With great pleasure I would like to re-introduce to you: The Primer Project, version 2.
The Primer Project (version 1) seems to have been a major collaborative project of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), over 20 years ago, from around 1996-2000.
The project involved dozens of people, and several Institutions. It created a major body of work - over 200+ web pages; ran a major Seminar; ran a Special Interest Group; explored major topics, such as: What is a System? What is Wholeness?; Holism?; Systems Inquiry?; Synergetics?; Systemics?; Eastern Systems views?, and more.
In 2020, the ISSS were moving their isss.org content to a different platform, and The Primer Project content was reviewed and refreshed. The review found that content had become degraded (scattered over many locations, with broken links, and missing content), difficult to navigate, and presentability and usability of the pages seemed difficult by modern standards.
A 'refreshed' version 2 was created, to try to save the historic content of version 1, and make it available for historic heritage and analysis. It is a hope that The Primer Project will be reviewed, to learn from, and potentially build on, for future action.
A new Welcome page was created (this page), to bring readers up to date; An INDEX of all found pages was created; some new navigation links were created; a new page layout (a house style) to improve presentability, was formulated; and some pages were edited to improve their readability.
Please have a browse through this treasure trove.
There seem to be many ways to explore The Primer Project:
Readers may like to start by browsing the INDEX. Have a look at some of the Titles and Authors.
The original authors seem to have created many pathways through the project.
Have a look at some of the following:
- Seminar Tour - This seems to be the largest pathway - encompassing most of the Seminar.
- Taster Tour - A shortened version of the Seminar (a Taste of the Seminar). Also has more story-like commentary on the Taster Home page, accompanying each page link.
- The Story - A Shortened version of the Seminar, told as a Story.
- Kids Only - Systems concepts, designed for kids.
- Four Domains
Enjoy!
If you have any thoughts or insights into The Primer Project, please share! Some of you may have memories of The Project! What really went on?
Discussion on The Primer Project 2 is being run on the ISSS [SS Integrative Workspace] discussion group (ISSS members only, on request): https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/systems-science-integration-workspace
Alternatively, email: admin@isss.org, mentioning 'Primer Project 2.0
During this re-launch, emails can also be sent to Rob Young or contact Peter Tuddenham.