Dance with the devil in a complex multifaceted web of intrigue and objective

HARNESSING WEB TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN NETWORKS FOR IMPACT DELIVERY IN POLITICAL AND CORPORATE ACTIVISM

DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING TARGETED CAMPAIGNS AND STRATEGIES
CREATING REACTION AND INFLUENCING OUTCOMES

LATERAL THINKING AND STRATEGY
KEVINRBECK's Mosaic Portal Network

If Kevin Rudd and the labor party in Australia's federal government go ahead with their planned carbon reduction scheme scheduled for 2010 they will wreck Australia's economy and leave a mark more indelible than the recession Australia had to have under Paul Keating.

Brendan Nelson, may be a bumbling liberal leader but essentially he is right in trying to preach caution and block labor's moves. Rudd's team are the sheep, following the latest fad, at the front of the pack who will blindly run over the cliff taking the gullible voters with them. Every crack pot theory and activist is now given oxygen, and the debate is clowded and we cannot hold the government to a serious accontable debate. It is now imperative, as never before, that those with the capacity to resist, and block, engage Kevin Rudd and the labor government, the Greens and the greenies, and ideologs, in a war of attrition like no other ever seen in the nation before.

This is not about politics and simple resistance or activism. This is about survival economically and socially, defying the efforts, and actions, of people who colllectively have never created anything. They are theorists and academics. politicians of zeal and ideology whose beliefs, and passions, are extremely dangerous. Out to save a world that does not need saving. They are not experts, in any shape or form, and they have never accurately predicted anything. They have at their disposal a public service, detached from reality, commissioned to serve. This public service is imbued with the code of serving the government of the day without question. They serve Ministers whose backgrounds, experiences and credentials, are not diverzse and congisant of the peril to whihc they are takin g us. We must draw on our own experiences and resources to resist, block and if necessary destroy their resolve and strategies. If the Rudd labor government spends a million or more on advertising their view points about the ETS (carbon reduction) then they should also fund counter opinions in the interest of the nation.

Political, Corporate, Social and Economic is here

The content, of this site, unless otherwise attributed, is authored by Kevin R Beck, Melbourne Australia. It is catalogued by Google and simultaneously distributed by the utilities of the Mosaic Portal Forum on DelphiForums. The distribution is targeted to a particular audience through direct email lists. Distribution is at individual, regional, state, national or international by country and is not limited to Australia.

The principles of activism outlined here adopt many styles including the commercial business approach. If we do not get a reaction initially we will persist and broaden the strategy.

What is the dance?

Creating the strategy elements

Things to consider

Players

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The most effective method of competitive action is to attack the target's objectives, their financial funding and resource deployment base and their systems through multifaceted strategies.

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BROAD BASED INFORMATION, TOOLS AND IDEAS

Every day content seekers, and agents, enter the Mosaic Portal web sites extracting materials for distribution, for use in their own content, for educational and research purposes and much more. This content, provided free of charge to users, is posted on web sites and into hard print media articles and press releases, and is used in targeted mass circulation emails, and campaigns, in Australia, in the United States and sometimes internationally. A multipath communication network is being established, maintained and expanded. This, and other motivations, mesh to create the catalyst for the dance.

What will you do when I unexpectedly come to dance in your sector with a intricate plan? How will you, your staff, your employees or constituents react? Will they comprehend the extent of the challenge and the road down which they may go, the cost and resources involved? Will they be deisive, defensive or dismissive or will they see the big picture and the possibilities? Will they learn that it is better often not to entice people to react? Will they carry out a SWOT analysis of threats? What are the ramifications, motivation or intent of people who may initiate action or activism?

In 2007 the politicians learnt that tehir are new paradigms affecting their world. Here there are lessons for others. The dance upon which lateral thinkers can take organisations (public and private) or individuals is quite dramatic and often unexpected. This changed dynamics has been extensively reported in the media, in parliaments and has been the product of discussions in many board rooms for many. many years. However, quite often, the journalists and commentators and the advisers and consultants have no idea who plays beyond their horizons. They have no idea that strategies put in place several years ago are now active and in play. Many different strategies across many parts of industry and society. Everyday more are being created and put into play.

Contact our multiskilled talented professionals to discuss services, campaigns, assignments and business.

Not everything I do is work related. Some of it has public and community interest, some things I undertake to see if I can reach into governments, business and enterprises, anywhere. Some things I do because I am motivated. And some because I want to challenge my abilities.

