future

Nanotechnology is the umbrella term encompassing any science concerned with the manipulation of matter at a molecular or atomic scale, almost as if using individual atoms as tiny little legos. 

It still amazes me how the Internet can reach across the globe and connect people who would have never otherwise met.  I feel fortunate to have found a community like EmpowerThyself.  I know we can do good things here. 

Ideas about the Future

Right now, there are a number of technologies converging on the Internet--xml, p2p, user moderation, gpg, web of trust, page scraping, collaborative computing, onion routing, etc.  A lot of the ideas that have been floating around this site promise to harness these convergences in exciting new ways.   

More and more, people are realizing that they have a voice.  This site has the potential to empower people in two ways--by spreading knowledge (education), and helping people to find their voice (which is encouraging relevant new dialogue).  

Hopefully, we'll be able to provide a flexible new way to link resources and people together from all over.  There is a lot of potential building rapidly at the moment.   If we can successfully combine all the best ideas and resources (without becoming reliant on them) our community will be useful.  

And if we combine this usefulness with fun and ease of use, we will thrive.  

I think the gold stars (userpoints) module is a fantastic idea.  In the future, it might even be possible to expand to different types of stars for different activities.   Who knows?  As simple of a concept as it is, the stars can add a little boost of motivation. 

New ideas about motivation and the reasons we do things have recently begun to congeal.  This is manifested in things like free and open source software, online communities (with volunteer and user moderation), and ideas like gift economies and time-based economies.  The desire for independence and creative expression, combined with a growing unhappiness with our current hyper-consumerist economy has led a lot of people to get into a DIY type of lifestyle, opening many peoples' eyes to new methods for happiness.  

It's cool to share again

Remember when you were a kid and  you were always told to share, sharing is good, sharing makes you feel all warm inside, better to give than receive and all that?  Did you ever get it?  That warm feeling that makes you actually understand what the person was talking about with the Better to Give thing.   

A lot of people are capturing that feeling again.  Communities are coming together both online and in real life, bonding together in ways that haven't existed for decades, and sometimes in completely new ways.  

This has become especially true on the Internet.  Zero-sum isn't always the hard rule of the Internet.  Digital media allows for win-win situations (meaning, you can have your cake and eat it, too).  Volunteering can also allow for win-win--if you enjoy the work you're doing, or you derive satisfaction from it's completion, you win, plus whoever is getting the benefits of your work wins, also.  The people over at Altruists.org have a lot of interesting writing on this sort of thing--and what's more, they're actually working on doing some things about it.  

This, I believe is at least part of what lxpk and I were talking about the other day--acting as glue for the community.  If we can provide support for the people and communities that are already out there doing good, empowering things, and link the benefits and services and people, our effectiveness (and the services/resources being linked) becomes exponentially increased.  

Part of what we need to focus on, I believe, is new ways to interact with the other empowering projects.  If we can do that, there's no telling what we could change.