Ubuntu

see Wikipedia entry for Ubuntu, jeong, and other glossary entries

Humannness

Mugendi M Rithaa (Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa) spoke about this word in a design context at the Changing the Change conference in Turin, Italy (10th, 11th and 12th July 2008). He used the term 'Ubuntu' to mean 'humanness' as a driver for positive social change.

From the me to the we

Ubuntu (a Nguni Bantu word) means "humanity" but is sometimes interpreted as

• "I am because we are"
• "I am because you are"
• "humanity towards others"
• "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity". (see jeong)

A foundational idea

Ubuntu has been used by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a founding principle for the new republic of South Africa (Wikipedia, 2008)
Ubuntu is similar to the idea of potential realisation and is an important in the creation of team spirit
It might help us to understand the emergent nature of the roles designers adopt working within metadesign teams
Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote this in 1999:

• A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.