Hello!
Posted by Vida in Because Life Prevails. Always. on May 14th, 2009
I have a strong need to connect and communicate with you. About who I am and more importantly about who YOU are.
About our collective future, our place in the world and about these exciting times.
I spend a lot of time thinking about “Human Potential” and a new realm of untapped possibilities.
I long for a stronger sense of self and a restored sense of community for myself, our youth and the world at large. All my work is concentrated in this arena. It entails cutting edge Web technologies, community development and entrepreneurship.
A new world is emerging before us and from within. Our scientists, artists and “open source” engineers are all working towards a more horizontal and conscious world as we speak.
So, stay with me here. Let us connect, communicate and collaborate around our new ideas and new initiatives. Stay and communicate because what we do today, will determine how we live tomorrow and because this century is the most significant time period in the history of mankind.
I look forward to talking to you soon and often.
Much Love;
Vida Mas
No Time Like This Time
Posted by Vida in Because Life Prevails. Always. on November 10th, 2008
On these pages, I hope to share my thoughts with you about some of our real-life social and economic issues and why I think Web technologies can play a significant role in solving most of them. I would also like to discuss with you why I think this is not happening just yet, and why it may never happen if you and I do not play our role during this very important time frame.
I would like to share my ideas with you and start a conversation that leads us to a new collaborative space. Ideas that have consumed and inspired me for more than a decade; all of which have arisen out of necessity as a small business owner, as a Mom, as a Baby Boomer, as an ordinary citizen and as a simple human being.
But more importantly, I want to hear your ideas and your thoughts.
There is a widening gap, an unintentional gap, between those who drive these technologies and the population at large. It is possible to bridge this gap and create more connected, sustainable communities, where more and more people can participate and prosper. The time for this is now and this is your show as much as anybody else’s.
From Wall Street to Main Street
Posted by Vida in Because Life Prevails. Always. on October 15th, 2008
For more than a decade, I have been astonished and overwhelmed by the magic of the Web, yet underwhelmed by its application and influence on our social and economic well being.
The wealth gap is at its peak, the digital divide keeps widening, the middle class is shrinking and the small is starving! And we all know that I am not being dramatic here.
In 1955, 1/3 of the US GDP was controlled by Fortune 500 companies. Their portion grew to more than half by year 2000 and still going strong. This basically means that thousands of family farms, Mom & Pop stores and other small businesses are replaced by Wall Mart, Agribusiness and other large companies. This basically means that “small is NOT beautiful”!
Circa 2008, tides may start turning again. With Wall Street faltering and fluctuating dramatically, we inevitably start looking into Main Street as an alternative to our livelihood. We have to.
The trouble is that this sector has not been sexy for a long time. For one thing it is about the old and tired. Also it makes our head hurt because it’s fragmented, it’s vast, it’s messy and it represents the real world, and we really don’t want to deal with that, do we? So, no infrastructure has been built here, online or offline to strengthen this sector due to its complexity and organic messiness.
Main Street is about the local reality, it’s about the small business, about the little guy making a buck and reinvesting it in his own local economy and not in an indifferent and distant investment fund. Main Street doesn’t reinforce our fascination with the big and the glamorous. Who cares about the bakery, and the other little guys anyway? Even if they produce half of our bread and butter = GDP year after year? So, we didn’t put much attention here. If we did, we wouldn’t have 90% small business failure rate. Would we?
In reality, it has not been so easy to build a solid infrastructure here either. This is a non-linear jurisdiction. Too many people, too many variables, too much risk and slow returns. Our algorithms can’t quite predict every behavior here!
But look again and take notice, because our unsexy Main Street corners start looking awfully attractive again, especially with energy costs sky rocketing and massive off-shore outsourcing culture causing holes in our economy. Take notice of Main Street as a significant economic engine, re-establishing a horizontal wealth distribution system and a better economic model again.
But above and beyond all this, take notice of Main Street because it’s about our own human capital and potential HERE and NOW. Because it’s about hidden talents and treasures in each and every corner of our own communities waiting to be untapped, and because it’s about a world that is real and that alone makes it sexier than the fantasy of “Big Fluff”.
Tides do turn and Walls do fall. And once again, this is happening in preparation of a new wave to come. A New Wave of Inclusion; that which is initiated by us, ordinary people and enabled by the magic of the Web, at last…
The Man In The Arena
Posted by Vida in Because Life Prevails. Always. on April 24th, 2008
The Man In the Arena
by Theodore Roosevelt
(From a speech delivered in Paris in 1910)
It is not the critic who counts,
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled,
or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena;
whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again;
who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly;
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who know neither victory or defeat.
The Miracle of “Open Source” - Land of the free and the unknown
Posted by Vida in Because Life Prevails. Always. on April 13th, 2008
There is a place, a space where “code” leads to freedom and brotherhood. Tap into it and your life will not be the same again. A place so unknown to the rest of us, it’s not even funny.
Years ago, I watched the birth and expansion of “Open Source”, a software source code distribution model. It moved me, intrigued me and made me intensely curious, however it remained mysterious like a distant melody. Then one day, due to necessity, I started talking to some of those incredible “Geeks” online, asking questions, delving into codes and the magic grabbed me.
Representing a culture of its own, the “Open Source” model shows us a whole new way of creation and distribution. It’s an ecosystem that gets richer, better and more sustainable as more people collaborate and participate at their own pace with their own available resources. It’s a true symbiotic relationship between the “part” and the “whole”. Remember that beautiful story of “Stone Soup”?
This one is no fairy tale though. It is happening as we speak and it has been happening for more than a decade around anything that could be created and distributed digitally. Our fantastic “Geeks” are years and years ahead of us working hard at tearing down the walls. In so doing, they hope to bring the magic to the rest of us. I will be talking about this much more extensively.
Open Source is a magnificent model for bottom-up, grassroots participation and collaboration. It allows for gradual, minimal as well as massive participation all at the same time with equitable returns for all participants. It works well where scarcity of resources are more pronounced and in local communities where distribution of non-digital goods are accomplished with more ease. It is simply magic!
Regardless of how Utopian or far fetched this may sound, it is merely a matter of time that a paradigm shift as significant as this will occur in our local communities.
Remember Leonard Cohen? ” There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
