Every Second Life (SL) and World of Warcraft (WoW) avatar is a person pouring time and resources into community, that every tweet by every tweeter through every Twitter handle is a person who has taken finite time and resources and poured it into community, and every blog post by every blogger are time, energy, and resources that could be spent elsewhere and elsewise, are spent on the blog and this time and energy is shared with the blogger’s community in comments and conversation.
Yes, many thanks to Chris Abraham for putting it so well, and this needs to be said and repeated. Affinity-based intersubjectivity has a shadow and a cost, but is also fundamentally a emancipatory treshold in the history of human intersubjectivity.
Chris Abraham:
“Online communities are not virtual. They don’t exist only in the bits and bytes on the series of pipes known as the interwebs. To the contrary, I have found, in the 26-years that I have been online, that the relationships and bonds that people form online are not only real but in many cases are more authentic because they’re chosen by each member rather than being thrust upon them by history, family, or cultural expectations. Read more at

View Michel Bauwens Guest speaker at our International Executive course

Alan Moore guest speaker at our International Executive course at 30th, 1st of October and 2nd of October.  Preview of his lecture a Penny for his thoughts.

The global economic crisis is a wakeup call to the world: we need to rethink and rebuild many of the organizations and institutions that have served us well for decades, but now have come to the end of their life cycle. The financial services industry, for example, does not just need fresh infusion of capital or some new regulations; it needs a whole new operating model — one based on transparency, sharing of intellectual property and global governance.

Penny For Your Thoughts - Arnold Heertje from Sander Duivestein on Vimeo.”>(See video Arnold Heertje Penny for your thoughts)
As the crisis has spread to other sectors in the economy and even other sectors of society, it is exposing structural weaknesses and modes of operation that no longer nurture social and economic growth. The recent collapse of many newspapers is just one storm-warning of more to come: conventional wisdom isn’t going to cut it for success in this century. We need to reinvent our institutions.Another example: We face no challenge today that is more important than creating a green energy grid and reindustrializing the planet for sustainability. And for the first time in human history, the peoples of the world are building a global movement to solve this problem — a movement in which everyone is on the same side.

So while the burning of the global economic platform is propelling change, simultaneously the digital revolution is driving new opportunities and a new generation of digital natives is entering the workforce, people who think differently and bring a new and much-needed set of skills to our problems.