Emergent new world orders.

Scuze the long post but it’s a summation of lots of my thinking recently
and I needed to write it. Please bear with me.

I have been thinking about so many things to do with the nature and
meaning of Social Media – far removed from the ‘hey look at this new
thing’ but what it means in the wider sense – the bigger thing hinted at
but never delivered.

I was disappointed by the lack of tangible differences it has made as
highlighted in my post about the ReBoot Britain event where I came to the
conclusion that the prevalent 'sheep mentality' was clouding everything.
We all said the same thing and hinted at ‘something’ but there were no
tangible conclusions. And that the digiteratii are basically lots of affable folk
meeting up and exchanging pleasantries – but mostly not really doing
anything. Perhaps I am being unfair but it's the very thing that has been
giving people like Hugh MacLeod a lot of his ammunition. And of course the
gaping void between just 'liking' something and actually 'doing' something –
exemplified by those actually doing things are the same people they always
were - but now there’s a lot of people commentating on it. Most of whom
somehow, have attached a belief that they themselves are ‘doing something’.
They are not in reality. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Dell makes millions on Twitter! At what cost?

Now I do accept that there are case studies to show how Twitter has
made Dell millions which we all jump on say ‘See – told you so’ but of
course the reality is that it is just a discount type message and we really
don’t want our conversations interrupted by those sorts of messages
anyway do we? I am worried about the precedence this sets no matter
how cunningly disguised they are – they are still insidious in my book.
The foot in the door as t’were. And I buy all the ‘community’ influence stuff
– but all it boils down to is better customer service right? Am I right?

So what?

So what I have been looking for is the real revolution - the paradigm shift
where WE change because what we know of the world has changed and
where the relationship of everything to everything else becomes altered.
Like the Stone Age becoming The Bronze Age - not because we ran out
of stones, but because something better came along. The real 'Velocity Age'
and all it means for society.

And I have been sort of expecting something to fill the void like some
magical moment where bad things like the edifices of greed and outmoded
Industrial Age structures came tumbling down around our ears to be
replaced by something better. And then I started to examine what it was
that bothered me and why it wasn’t happening. And it boiled down to this:
no-one has yet got round to breaking the stranglehold on the value we
place on money.

An illustration: I did a talk a year or so ago at BBDO World Conference
where I showed a close up of two banknotes:

Which fake is real?

One of them is fake - one a brilliant counterfeit and I asked the audience
which one they thought was the counterfeit. The audience was divided as
there is so little differentiation - same engraving, same paper, same
everything really - so why was it that one had the authority to be declared
currency and one didn’t (can you tell?). Did someone wave a magic wand
over the one batch of paper in a basement somewhere and declare it
currency and the other simply hadn’t been so blessed? Bizarre right?

So here’s the thing - the only thing that made one of them ‘legal currency’
was that it was somehow sanctioned only by OUR belief in it as real
currency, and therefore one could conclude that it is our trust and belief
that makes it so. It's our fault really.

Taking this further I wanted to see how we had got to the point that
we could blindly place such trust in only one artifact despite them
being identical and it transpires that it goes back to the 12/13th century
(according to Douglas Rushkoff who blames the Renaissance
incidentally) where ‘local currency’ was outlawed in favor of the
Kings own currency.

What was local currency?

Let me explain - not teaching to suck eggs but the context is
important. Local currency (in many ways barter) worked on the
principle that whatever I had to trade (beans, bread, sheep, skills
etc) had an immediate and tangible value to my neighbors and
ultimately to the survival of my community. Why did it work? Well let’s
suppose I am a doctor and my neighbor is a baker. If the corn he uses
is poisoned and he trades me his bread for my services and my family
gets ill as a consequence - the impact is on him - the access to a good
doctor, let alone the social stigma he faces. 

And so the rules about how we should trade with each other had
serious consequences individually and socially and as a result an
equilibrium of value was established 'peer-to-peer' which worked
perfectly well for centuries.

Here come the 'Great Pirates'...

Some artisans became experts at what they did and merchants
emerged that traded these superior goods and services between
communities and as a consequence began to get seriously wealthy -
wealthier than the kings who sought to establish authority through
divine right and ultimate power (just look at how the baubles and
embellishments of state were displayed to intimidate and underpin
ultimate authority). And of course this posed a problem in regaining
authority.
(see Bucky Fullers thoughts on the Great Pirates for more).

And so the Kings abolished local currency - made it illegal - and
introduced their own so they could control their subjects and indeed
make money out of money itself (through interest) so they wouldn't
have to do any work themselves but could accumulate and earn
from others endeavors. Seems a bit unfair doesn't it? And of course
this meant that you were now given money to trade with that you had
to pay back, more than you borrowed – which lead to competition and
the need for growth - rather than the natural symbiotic relationship
between communities based on mutually agreed values.

So where do we go from here? (not down to the lake I fear ;)

Well it seems the real opportunity - perpetuated through Social Media
- is to have some sort of re-evaluation of this through new peer-to-peer
currencies based on respect, trust, kindness, generosity, altruism as
well as individual value based skills that have a value perhaps only
to an individual in specific need of them.

And now our social-based technology is allowing us to find and connect
these people - the whole conversations as markets with a twist.

And one such 'project' if you can call it that, has caught my eye is VEN
run through something called Hub Culture. Here's what they say about
themselves:

'our core mission is to help elevate collective consciousness, Hub tries
to make sure the projects it promotes and develop have a socially
sustainable benefit. The net impact of any project should be positive on
five key indicators by which we measure success: sustainability, social
good, environmental impact, efficiency and bottom-of-the-pyramid
empowerment.'

It is based on the thought that you can trade your skills and good will for
currency - do a good deed or a favour and earn social currency for it or
buy it and use it to trade on a different mutually created value system.
Now this is potentially dangerous stuff because it means that markets
will develop that go around the banks in many areas of commerce
and endeavor.

An end to debt?

A mortgage is potentially the biggest investment you will ever make -
the thing that keeps you rooted in a spiral of work and debt - where
the banks get the majority their money from and which causes nearly
all of our current world problems. In future you'll still need regular
currency but - in future perhaps you might get someone to build you a
house, on a piece of land that you have traded something other than
money for without resorting to the unwilling reliance on punitive bank
interest rates.

I have a lot more to say about all this but for now I urge you to look at
VEN and the HUB and to try it - I am just beginning - but this seems
to me to be the first step into a completely different paradigm - one that
truly changes the game and one that I am very hopeful about.

Here's a nice vid from the Wall Street Journal about it that explains it in
more detail. Its not too long and worth a look:

I would be interested in your thoughts about what this means and how it
could develop as it really is the next step on the road on the real impact
of Social Media above and beyond the obvious stuff being endlessly debated.