Tag: global social

NeighborGoods = Good Neighbors

On May 12, 2010

When I moved to LA out of college (many years ago), I would always pick up a magazine called The Recycler. The Recycler was a used-stuff magazine localized by proximity in a vast and complicated City of Los Angeles. I bought my motorcycle, skies, concert tickets, furniture, and tools – all at incredible savings.

After a while, I began to notice that most of my friends – the people who I rode with, skied with, went to concerts with, and shared hobbies with – were in some indirect way connected through The Recycler. I soon began to strategically use The Recycler to buy, sell and trade stuff for the sole purpose of meeting interesting people. I was finding parties, events, and communities that I would never have been exposed to otherwise. When the Aerospace industry crashed, I turned to my community for employment. It flat out worked and I experienced a remarkable transition into … etc.

Good Neighborhoods start with good interaction

My new favorite social networking concept is from Micki Krimmel, CEO of NeighborGoods, LLC. I had the pleasure of meeting Micki at the Future of Money and Technology Summit in San Francisco. NeighborGoods is a brilliantly simple concept where people in a neighborhood can list items that they are willing to lend or rent to others. This application is scaled to a highly localized community in our social landscape otherwise scaled to the automobile, commercial centers, and the Global Internet itself.

The Social Media Imperative

It has long been my contention of Social Media that nothing happens until the rubber meets the road; where people get together to actually produce something. In fact, the ‘corporation’ is an example of a hyper-local environment. It is also my prediction that as financial constraints sever the ties of traditional corporate structures, many of the functions of corporations and government are shifting to social media.

For this reason, applications such as NeighbborGoods will serve – no, they must serve – a greater role in unifying communities. I know this sounds really clinical, but Micki’s work is supported by urban theory luminaries such as Jane Jacobs, Richard Florida, and Robert Putnam.

NeighborGoods from sparky rose on Vimeo.

GNP: Gross Neighborhood Product

The problem is that outside the construct of a corporation, there is no accounting system for the social value that strong neighborhoods produce. There is no measure in America’s gross domestic product for the value generated by unified communities. There is no line item on the balance sheet of industrial and corporate concerns for active, diverse, and well-balanced communities.

Yet, tangential evidence abounds.

There are plenty of data that suggest that vibrant and unified communities attract active and productive people. Companies locate jobs to productive communities. Home prices are more stable in these communities. Crime and delinquency is reduced. Silicon Valley itself is cited as a perfect mixture of social capital, creative capital, and intellectual capital in it’s communities. The best way to decrease the size of government, create jobs and create wealth is to unify neighborhoods.

Use it or lose it

While the dollar-denominated monetization of NeighborGoods may appear modest, however, the true social value that NeighborGoods brings into a community is off the charts.

Every municipality, chamber of commerce, economic development agency or anyone claiming to politically liberate or conserve anything in America should be looking at solutions designed and developed by visionary social entrepreneurs and community leaders like Micki Krimmel and NeighborGoods.

Forget Social Networks; Enter The Social Force Field

By Admin

On April 19, 2010

In General Information

The interior exterior:

Force Field Analysis in Social Sciences analysis reflected on how things are accomplished or hindered by the way that people internalize external experiences in the process of their own psychological development.

Now, suppose that an individual goes out and influences social situations in their community. Also suppose that social media could amplify the persons exterior impact – this would likewise impact internal psychology, etc., setting up a form of polarity between two positions. The greater the difference (diversity) in those positions, the greater the potential (energy state) of the outcome.

The “Local Social” Force Field

I met with some old friends yesterday. He’s an professional engineer and she is a psychologist. They are also winemakers and very active members of the local Rotary club. She sits on 3 local boards from children’s museum, to local hospital, symphony, etc. He is a tireless volunteer for several charitable organizations and runs a Haiti Earthquake relief project. At least one of them is mentioned in the local paper several times per year.

They Show up.

These types of folks constantly cross paths in a small city and become friends and collaborators. They buy each other’s raffle tickets and auction items at the fund raisers. They laugh easily and heartily. They are generous with their time. They always have something interesting and insightful to say. They are constantly offering to make a connection, facilitate an introduction or offer a up tidbit of inside information to the newcomer.

Now, they are slowly migrating to Facebook.

What the heck do they need social media for? They don’t need to expand their reach. They don’t need to market themselves. They don’t need to build a community – they are community. They don’t need to have a blog to establish themselves as experts or sell a “10 steps” book, or insulate themselves from public opinion.

Something entirely different is happening.

Social media is about to enter a new phase called “local social”. The hyperlinks that bind the web will become the hyperlinks that bind a community. The difference is that hyperlinks in “Global Social” environment converge down to specific information, Hyperlinks in Local Social will diverge up to diverse knowledge assets.

For example; The local engineer’s blog will share links with the winemaker’s blog, the community college blog, the mayor’s blog, the chamber of commerce blog, the dentist’s blog, the insurance agent’s blog, the banker’s blog, … etc.

Social media will produce extraordinary results in “Local Social” by picking up where the traditional economy is faltering. Local social rewards high integrity and punishes low integrity. Local Social will drive fraud prevention, security, job creation, innovation diffusion, asset allocation, wealth distribution, community activism, entrepreneurism, and social services. The Local Social forcefield creates, stores, and exchanges real value.

This is not a social networking event, oh, no, no, no. Nothing ever happens until people get together and build something. The new economic paradigm is not a social network, it’s a social forcefield. Get in it or stay out of the way.

Local Social vs. Global Social

By Admin

On March 23, 2010

In General Information

The two forces among us.

One is a social media culture enabled by the Internet to span the globe, cross all oceans, and reach nearly 20% of the population of the Earth. Wow.

The other is much older, much larger, and far more powerful. It is a social media culture that spans the neighborhood, unites communities, and organizes society. This one reaches 100 percept of the people on Earth. Now, this too is being enabled by the Internet. Wow.

Think globally act locally…or is it think locally and act globally?

Global Social and Local Social each have a different focus, different vetting mechanisms, different advantages and often disadvantages. Each has different rules of engagement, different social expectations, and different long term / short term memory standards. Each has a different cadence, stress valves, and damage control systems. The more you look at them, the more different they are.

They will diverge, then converge.

Neither can be in focus at the same time – they can only be contrasted. Seeing the forest and the trees together effectively encrypts data, causes misinterpretation of important features, and loses track of causation. Ironically, clarity is most often achieved by old school face-to-face encounters. That’s no secret.

Money happens because people happen, not the other way around

The great opportunity for the all modes of transportation, tourism, recreation, entertainment, lodging, and every “experience enterprise” from Starbucks to Whitewater Safari is to provide the fabric for Global Social to integrate with Local Social.

Value is stored, shared, and exchanged by people in close proximity to each other and therefore a great amount of value can be created through the facilitation of strategic face-to-face encounters. As simple as this may sound, nobody else is doing it because nobody else can.

Image Source

Tag: global social

NeighborGoods = Good Neighbors

Forget Social Networks; Enter The Social Force Field

Local Social vs. Global Social

Support the Ingenesist Project