I am curious how many readers think of themselves as belonging to a Human Hive?

Human Hive

         Human Hive

I wonder how many people reading this blog keep or have kept bees (or have seen beekeepers at work)?  Or have a role that contributes to the wellbeing and functioning of the Human Hive? If you look at the beehive and the behavior of bees – as I have been doing in the last decade, you might notice that the patterns of surviving, adapting and thriving in the bee hive are similar to systems of interaction in the work that takes place in cities.

These patterns contribute to cities that are framed through different paradigms – including Smart Cities, Resilient Cities and Integral Cities. What the patterns have in common are that they are central to the functioning of the healthy Human Hive. In this blog series (on Waking up the Human Hive) I am going to explore the metaphor of the Human Hive to discuss the relationship between Smart Cities, Resilient Cities and Integral Cities.

I propose that the Human Hive has 4 key roles that contribute to its wellbeing. I think that wellbeing can be defined in terms of what I call the Master Code. We live this Master Code when we take care of our Selves, each Other, our Places and our Planet.

Later in this series I will explain how our Integral City Compass acts like a Global Positioning System to keep us aligned with the Master Code. Moreover it helps us see a natural evolution in the potential of any type of city – whether it be the Smart City or the Resilient City or the Integral City. Keeping the Master Code in mind as an evolutionary power source, I will suggest that we have a key indicator that actually helps us to recalibrate our cities so that the quality of life is optimized.

(This blog is one of a series on Waking Up the Human Hive Beyond the Smart, Resilient City to the Integral City – thinking notes for a keynote speech at IDG’s IT Smart Cities Conference, September 23, 2015, Amersfoort, NL.)