Leveraging Digital Networks & Communities by David Casey
Excerpt from the book “ReInhabiting the Village: CoCreating our Future”
Networks are changing the way we live. Humans are more connected than ever before, and we are utilizing the power of the internet to meet each other, organize and assemble, exchange resources and information, finance each others’ endeavors, and interact in many other ways that would have been unthinkable less than 25 years ago.
The purpose of this essay is to leave you, the reader, with tools that will empower you to learn, exchange, find meaningful work, travel, and bring projects into the world.
This essay provides an overview of the current landscape and trends of digital networks and communities, the underlying mechanisms that make them tick, and how they can be leveraged by you to live your dream life.
There are many different kinds of networks. Merrium-Webster provides us with a few definitions for networks:
A system of interconnected lines or channels
An interconnected or interrelated chain, group, or system
A system of computers and other devices that are connected to each other
A group of people or organizations that are closely connected and that work with each other
A usually informally interconnected group or association of persons
Networks are nothing new; in fact they have been an organizing principle for humans over thousands of years before the invention of the internet. For example, the hawala trust network has been functioning for over 1000 years as a global remittance system to move money across the Islamic world. The most interesting network for our purposes is the peer-to-peer (“P2P”) digital community, a new variation on the last definition of network. P2P networks are platforms that facilitate the exchange of resources, information, and other forms of value directly between individuals, often strangers living on opposite sides of the planet.
Digital networks are online platforms that facilitate connections in the real world, which in turn fuel the growth of the network. Digital networks often grow through feedback loops, virtuous cycles of growth driven by individuals interacting with each other through sharing, providing value, and building trust. The dance between “online” and “offline” is critical to the function of a digital network. These networks are interesting because they are openly available tools that give any individual the power to change their lives and change the world around them, because they are accelerating a number of trends towards individual empowerment, openness, innovation, trust, decentralization, sharing, access to resources and information.
TO RAISE NEW QUESTIONS, NEW POSSIBILITIES, TO REGARD OLD PROBLEMS FROM A NEW ANGLE, REQUIRES CREATIVE IMAGINATION AND MARKS REAL ADVANCE IN SCIENCE. Albert Einstein
The Trends. With the capacity to share information instantly with the rest of the world, humans truly have manifested one collective consciousness. The past five years have witnessed an explosion in growth of “sharing economy”networks that facilitate the exchange of value between individuals. The trend is towards increasing individual empowerment through access to resources, informations, and peer networks. “Off-the-shelf ” software gives any one of us the ability to create their own platforms, websites, social networks, and many other tools to connect with each other and exchange information. By the same token, we can now use “crowdsourcing” to educate ourselves, connect to work and travel opportunities, finance our projects, exchange commodities and services. Increased access to information and resources have led to a lower barrier of entry into many markets, driving innovation in nearly every sector of our society. This has led to a renaissance in entrepreneurship that includes independent artists and storytellers, makers, digital nomads, and others empowered by access to create their own realities and share their creations with the world.
Thanks to networks, many large systems that underpin our society are trending from hierarchy towards decentralization, including inside of the world’s largest corporations. Flexibility, adaptability, responsiveness, autonomy, and “crowdsourcing” are being integrated into formerly rigid hierarchical structures. In the financial sector, P2P decentralized cryptocurrency platforms like Bitcoin are beginning to compete with the established international global banking system. Communications networks are headed in a similar direction towards a type of P2P network called a mesh network, where each individual cell phone, modem, and device can become an internet wifi hotspot for public access. In the production of music, art, and manufactured goods, access to tools and software has kicked off a revolution. A decentralized energy production and distribution network is soon to follow, based on renewable sources like wind and solar.
