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 much 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

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.

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…

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.

]]> http://www.vidamas.com/homepage/?feed=rss2&p=142 1 http://www.vidamas.com/homepage/?p=36 http://www.vidamas.com/homepage/?p=36#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:31:53 +0000 Vida http://vidamas.com/homepage/?p=36 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.”

“For thousands of years, we knew exactly what markets were: conversations between people who sought out others who shared the same interests. Buyers had as much to say as sellers. Market leaders were men and women whose hands were worn by the work they did. Their work was their life, and their brands were the names they were known by: Miller, Weaver, Hunter, Skinner, Farmer, Brewer, Fisher, Shoemaker, Smith.” (Cluetrain Manifesto)

Life expanded through perpetual flow of relationships within units and communities. “One to One” relationships were the building blocks.

Then came the “Industrial Age” with its shipping possibilities. We went beyond boarders, and the conversation was lost. It was lost in translation, and in vast impersonal infrastructures. It was the beginning of mass production, assembly lines and mass markets pushing mass consumption. It was the beginning of a “One to Many” model resulting in polarization and isolation. We called it “Commerce”, and the notion of “One to One Markets” was slowly forgotten.

Then came the “Information Age” with its digital capabilities. We pushed the goods and services farther, faster and more efficiently and we called it E-commerce. It promoted linear, vertical, hierarchical thinking and rewarded the ones with the tools. Economic Democracy became as foreign as “One to One First Markets”.

It’s not over yet. Now comes the “Conversation and Participation Age”, where “One to One” is back and in style again, and tools become widely accessible. Watch for a day when peer to peer E-commerce brings the magic of personal interactions and transactions to us. It is here already and it will not go away as long as you continue to engage in the conversation.

I will be writing more about this as it presents the fundamental core of my work. Stay with me here.

Boomers and older entrepreneurs now account for 54 percent of self-employed workers with a growth rate of 29 percent. Seeking self satisfaction and financial independence, they work hard and plan to be a big part of the future. Their choice of staying active and choosing self employment can have a profound impact on the economy, both from the perspective of new job creation and decreased tax burden on the labor force. Web technologies can enable them as they strive for independence and self-sufficiency.

But, this generation works differently and plays differently. Outside of banking, email and other simple applications, web services remain underutilized by them. This is not due to lack of advanced or sophisticated technologies, rather due to a lack of direct collaboration between Boomers and an industry that is driven and run by young developers. This is a gap that can be bridged with little effort.

Imagine tapping into this vast, underserved market while enabling these Boomers as they continue to fuel the economy and live a more productive life.

Imagine the impact of their success on local economies and health systems in tangible and intangible ways.

Is it worth acknowledging the “Boom”?

Last year, on December 11, 2007, I bought one ticket feeling both desperate and lucky. That week, I had worked really hard to figure out the ins and outs of various applications. I had struggled with code – HTML, CSS, etc. all week and was feeling lost, clueless and hopeless.

Brian Gardner, the developer whose services I use, was available but I felt ashamed to ask him the same simple questions repeatedly. By mid-day on December 11th, I knew I was lost, yet I kept at it. I searched Youtube for tutorials. I ran searches in my “Open Source” community. I posted questions on Brian’s support forum and kept insisting. It was a long, strange day. Hours went by and by the end of the day, I had most of my questions answered by one source or another, all by people who were offering their skills and their knowledge for free. By 9:00 p.m. that day, I knew my life would never be the same again. I had learned that I can find answers to almost any question as long as it could be digitally delivered. I learned that there was a magic parallel world out there, completely hidden to me and many others.

On my way back home, I checked my lotto ticket. I had not won a cent of course. But I couldn’t care less. I went on smiling as I felt richer than ever. I had won my way that day.

I had tapped into the collective intelligence. The true fountain of wealth.

• I am convinced that creative use of our advanced technologies can lead us to new “Wealth Generation” and “Wealth Distribution” models.

• I am consumed with this notion and believe that by strengthening our local economy, small and micro businesses, we can tap into yet unseen new markets and wealth. I have designed simple solutions towards development of this process.

…………………

The first phase of this project focuses on making it all easier by bringing the “platform”, the “process” and the “products” together all at the same time; with individual’s pace and place in mind. All the technological resources are available to make this happen NOW.

I will be writing much more about the urgency and necessity of this project in my blog.

…