information technology

Dear Friends,

When I first became aware of the WeStrive community (back when it was called the NetworkM) the thing I was most excited about was the prospect of reimagining our economic relationships within such a community and perhaps being part of a catalyst for broader change in our wider communities.

This was a time when social networking was first being talked about as the next phase in a gradual process of “disintermediation.” Disintermediation is the process whereby relationships (often in the economic sphere) shift from between individual and institution to between individual(s) and individual(s). People are no longer reliant on big banks, or big media corporations, music companies, information providers like newspapers or TV stations – they can find what they need often for free or at least cheaper direct from other sources.

Information technology and the Internet have allowed people to bypass traditional institutional sources of what they need even further. Social networking as the second evolutionary step of the internet is a great possibility not only for people to keep track of each other’s mood swings, holiday plans, or look up old high school crushes, it is now becoming clearly a way for political action to be organized in a viral way between interest groups.