Here is the shortest “knock knock” joke in the world.
“Knock Knock”
That’s it. That is the joke. I didn’t say it was the funniest “knock knock” joke.
But it certainly is a joke.

When we knock on many doors, there is no answer – even though the occupant is always there.

Here are the rock solid doors many of us have knocked on:

The employment door at most organizations. We get no response or a recorded email.

The idea door at most organizations. Apparently, there is a very tiny door we can never find.

The truth door at most organizations. This door entry requires a password that is rarely disclosed and impossible to guess.

The door for significant venture funding. You have to be let in before you can knock.
Inside the door for venture funding. Some who knock are funded but then end up leaving through the back door after burning through the green carpet.

The submissions door at most organizations. When you have something you want to bring to the world, if there is a door, it is so padded that no matter how hard you knock, they do not hear you.

The “talk to a human door” at many big internet companies. The doors are virtual – mirages. All you can do is a silent one handed knock.

There are three doors to higher education.

Door 1 is the height requirement door. If your family name is tall enough to be seen above the transom, and you softly knock, the door will usually open.

Door 2 has a knocker hidden in a puzzle. If you are smart enough to solve the puzzle, then place the knocker on the correct door, and sharply bang it, the knock will be answered and you may enter.

Door 3 is a very heavy big non greased door and it requires you to strap on a backpack of gold before you attempt your knock. You have to supply the backpack and the gold yourself. You get one knock and if answered, you must move that heavy door open with the burden of the weight of gold on your shoulders. Very difficult for the less endowed.

Of course, over the past 10 years, a new generation of people and institutions are taking down the barrier of doors, either scrapping them totally or removing the mechanism of locks and knocks – leaving them simply open for all to see – inside and out. The internet enables anyone to express themselves, anyone to start a thin capital enterprise, anyone to share and exchange and anyone to disclose what is behind closed doors to all who wish to know. Peer to peer is emerging. Full access is emerging.

But SLANT still holds a strong attachment to doors, making them hard to give up.

The SLANT based reason for the celebration of doors is that organizations are easily overwhelmed by those from the outside either trying to get in or trying to just have someone answer their knock with a human exchange that satisfies.

We think that any opportunity that hides behind dark closed doors needs to see the light of day.  
The opportunity and the opportunist must be able to see each other, size each other up using nurture, equality and truth as due diligence, and generate something of greater value if matched.

Systems

Systems is where the action is. We do not have to do things the way they have always been done. We can do things the way they need to be done. Systems is the way they can best be done.

First, if the folks behind the closed doors don’t answer our knock, we find people with open doors, we find people to team with, we find people with spirit and drive and something of mutual value, and we form cooperative ventures that depend on ourselves.

We embrace inclusiveness. Treat everyone with dignity and support. Always keeping our eye out for beneficial unions of people and ideas and resources.

We embrace systems. Groups of people can learn to be better at achieving what they set out to do. Groups of people can learn to create exchanges and movements built on solid organizational foundations with formal techniques of mediation and oversight to ensure SLANT does not rule.

Y Worlds intends to be such a place. Knock on wood.
A commons enterprise that can be whatever you make it.
Y Worlds. Come on in from the cold.

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