How They Function. Digital networks and communities share common underpinnings and structures that enable them to thrive. Many networks are structured as multi-sided platforms, places where a provider and a seeker can connect. For example, Couchsurfing is a platform that connects a traveler to a host with a couch. In order to function, this system relies on both sides of the platform being populated. In addition to a populated database, the key feature that makes many platforms work is the reputation trail. Trust is the key currency, and an individual paves a reputation trail through positive interactions with other individuals. There is often a common passion or hobby that bonds users together. In the case of couchsurfers, it is the passion for authentic travel experiences and cultural exchange. When these elements are present, people can share resources with each other and co-create a collective pool of social capital — the value of networks. These pools can be thought of as a sort of digital commons where all participants of the network can add value to the collective wealth and enjoy access to it. Sometimes, trust is the only currency and exchange lubricant, and fiat currency (money) is not always needed.
To grow the digital commons, networks crowd-source information and resource availability, utilize. For a network to be truly effective, a useful (and under-used) resource is identified, and the platform provides a method to facilitate its exchange or access. As a network is formed and strengthened by like-minded individuals around the world, it achieves the network effect. Each additional member of the network adds to the
total value. Each resource provider makes the network more attractive for seekers, and visa versa. This is the engine that fuels growth.
Many Sharing Economy platforms operate under these principles. The sharing economy model enables humans to find, trust, and share resources with each other without ever having met in the physical world. Within the sharing economy, it’s important to distinguish between gift-exchange models like Couchsurfing, and profit-driven models like Airbnb.
Why They’re Useful. Networks can be leveraged for just about anything. Three incredibly useful applications of networks are (1) gaining skills and access to education, (2) obtaining access to basic human needs like food and shelter, and (3) building projects and attracting resources to them. Through these networks, you can live the life of your dreams by learning the ancestral tools of self-sufficiency (growing food, building with earth), gaining income-generating skills, finding a job or apprenticeship, tapping international support networks for food and lodging, or launching a project and attract resources to it.
The Networks. Like people, networks come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. One kind of network is the work-exchange model. Work-exchange networks like WWOOF, Workaway, Worldpackers, and Moving Worlds allow you to exchange your time and skills for a place to stay, food, and an experience that ideally provides you with some real-world education. Money is also sometimes exchanged, to balance differences in value being offered by either side. WWOOF is an organic farming network connecting volunteers to hosts. Workaway connects travelers to a broad range of hosts. Worldpackers helps backpackers connect to opportunities at hostels. Moving Worlds connects skilled professionals to meaningful volunteer work with non-government organizations. The best-case scenario will provide you with food and housing, while training you in a valuable skill-set. Often, hosts require a longer-term commitment and some pre-existing skills in order to make this a fair exchange. On the flip-side, Villagecraft is a platform for community skillshares and related events. A related model includes professional networks like Idealist and LinkedIn, platforms that allow you to leverage existing skill sets to search for jobs and professional development opportunities.
The gift-exchange model is unique from work-exchange in that value often flows in only one direction. Individuals can gift things of value to one another, and accumulate “karma points” or increase their reputation and trustworthiness within the community. Couchsurfing operates on the gift-exchange model, as well as a number of platforms based on gifting and points (Freecycle, Listia, Freegan.info), digital versions of the “free stores” of 1960’s Digger fame. Other platforms (Swap) digitalize the ancient art of barter. Home Exchange allows you to swap homes with people across the world. One of my favorites, Shared Earth, connects farmers and gardeners to farmable land, birthing “the largest community garden on the planet.” (Shared Earth)
Dhamma, the Vipassana Meditation network, is a gift-based organization that offers room, board, and education in an ancient meditation technique to individuals. Individuals voluntarily donate time, money, and other gifts to the organization.
Dhamma has received gifts of entire properties to build new retreat centers, steadily growing their organization and serving as a living demonstration of the validity of the gift-exchange business model.
Activation. When you are ready, you can leverage networks to build your project, organization, business, or non-profit. Bringing your dreams to life is a long and rewarding path. It requires determination, clarity of vision, and purity of intention. With these elements present, there are not many limits to what you can build by leveraging networks. The following platforms will provide you with support, guidance, collaborators, workspace, and interest-based communities.
