Thank you for participating in this project. Your section, let's use a systems word "slice", your slice: _______________ -is acknowledged. Final assignment will follow, but first:
PURPOSE
There is a need for a summary statement of general system science for both the elementary and advanced reader. This need is important to the future of ISSS and its members, but just as important are prospective members and the general public where the need for such an overview must be met. It is to meet this need that ISSS is compiling this Expert General Systems Studies Primer.
We are writing a systems book that is rather unique in that it is a collective effort of many authors. As time goes on, and others see what we are accomplishing, they will join us and together we will emerge as a whole. But of course that will only happen if you make it so.
The focus of this Handbook is on the reader. It is a readers book, written entirely to give him enough information about systems so that he may not only grasp the essential principles os Systems, but be able to apply those principles in his own life.
. More specifically, it is a Handbook that might be passed out at the beginning of a General Meeting to all new members.
It is a readers book about ISSS, that is to say, Systems from the view of our founder Ludwig von Bertalanffy, et al, as explained in ordinary language - the language of those we really need to talk to. Hopefully, this simple explanation will be useful to the systems scientist as well, at least he won't be bothered by new members determined to re-discover Systems as if for the first time.
BACKGROUND
The greater part of the Asilomar meeting, iot seemed to me, was spent on system fundamentals, leaving little or no time for progress at the cutting edge. One member even said. "Systems has nothing new to offer." Suggestions were made on how to conduct a systems meeting, Afterwards, a quick survey of the literature revealed that there is little or none! The best text on systems, (Weinberg) is out of print, while much of the rest is cutting edge excursions at the horizon of some particular systems theory - hardly proper material for the uninitiated. Subsequently, action was taken to publish a manual of systems, a ISSS Systems Handbook. The easiest way to do this would be to have many authors. A survey was distributed calling for papers in the Bulletin. The acceptance letters began to flow in at just the right rate to keep up. Now Now, we have passed the point of no return. And now we are ready for part (C)
Written in ordinary language. .
FOCUS
It is essential that the handbook has a focus - a perspective - so that the end result is unified as a whole. It will not be possible to fine tune anything at the end as a single author is expected to do. Finding this focus has been problematic.
PROBLEM
Unfortunately, trying to explain this focus in terms of each of the countless specialties of systems thought/application is difficult. It is beyond my capabilities to read and understand all of them well enough to summarize and direct each of your specialties. Yet that is what ISSS, and its handbook ought to be about. So, together, we are called to the task. While reading through the early submissions, a problem popped up. While certain sections or slices of ISSS and GST were called for that would collectivily give an overview of the entire operation, the participators wanted to wrtie a paper on his own particular system. Indeed, space for particular systems has been set aside, perhaps for four or five excellent examples of systems writing. But the handbook is not the place to print an entire collection of them.
Participants are reminded that the focus of a handbook is everything in a nutshell - a kind of "seedling" of ISSS Systems. We have no room for trees. What we are looking for is a view backwards towards the General Principles and ISSS, not forwards diving into the uncharted waters of New Systems. That focus belongs to the Proceedings. This is not a book written for system scientists, it is a book written for the reader. We are going to try to tell everything in a clear and lucid manner as quickly as we can without leaving anything out. And again it is written for the System scientist - to find that "Oh, I didn't know that!" for him too.
PERSPECTIVE
The essence of the core-idea is not about providing a forum for individual writers, it is to be a readers book and it is about systems as they apply to him. And if it is to be about the real thing, it must be a good example of systems writing to begin with. But just what is systems writing?
METHODOLOGY
The methodology of systems writing is best put into the form of a metaphor.
Imagine a tree, and standing beside the tree is a student of the tree. The goal of the student is to read the tree. How will he do it?
One way would be to stand beneath the tree, and look upward through the often hidden branches to the leaves. The object for the student then becomes to climb the branches and read the message of the leaf. But beyond those leaves lies a vast expanse, half of infinity to be exact, of different directions. Nevertheless, this is how the classical student of science has learned to read the tree.
Another way for the student of the tree to read the tree would be to get above the tree and look down. Imagine doing it this way. First the student would see the myriad of leaves, and then beyond them he would find the numerous branches and finally his eyes fall upon the single trunk. Beyond that, then are the roots branching out among the infinite particles of the earth, but that is another story.
Now, to get to my point, imagine a Planter of the tree. It is the task of the tree planter to create a forest. The tree Planter meets the Reader of the tree and asks him for a tree to plant. You, as the writer of the story, are the tree reader. You can give the planter a pile of leaves and proclaim "here is a tree." Or you can give the planter of the tree a collection of roots, then wait and see.
OUR NEEDS
Now, we can use this story as an analogy to explain the requirements or focus of our compilation. We need the branches and roots, not the leaves. Ideally, we need the seedling.
So in a very real sense what we are trying to do is create a seedling of systems which will be planted in the readers mind and then grow into that readers version of System. In a practical way, we are tuning the mind to think in its most natural way.
Your paper should be about 1000 - 4000words
Part (A) has been completed. After acceptance, we will send you our Part (A) and (B). Assuming you find it acceptable to you, it will serve as a lead in to your particular article.
Part (B) is the second complementary of Part (A) a restatement of the general form in the particular terms of organization. Or it may be a listing of generic systemic terms. It appears we have evolved into a toolbox, a generic listing of systemic tools.
Part (C) will be your particular system in your own words but derived from the general and particular principles outlined in A & B.
We will need to write a transition paragraph together.
In all cases, use common language, self-defining terms, or (bracketed definition). Any exceptions must be justified.