Noteworthy & Nearby
The Internet offers chat rooms, list-servers, e-mail, web-cameras, search engines, millions of web pages and billions of users.
This unprecedented resource is creating unprecedented problems. No matter where we are or who we are with these days, our attention is often elsewhere.
We talk with distant people while we drive and dine. We text one another while climbing stairs, crossing streets and failing to see trains.
Community databases demonstrate how these technologies could achieve more wholesome outcomes.
By helping people share experiences, form local economies and organize team shopping adventures, community databases help individuals negotiate with governments and corporations from positions of strength.
Examples:
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If you agree that collective bargaining could
- increase consumers' purchasing power,
- reduce frivolous commercial activities and environmental footprints,
- support local manufacturing and community supported agriculture .
Forget FaceBook and YouTube. We need networks that make positive differences in lives and communities.
The idea is simple: let others know what you intend to purchase and how to get in touch with you. When ten or twenty or a hundred individuals ... form platoons of shoppers, the resulting bargaining strength could save time and money, reduce environmental footprints and give consumers a say in how business is conducted!
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Finally, technologically sophisticated economies divide persons into workers and consumers. Corporations and politicians have been rushing into the resulting 'opportunity-spaces' with profit-taking stratagems and authoritarian measures.
Fight back!
The Internet offers amazing ways to communicate: chat rooms, list-servers, e-mail, web-cameras, search engines, millions of web pages and billions of users.
Unfortunately, these resources have also spawned problems. No matter where we are or who we are with these days, our attention is often elsewhere. We talk with distant people while driving and dining. We text one another while dying because we did not see the train coming.
Community databases demonstrate how these same technologies could promote wholesome communities and relationships.
By networking buyers and sellers, organizing individuals into bargaining groups and local economies, Community databases provide ways for individuals to negotiate with corporations and governments from positions of strength.
)
Ψ
If you agree that collective bargaining could
- increase consumers' purchasing power,
- reduce frivolous commercial activities and environmental footprints,
- support local manufacturing and community supported agriculture .
Forget FaceBook and YouTube. We need networks that make positive differences in lives and communities.
The idea is simple: let others know what you intend to purchase and how to get in touch with you. When ten or twenty or a hundred individuals ... form platoons of shoppers, the resulting bargaining strength could save time and money, reduce environmental footprints and give consumers a say in how business is conducted!
Ψ
Finally, technologically sophisticated economies divide persons into workers and consumers. Corporations and politicians have been rushing into the resulting 'opportunity-spaces' with profit-taking stratagems and authoritarian measures.
Fight back!