Meetups are a great way to find the people who live in your geographic area and share your interests. Joining an interest-based community is a great way to meet collaborators, supporters, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and business owners who will comprise your local network. The Meetup.com platform allows you to find local interest-based groups and events, and discover what resources exist in your area. For example, organic gardeners convene to transform each others’ backyards into productive garden spaces, while socializing and sharing fresh home-grown produce in potluck-style garden parties. Building your local network and getting connected to local resources is vital, and provides ample opportunities for you to discuss your ideas and ask for feedback and support for your creations.
Networks of physical spaces for co-working, co-living, and co-producing are blooming around the world. Coworking networks like Impact Hub offer membership to community workspaces around the world. Europe-based Hoffice allows anyone to transform their living room into a public coworking space, where others can drop in to work and network. Coliving networks like the Embassy Network and Nomad House are providing live/work space and community to nomads. The Nomadlist is a resource for digital nomads to let each other know best places to live and work around the world. Likewise, hackerspaces and makerspaces are empowering artists and creators with access to workshops stocked full of production tools for manufacturing, welding, carpentry, 3D-printing, and more. Hackerspaces wiki provides a global map, and membership networks like Techshop provide low-cost subscription access to these spaces. The freespace movement is a gift-based variation of a civic innovation space. Many of these venues offer great educational and networking events in the evenings.
Finding a place to live and work and having access to the tools you need is a big step. Mentorship and financing can help you get your project off the ground quickly. Micromentor provides a free mentor-matching service. Mycelium is a network-based education platform designed to accelerate personal and professional development, and structured to mimic an underground fungal network. Financing is also becoming more feasible through leveraging networks. Crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are tools designed for individuals to raise money and build community through small donations from large numbers of people. Angel investor networks like AngelList, CircleUp, and CuttingEdgeX allow investors to purchase small amounts of shares. Incubator and accelerator programs can provide you with mentorship, workspace, and financing to make your idea real. The F6S platform provides a searchable directory of programs that you can apply for.
My Gift. After using many of these networks for years, I decided to build a network for individual transformation and planetary regeneration. Numundo is is a transformational travel network, connecting individuals to transformational experiences at impact centers: retreat centers, ecovillages, Indigenous communities, organic farms and other land-based education centers. Impact centers are the experimental gardens which are growing roots and bearing seeds for a new world that we know is possible. Discover your passion, match passion to purpose, and live a meaningful life. At impact centers, you can grow, share, serve, learn and teach, connect with community, and take the seed of the new world with you as you move through space and time. Through the power of this network and others, my wish for you is to leverage the resources available to you to transform your own life and the world.
Conclusions. The trust-based network is a technology that can be employed to expand human altruism beyond the traditional family and “clan” to an interconnected global community. Through the power of networks, we are co-creating webs of support with the power to uplift individuals, communities, and the well-being of all who inhabit our home planet.
David Casey is a graduate of UC Berkeley in Political Economy of Industrial Societies, with concentrations in Global Poverty & Practice and Energy & Resources. David has lived and worked in seven countries in Latin America, where he has built an extensive network of connections to individuals and organizations. His work has focused on marketing, social networks, experience design, and event production. He is the co-founder and CEO of Project Nuevo Mundo, a platform that connects people and impact centers, encouraging resource sharing on the web and on the ground to catalyze planetary regeneration and individual transformation. PNM has recently been accepted into Startup Chile, a prestigious business accelerator facilitated by the Chilean government. With his strong vision and clear articulation and conviction, he is able to attract wide support from multiple sources in the form of donated labor, land, and financial capital. Among other things, David is also the founder and co-producer of Cosmic Convergence, an annual gathering of art, music, tribal technology, education for conscious living, and Mayan culture on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, and a co-founder of Tribal Alliance Retreat in Costa Rica. David successfully bridges the worlds of technology startups, permaculture, international development, and retreat and festival production.
http://numundo.org
