Co-creating a Network First Poetics: Exploring the Language that Shapes our Future

"Words create worlds; as ages change, so too the lexicons that shape their evolution.

This project proposes a collective interrogation of foundational terms like WORK, SOCIAL CAPITAL, INTELLIGENCE, CURRENCY, INFLUENCE, NETWORK, PLAY and others, with the goal of offering fresh language or fresh interpretations of stale words that better align with network-first values. In doing so, we also hope to engage emerging phrases already circulating in this community, such as ‘network economy,’ ‘collaborative freedom,’ and ‘social permaculture,’ so that our linguistic experimentation builds on and contributes to the broader language ecosystem now taking shape.

The Network First Manifesto currently relies on terms like ‘work’ and ‘workplace’ that may be fundamentally obsolete in a future that is approaching with accelerating speed. This community has already formed groups around “workplace design” and “connected workplaces”. Many of us have been using the phrase “The Future of Work” perhaps without a deeper examination of the underlying meanings and creative constraints we are subconsciously importing through the vocabulary of legacy hierarchies.

The Network First Manifesto attempts to name, construct, and breathe life into a new paradigm, and in doing so it needs a community of poets who play at the edges of language to illuminate the path toward a truly forward-looking lexicon. This group would also welcome systems thinkers, linguists, technologists, designers, to explore the edges of meaning together. We especially encourage contributions from speakers of languages other than English, so that our shared lexicon can draw from diverse cultural lineages.

A suggested format for the group’s creative progeny is to publish an anthology, living wiki-page, or index of new meanings in the style of David Whyte’s Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.

In Nicaragua there is a saying: everyone is a poet until proven otherwise. Please join us. "