The proposition that an individual may be motivated to directly, or indirectly, impact parts of your organisation even changing some aspects of its interaction in society and economy might be novel or foreign to you.

The application of game theory to industry, to business, to competition, activism and interest using the tools and resources of the

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WHAT IS THE DANCE?

The Dance is what I call a game play. It is when I, or someone else, takes a company, an executive, a bureaucrat or other person and deposit them (metaphorically speaking) into a complex problem or within the hornet's nest of a political environment, inside a contrived, or existing, public issue or a sensitive and charged emotive environment. It is when an organisation's management's attention and resources, is extensively diverted.

Hetty Johnston, living in Australia, deposited the artist Bill Henson, the NSW Police Service, the Premier of NSW and the Prime Minister of Australia in a political, and community, hornets nest over Bill Henson's pictures, of naked young girls and boys. It may be a diversion or focused, deliberate impact seeking an outcome. Ms Johnston is adept at the very technqiues described in this web site. In being adept she herself, and her group, become a useful utility. Another example of the dance is the political activist group Get Up. Though they have lesss impact.

The Dance is a set of strategies for subjecting politicians in their daily activity, or in elections to specific exposure. It is also used to subject corporate executives to external forces and interactions. People think conventionally and say "they wil give their vote to someone else" in the election. This is largely meaningless to a politician unless you can actually unseat the incumbent. One has to reach much wider. If youy want to bring down a business venture then you may have to blend a whole mosaic.

"Plans to build magnesium smelter in Qld on verge of collapse" - The World Today - Tuesday, 27 May , 2003 Reporter: Louise Willis HAMISH ROBERTSON: Plans to build a $1.5 billion magnesium smelter in Central Queensland are again on the verge of collapse. Only last year, the project's owners, Australian Magnesium Corporation, managed to prop up their decade-old development proposal with a $300 million injection from the Queensland and Federal Governments. But now, as Louise Willis reports, the AMC says it needs a new financial backer for the project to survive. LOUISE WILLIS: When first unveiled, the AMC magnesium project was hailed as an enormous economic shot in the arm for Central Queensland, not to mention Australia. But recently the project has been plagued by financial worries. Two years ago AMC failed to raise the $650 million initially needed to construct the smelter. Last year, the Queensland and Federal Governments each offered $150 million, claiming it was vital the project proceed. This year, AMC has admitted major cost over-runs, and Australia's corporate watchdog � the Australian Securities Commission � is looking into the matter. The company now admits it needs more help to survive." (Source: ABC The World Today)

The compay did not survive the competitor's hit. The politicians, the community and the corporation's executives, had been taken on a merry dance across Australia and the world. Vested interests, the banks sealed the fate. Who influenced their decision against the wishes, collective might and wisdomn, and economic claims of all of the powerful supporters?
In 1997 the Minister for Education, Senator Amanda Vanstone, was embroiled in a scandal where some $A2,200,000 of government funds were put at risk by her department. There was a Senate enquiry and court cases. The Senator unfortunatley was a political casualty. Who orchestrated her dance card and the strategy elements? Who recovered $A1,75087,000 of the money that the private recipients of grants took off the Department?

Between the years 1991 - 1994 the State Electricity Commission of Victoria was privatised in an environment of political and union opposition. One union, the Australia Services Union Energy Branch, was instrumental in devlivering the outcomes. Why did this union branch stand out from twenty three other unions in the state? Who orchestrated the dance card? The strategy, and its unit elements, is reported in parliamentary records and media archives.
Who can have a major supermarket raided by food and regulatory inspectors? Who can influence a Senate enquiry into telecommunications, and the objectives of Telstra or Optus, and how is this done? What else can be orchestrated by knowlegeable, and creative, people?

Not so smart

CREATING THE SCHEMATIC AND THE DANCE STEPS

The techniques, and plans, are deployed internally within an organisation or system, externally or both, concurrently. They are employed internally by communicating to the Board, the management, a regulatory body or some other person or entity that has influence inside the organisatioon or the target's world of work and interest. A public, consumer, media, board, management, political or other focus is brought to bear on individuaols within an entity. It may include analysis and research. It might include distributing economic or social evaluation papers critiquing the performance or activity of the person or organisation. Distribution of these papers goes to interested parties such as banks, financiers, legislators, the media etc. This activity forms a mosaic, a complex strategy. Some practitioners earn their livelihood from creating and implementing the dance, others do it for a hobby and for fun and some do it for the public interest. They might do it to level the playing field in an environment where people are facing a greater resourced and ruthless competitive enterprise or a stubborn bureaucracy.

