and the Tension between Participation and Democracy
7. Susan Jones: A Multi model Approach to Making the VSM More Accessible to Senior Managers
8. Allenna Leonard – How can we rise to the challenges posed by the lag time between our momentum and our control?
9. Nick Green – Metaphorum and World Government: Establishing the Design Rules
10. Paul Stokes -From Government to the Management of Complexity – The Cybernetics of Governance
11. John Clarke -The Eudemony Index: Toward a methodology for overcoming chronic vulnerability to HIV/AIDS pathology by strengthening “community immunity” by the amplification of resilience factors.

List of Participants

1. Alfredo Moscardini* (UK)
2. Allenna Leonard* (Canada)
3. Andrey Servegy (Ukraine)
4. Angela Espinosa* (Colombia)
5. Annamaria Moscardini* (UK)
6. Denis Adams* (UK)
7. Jane Searles* ( Fujitsu, UK)
8. John Clarke* (UN, South Africa)
9. Jon Walker* (UK)
10. Leonie Solomons* (Sri Lanka/Australia)
11. Luc Hoebeck* (Belgium)
12. Nick Green* (Real Time Study Group)
13. Patrick Hoverstadt* (Fractal Ltd, UK )
14. Paul Stokes* (Ireland)
15. Ralf Eckhard ( AUT)
16. Rod Thomas ( UK)
17. Roger Harnden* (UK)
18. Stefan Wasilewski* (UK)
19. Steve Brewis* (BT, UK)
20. Susan Jones* ( UK )
21. Ralph Tuerke*
22. Robin Asby*
23. Rosemary Bechler*

* Denotes confirmed participant.