Moving from "Socializing" to "Collaborating - the next Internet

Chapter 11—Creating a Collaborative Network-an Evolution of Social Networking Extracted from the book “Vision – We are Re-Creating the World: A resource manual – “tool-box” – for revitalization and empowerment through grass-roots efforts and environmental awareness.”

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.

There is a Vision - IAmSharing
I began to looking at the phenomena of networking on the Internet in about 1997 for my PhD research. In fact the primary theory that I used is called “actor-network theory”. Some of the findings of that research are included in this chapter. The main idea for I Am Sharing is to evolve the tools that we have been given to gain greater benefit for humanity. The following is the development of this idea for a “collaborative network.” The reason why I Am Sharing has been chosen is because the inspiration for this came just one month after my father passed. This may or may not be the actual name for the first network that we create, but for the purposes of this essay and discussion, this is the name I will use.

I have been slowly evolving ideas and discussion about the I Am Sharing network. It was first conceived in February 2007. I posted an Alpha website, which I have included a screenshot of. Then, sometime in 2008, I created a Ning network, - this network is not functioning as of April 2010, Ning decided to stop free services). The following are some of the ideas and concepts that have been written, including specific ideas and “mock-ups” of the various pages.

Introduction Posted on January 5, 2009 at the “alpha” version of I Am Sharing at Ning.

Dear Friends,
There is a vision for IAmSharing - it's a vision of Love and the One. To that end, we must bring people out of the confusion of thoughts, beliefs, fears, and dramas and traumas of the world. There is "Only Love" as John Prine sings in the beautiful song with the same title. The process is one of "Building Bridges". IAmSharing – The Conceptual Foundation of Creating a Collaborative Network The title of my PhD dissertation is "Nature Tourism in Cyberspace: an examination of its geography and character in the network".

My work, experiences and studies have given me insights into the potential of the Internet to help the "little guy" and the disenfranchised. I see there is an opportunity to, in a way, follow the Wal-Mart model to extend services to rural places, but instead of selling people a bunch of stuff, we can empower them to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true (education, personal empowerment, etc), and improve the quality of life in small communities and for the people we reach.



Figure C11-1: The sites "Coming Soon" notice was posted on May 29, 2007.

Our endeavor here is to capture a new audience that might have a desire to share a little bit more about themselves to a like minded community of people. The phenomena of online communities (Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Yahoo personals, True.com, Ecademy, etc.) are expanding, but the meaning or substance that they portray, in my opinion, is shallow. David Peat, writing about Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity suggests that “meaning” is the substance or the bridge between mind and matter – the glue of synchronicity. I believe “meaning” is truly at the core of what we are all searching for spiritually through our connections with people and the natural world. We accumulate “meaning” through the experiences of our lives. My vision is to create a community of people who want to share their stories (successes?) with the world, or at least the community of like minded people within the I Am Sharing community. At the same time, and maybe more importantly, show their connections to people who have helped them accomplish what they have – and to tell their stories too. That is what I want to do.

Click the following link to download chapters of "Vision - We Are Re-creating the World, a Resource Manual "tool-box" for Revitalization and Empowerment Through Grass-roots Strategies and Environmental Awareness.