The tactic is to attach responsibility, accountability or perceived negative outcomes to the person's work environment.

The modern executive, politician and bureaucrat, likes to avoid accountability and likes to deflect to someone else. The person in charge usually does not like unexpected intrusions into their world of work and fiefdoms or questions and challenges to their authority or personal esteem and self image. Of course some are so bound up in their own world that they cannot see the nose on their face until it bites.

In the KEVINRBECK Mosaic Portal reside numerous examples, and demonstrations, of all of the above motivations. You just have to look for them. If I pointed to all of them that would be too easy.

Deep inside their shiny headquarters the management, and advisers, of Australia's major corporate, and public sector, enterprises plan and execute their elaborate strategies. They tell their boards, shareholders and customers, governments and the general public how good their strategies are and what the future will be.

Things to consider when getting the strategy together.

Research the background of your target

Note the local environment if they are a politician or a business. Do this in the context of the political party or enterprise, the government or the board etc.

Look for attached or competing inteests such as other political party members, local media, community groups, business competitors

Frame your issue and present it factually as a logical argument with detials and if appropriate source documents etc.

You might consider involving a regulatory agency such as Fair Trading, State Consumet Affairs agencies or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

If it is a political exercise consider using the parliamentary standing committees relevant to the domain of your issue. You might add in the regulatory agency and also the department/s of the relative state, territory or federal government.

Prepare your distribution lists. These can be local, regional, national and even international. In the latter case remember some business and all governments interact internationally. So do institutions, public servants and other entities.

Visit the local area and gather information.

If it is a political exercise allocate the resources. If you have funds spend part of them on targeted activity such as advertising, supporting local interests who can bring pressure and influence.

Attach the issue or activity to a person to engender accountability, responsibility or response

Build, maintain and expand the networks of technology and human interaction

If you want to dance with a corporation or give it a light, or mighty, whack

Research the background of your target

Examine any public interest issues in their market power, operations or foot print. Is there an environmental or hot button of that type?

Research if there are any political arguments, enquiries and committee reports on the sector of your target

Pick and frame your strategic issue and present it factually as a logical argument with detials and if appropriate source documents etc. See the Break Up Telstra argument at Consuming Australia

Tell the company that you are in the game and why they are the centre of your attention.

Seek out common interests, individuals and groups.

Post your material onto chosen web sites that may have an interest.

Tell the media. Make sure you arouse their interest and you might select a particular journalist/s, in your country and internationally perhaps.

if the company is listed on the stock exchange or of it privately held, it may be global. Then the matter may well be of interest to shareholders, financiers and the market.

Write to parliamentary members if your research shows they have an interest such as in utilities, electricity, telecommunications, food and grocery, fuel etc.

Attach your issue, argument and/or recemdation, to their electorate, or portfolio, interest.

If applicable make a submission to a Minister and/or a parliamentary enquiry.

Make a submission to a consumer or legal interest group.

Prepare your distribution lists. These can be local, regional, national and even international. In the latter case remember some business and all governments interact internationally. So do institutions, public servants and other entities.

Visit the local area and gather information.

If it is a business exercise allocate the resources. If you have funds spend part of them on targeted activity such as advertising, supporting local interests who can bring pressure and influence.

It is the same for all classes of activism and targets. Attach the issue or activity to a person to engender accountability, responsibility or response

Build, maintain and expand the networks of technology and human interaction grwoing them exponentially. Keep the pressure up.

SOME VEHICLES

Technology is empowering. It enables individuals, and interest groups, to find, and reach, the same audiences that are the executives within, the targets of politicians, corporations, enterprise and small business and the constituents.

board members,

consumers,

governments and politicians

shareholders, media and the general public

The methods by which the media, business and governments identify players, influencers, potential problem makers or people who can impact eventsa nd outcomes have been traditional in nature. There has been a focus on individuals, minority and other interests, such as unions, becoming shareholders and attending board meetings. There has been a move by superannuation investment funds to note their members interests and views when dealing with corporations in which they have invested. There has been a focus on interest groups.

