[Note: To join this conversation, visit: http://groups.google.com/group/Value-Networks] Thank you for your thoughtful responses and great questions. Your question about whether a network can hold a "brand" is a good one and this has been a particularly good discussion, so thank you Oliver for kicking it off. My apologies for coming in so late, but as usual the travel makes for sporadic participation at times. Here are some of my somewhat belated thoughts: Brand is essentially a set of characteristics, attributes, values and behaviors that are represented by a symbol or label. If a particular value network has significant variations from others in its class then it could be said to have a brand, I believe. In a value network characteristics and values are attributes of roles (the people/ companies that play those roles) along with many other attributes that could be used to describe a role or organization. Those attributes includes assets that, according to the values and intent of the role are expressed as behaviors that may be in part observed by what kind of value offerings are extended to others in the network in the form of tangible and intangible deliverables. Brand identity is indeed an intangible asset, so I am in agreement with David Meggitt on that point. It is important to remember that a value network is not a discrete "thing" or entity but is a partial view of an activity where the boundaries are selected by the observer. (Any lens in only a partial view.) At this point in time there are still many differences of opinion in what constitutes a value network, but all descriptions are attempts to describe a set of relationships that can be visually represented as nodes and linkages. With any description it is easy to confuse the name of the thing with the thing itself (there is a wonderful poem by Adrienne Rich about that and the physicist Richard Feynman expresses a similar idea with a delightful about a conversation with his father in the book The Pleasure of Finding Things Out). It is also important to remember that intangible assets are not directly transacted. I do not sell my competence - I sell a negotiable form of that competence. Given any role in a network I might convert my expertise into a workshop, a series of conversations or consultations, a book, a report - the possibilities are quite large. People who play roles in a network take the assets that they control and convert them into negotiable forms of value that can be extended or offered to others in the network. Another question you are posing here is how is quality of brand maintained across a network? This is also a very good question and one that is much on my mind as well. Valdis likes to say that you are known by the friends you keep. There is a great deal of truth in that. I believe that the quality of the network depends a great deal on the character and quality of those who have influence in the network. Let's take an intangible deliverable such as recognition as an example. There are many people who are actively promoting or supporting the value network perspective. In this larger network is a core community, as you noted, of those who are influencers in the network. Many are authors or noted thought leaders in this and related field, some are practitioners who are using these ideas in their work and sharing their experiences. Recognition of each other's work, research, contributions, experience and authorship is a value that is held by many of those influencers. Many show up in this forum from time to time, some do not - but they are still influencers who hold a value of collaboration and frequently recognize other contributors. On the other hand there are many others who are trying to promote their own ideas of value networks at the same time. They notice it is becoming a "hot topic" and want to capitalize on that with their own offerings and methods. Some of these other offerings are quite carelessly thrown together or lifted directly from the open resource materials with no acknowledgement of others. We have all seen some of these and there are more all the time. Whether or not these attempts at appropriation will dilute the quality of the network depends a lot of the ability of the participants to adhere to the core principles, values and themes that embody the best of value network practice. KM was launched by a small community of practice that was very aware of themselves as a community of practice. A great deal of credit for how quickly the KM "meme" took off was due to several years of work by this group who very quickly were recognized as influencers and thought leaders. The core of their message was very consistent. As other influences came into the KM field the message was indeed diluted and appropriated by technology companies as a way to package document management systems and other technologies. The original messages around intangible assets and communities of practice then got "lost" for a few years and by the time they began to be rediscovered the KM field had been heavily branded as being about content management and technologies. Value network analysis is a generic term and there will be many versions of VNA being offered into the network. ValueNet Works(tm) analysis is a branded methodology that is one of these offerings. What makes this network particularly interesting is that this very robust and proven method is being offered by its developer (me) as an open resource. (This is very different from the proprietary stance of most methodology developers, especially if they happen to be consultancies.) On a much more modest scale this is similar to the way IBM offered several hundred patents as open source to support the Linux community. It completely changed the dynamic and the level of support in that community. The hope is that this offering will serve a similar cohesive purpose. (There is a very reasonably priced qualification offered commercially that provides a way for people to clearly and ethically identify themselves with this brand. It is quite a different claim to say one is a qualified practitioner in or user of the ValueNet Works(tm) method than to simply claim say "I do value network analysis," which could mean anything). The community of practitioners of this method is growing rapidly and this helps maintain the quality of the network brand. In the same open source spirit the GenIsis(tm) application, developed by Oliver Schwabe and around that methodology is also being offered as open source, thus setting a baseline standard for value network visualization tools. A new version of it has just been released, thanks largely to the support of the non commercial Value Networks Consortium that has been organized by John Maloney and funded by companies such as Cisco. The Consortium is also promoting the effort to take the value network data model (also built on that open source methodology) into the standards arena as part of the EBRL movement (Enhanced Business Reporting Language). This configuration of core roles and a strong open source model was not there in the KM field. Will it make a difference here? We believe so. In fact we are planning to expand these open source efforts and build some more robust commercial offerings as well. If people care about the quality of the network and their own "brand" as members of that network then these efforts will pay off for all of us. There is always the risk that the ideas will be appropriated and the network hi-jacked for a very different agenda. The best way to keep this from happening is for the "branded" network to grow quickly and effectively. The way each of us can contribute to that growth is to maintain the quality of your own offerings, embody the qualities and values such as recognition and supporting the work of others in the network, support the open source effort to the best of your ability: through sharing openly your own experience and resources, using and contributing to the open source offerings, supporting the influencers you respect the most and spreading their practices, purchasing and promoting the highest quality offerings, and contributing to the non commercial efforts of entities such as the Value Networks Consortium with membership, sponsorship (if you can engage your company) and participating in events. We are all just people who make mistakes and sometimes disagree and even occasionally disappoint each other. Most of us struggle with bandwidth and multiple obligations as well. However, I firmly believe that the people playing key roles in this network have their hearts and values in the right place and I am personally delighted to be a part of this effort. Like Mark, I believe that this work is an important step towards a more organic complex adaptive systems view of the world. The challenges we face on this planet will require dramatically different ways of interacting and organizing ourselves for action. If we can maintain the integrity and yes, the "brand" of the value network effort then I believe the potential for positive benefit for all is very great. - Verna Allee | 
