The Marketplace
I spoke to my friend and web wizard, Michael DuBois, the other day. Michael is involved in the online life of many evolutionary initiatives including his own Integral Visioning and others like Shift in Action, Integral Naked Forum, METTA Center for Nonviolence Education, Easily Amazed and more. He was explaining to me his perception of an interesting phenomena in the technical world. He’s noticed that often geeks will ride in on a wave of cutting edge social software. They will get the systems installed and then kind of disappear, riding the wave out just as they rode it in. He’s found himself in situations where he is being hired to help nurture the current online structure, integrating various threads that are present, possibly exploring the cutting edge of online integration.
Like many of us, this work is a labor of love for him. He is involved in projects that he sees as adding value and resources to the world, supporting the evolution of consciousness and providing tools to assist collective intelligence.
He shared some of what he is observing in the online world; what social, theoretical, and spiritual sites are flourishing, are being recognized by the populace, are being recognized by the thinkers, etc. I was inspired and moved by his awareness and the ways in which he is using his talents and learning from what is already being done.
I felt called to ask: “What do you need to be supported?”
Taken back, he said…. “Well, business advice. I started doing this work as a hobby, volunteering my services. My skills have grown so much and as more and more people are contacting me it is becoming more of an official business. It’s been so long since I started up a new business and this is different because it’s not about a product, but a service where a lot of the activity takes place online. I need some business consulting and some help with accounting.”
Hearing this, my mind and heart started spinning: What if it were that simple… What if we express our needs, articulating the simplest, most elegant offering that would further our ability to share more fully our gifts with the world, and then as a community we find ways to support one another, encouraging each of us to show up fully, offering our gifts, receiving and flourishing. What if…..
And so I wonder… What do you need? What do you have to offer? (and do you know anyone who is interested in doing some business consulting with a friend of mine?) In my dream world every community has a marketplace where we can share offerings and requests with one another.