However the greater number of people, within corporations, seem to be oblivious to a whole different class of threats to the objectives of their enterprise, they work and exist beyond their horizons. When they do appear they are viewed in isolation of history or potential. What if they are actually competitors to the objective? It is a new, and as yet unobserved and little reported threat. It is the lateral thinker using technology. It is someone who is a member of the corporate world. In concert with any or all of these may be a web activist, given greater potential by the sheer capability of emerging technologies, coupled with the ability of the individual to harness and deploy it, within a set of complex, intertwined strategies. to bring about the sought after objectives. It is a sophisticated application of the tools that the corporations, and governments, use - game theory. The threat to the status quo of political and corporate incumbency, influence and outcomes by well developed information and communication distribution. The web activist enjoys the challenge of dealing with the "corporate and political spin doctors."

This intervention into corporate, political and social arenas comes from the free lance, self motivated, and unemotional, interest. The individual with no apparent history, or role, in the particular sector. Is it true that all decision makers are known, or at the very least observable? They can be, but only if a very sophisticated research and intelligence gathering system is deployed.

Create a forum and use distribution tools

Article Archives
About governments, corporations, people and events, research and ideas

Use effective communication techniques

Build networked web sites,
with live, solid content of interest, and cross link them to others

Adopting corporate techniques

WHO IS A PLAYER?

Today those who can impact someone's world often exist beyond the horizon of awareness. If they are known they may be under estimated. Their issue may be viewed in isolation.

The real players can be quite challenging even dangerous. They want, need and like, to play in the game of their choosing for the sport of it, perhaps the challenge, or for the money or for a cause. Their motivations are often powerful, resilient and ongoing..

Issues facing governments and corporations can be used as underlying platforms of action by these activists, interested in entering the arena. They are a mix of technology and human netwoks.

Represented here they are specific web sites, articles and analysis distributed to competing interests (politicians, opposition parliamentarians and competitor businesses), to persons, or groups, that have direct, or peripheral, interests (politicians, business people, community members, association members, anyone) and to institutions and media that are monitoring the situation or environment.

Advisers and decision makers are oblivious because the pattern over time and issue has not been established or discerned. Their "intelligence gathering" is flawed or non existing. There are no cohesive tracking and linking systems within governments, agencies and enterprises, generally. Too often their employees are inexperienced and under trained. They have no idea of the triggers or likely consequences of ignoring or dismissing a communcation or misinterpreting or generally beinh unaware.

The Mosaic Portal, and similar technology creations, may be used to increase pressure or open up new directions. Look at the Australian Wheat Board issue for example. The owner of this Portal communicates with members of the US Congress, US media and to wheat communities across the United States of America. Australian governments, and corporate executives, eventually must come to realise that their world is not an isolated fiefdom where they can do, and behave, as they wish.

The objectives of web activists are varied. In the case of the Kevin R Beck Mosaic Portal the primary objective is to demonstrate what can trigger political, and corporate action, and response. There are examples in the many pages of the Kevin R Beck web sites of the agenda being identified, shaped and implemented. One only has to understand and utilise machine, media, corporate, government and human interests and systems, customers and vested interests effectively. Look at this example.

Carefully placed and directed communications, articles and research can generate a response. The generation of proposals, ventures, alliances, using work related activities can all add to the Mosaic. Using web communication technology, people from diverse background, and motivations, can unexpectedly enter the arena. Yet employees and managers and executives, politicians and the greater number of people are oblivious. The Kevin R Beck Mosaic Portal has different tools and utilities, allowing any user to operate at arms length from their work environment or their target. Put bluntly it is a powerful tool in the hands of a competent user who has knowledge and ideas. It can be used to orchestrate the dance.

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The KEVINRBECK Mosaic Portal is but one elment in a complex set of capabilities, tools and networks. Clients employ Kevin R Beck in many sectors of Australian business activity whilst others seek him out for public interest or altruistic causes or assistance. Click here for the services overview.

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What are the objectives, what are the motivations?

The objective, or the motivations, for intervention into others' arenas need not be commercial, it can be citizenship participation or political in nature. The strategy may be to intertwine commercial and political interests. Persons, or events and outcomes, may be manipulated without anyone realising that a complex strategy is being implemented. This was the case in the Queensland Magnesium case listed above.

Technology empowers the individual to send their messages out. Research, networks and information play a big role in their tactics. The web has literally set them free.

