NPR launched its new Music site yesterday. I spent much of yesterday walking around and playing in it - yes it’s a complex world not a “site”.

I am really impressed as I hope that you will be too. It really does allow for an informed “discovery” for instance when I listened to a new recording of Elgar’s cello concerto, it took me to the incomparable Jacqueline Du Pre, to articles on Elgar and to many other pieces. All can easily be played and put onto my own playback list with an exceptional Flash Player - no more WMF!!!!!

Most musical tastes are met. As are many different “views” - Not only can you listen to recordings but also concerts and view video. Not only can you establish a personal playlist but you can buy music too. You can also tap into the streams of up to 12 stations - many of whom have a global reputation in the field

Not only can you hear music but you can hear informed discussion about music.

For me the site offers the current ideal in a social media site

• It’s a complex world but with intuitive navigation that not only allows you to find what you are looking for but also to discover things that you were not! So you tend to spend hours there. As the site builds - so will its complexity and your ability to hang about there for long times
• It’s a personal world - you can shape it to meet your own needs both in terms of taste and time and control
• It’s interactive with many open and informative blogs
• It can grow as more stations join and has the potential to become the major music site in the world - it demonstrates the mutual value of cooperation that exceeds the early coop venture in podcasting - for here each new addition adds to the over complexity and hence life of the system.

So how did this come about? That is itself a story.

I think that the key was a decision by a few brave NPR folks over 2 years ago that they did not know what to do.  I am finding the the most inviting and most successful beginning to find the new way is to accept ignorance.

Not only did they accept that they did not know, but that intuitively understood that maybe most did not know either BUT that if they genuinely asked the stations, an answer might emerge.

They also knew that they had to get some help to enable them to do this - they needed a few (They got 3) people who were not selling a solution either but who could help build the conditions of trust to have a huuuuge conversation so that the “Wisdom of Crowd” could be heard.
In later posts, I would like to talk a bit about what happened. For look at the results:

• The NPR Music site is truly a child of the process
• It is truly cooperative
• It hits a bullseye for design and outcome
• It is the new standard for a social media site and very importantly supporting organization

For me the key to any organization seeking to do the same is to build the requisite trust with some of the parties.
I have found that building trust is dependent on building a shared context, a shared language and a shared understanding of that is going on. This includes getting the elephants out into the open. Just talking does not do this - we found that people had to do things with each other to create this trust.

Then some key ideas emerge - they literally float up. They do not belong to anyone - that is their power. But they are seen as being true by many. By being owned by all, there is no owner barrier to the idea and this seems a precondition to joint action.
Then it takes more hard work still than anyone could imagine - I had hoped that the music site would have been ready a year ago. I was naive. Even with the best preconditions, moving to the new reality is exceptionally hard to do.

The product is all about technology. But the process to getting there is not. More later