They may be employed by a traditional competitor to your sphere of activity, or someone who has an interest in it. Think laterally as to what the definition of a competitor might actually be. Employment assignments are not necessary to galvanise their participation. They may be zealots, free lancers or committed people, funding their own activities and research, web and technology tools developments. The motivations as to why they act, intervene and cause you to respond, and expend your resources, are complex and diverse. They will invariably leave a trail, because they want you to know they are there. They may even send you a communication. All too often your employees will simply delete and ignore those communications. They are oblivious to people beyond their immediate horizons. The most enquiring and lateral minds are really employed at the customer inetrafce or public entry of an organisation.

This enhances the game for the new activist. Most often the trail and clues are oblique. They may work through others, people you know of and meet. They may use institutions, media and a myriad of networks.

Most people working in their targeted environments are oblivious to their coming and going or may simply dismiss them at first glance. Sometimes those in charge will rationalise why something went wrong, based on their understanding, experience and perceptions. They get reinforcement from their peers and justify their failures. One reason that so many get it wrong is that "comprehensive and deep intelligence gathering" about their working environment and the world in which resides is not a serious endeavour, within the enterprise. They are limited by their own imagination. The experts, no matter the field of endeavour never seem to learn. Probably because they are not required to engage in life long learning. How many organisation are really learning organisations? As they say, ignorance is bliss. The architect of these "game plays" tends to move quickly, across boundaries, nearly always in the background and beyond sight and awareness. They are not shackled by the need to get approvals and await decisions. They communicate directly to audiences within the enterprises or within the communities with which the enterprise deals. They may go wider than that. The content of those communications, and interactions, vary. For example even as employees of a major Queensland based billion dollar enterprise travelled the world seeking investment, finance and contracts, competing interests shadowed them. The task of the "shadowers" was to level the playing field for a small competitor to the billion dollar enterprise. It was also to compete in every conceivable manner. They will enact their strategies across Australia and globally, electronically and in person, as necessary.

They are watching how you behave what standards and role models you exhibit. They are examining your modus operandi for commercial and/or competitive reasons. They use the very tools that the professionals, governments, industry and opinion shapers use. They will communicate, as they see fit and for their purposes, to narrow or ever widening audience. They will distribute material them well beyond the circulation of in house media and corporate relations practitioners, and individual media publications.

There is a steep learning curve for employees, politicians, corporate managers, board members and others before they come to realise that technology has opened up a complex web of influence and action, that never existed before. The ability to glean information from multiple sources is extraordinary.

A new breed of activists and professional strategists, operate beyond their horizons and awareness. These are not traditional activists and professionals. They are mixing work and personal interests and using the web as a means to broaden their strategies and actions. They may be in the background, interacting with, advising or working with, the people you see in the front line. They level the playing field for smaller enterprises and for interest groups, communities and individuals. They may cause resources, and attention, to be expended in countering or dealing with their activity, complicating the planning and objectives in your work or other environments.

It appears that many board members, employees, advisers and decision makers do not engage themselves, or their organisations, in intelligence gathering and lateral thinking as to who their competing interests might be. Often the best employees are not placed in the front line. They have little concept of the complex interactions of their work environment and have little idea of the background of the people with which they are dealing on a daily basis.

Unexpectedly someone takes an interest in their sphere of activity and engages the organisation, enterprise or agency, using "machine and human networks". The more astute minded of our corporations are hiring such skilled practitioners to operate in the background, complicating their competitors' world along with that of governments, agencies and politicians.

The real danger to the status quo and their objectives might be the individual who decides to enter the sphere to test their abilities. They challenge themselves in a type of David and Goliath battle, coming out of left field to play in the big game, unexpectedly to see what impact they can have.

Technology puts a power in the hands of the individual as never before. There is more material being distributed to members of Australia's governments, media, the broader community and onto the world wide web. There are patterns, and purposes, in some of this activity. The best laid plans of mice, and men, can be supported, confounded, exposed or defeated by a strategist using human and machine tools. Awareness of external forces is not a forte of the greater part of the workforce. This web site, and its content, and the Mosaic Portal design is a deliberate use of technology for a purpose. No corporation, government, institution or individual is beyond reach or impact.

A deep extended index of subjects and subtopics where the research, and search, has been done to find sites with news, articles and resources about your work, study, family, lifestyle, interests, hobbies, entertainment, beliefs, and much, much more.

The Mosaic Portal multiple web site index

a most informative, and deep index, of topics covering the latest news about your work, profession, hobby or interests.

This utility scours the web to eliminate the tiresome irrelevancies of a general web search and arranges the information into specific categories and sub indexes.