The joy of Sharing

Have you ever wondered how the ants seem to always find the shortest path to food source? Or the termites seem to coordinate themselves to build those large mud structures? Some people, regard this as collective intelligence. There is no real intelligence, those creatures coordinate themselves indirectly by leaving traces into their own environment, so that other can eventually act upon it. Termites are not even aware of each other, they are instead genetically driven to build those large structures, where they live. So by aggregating the work of many small independent agents nature enables the creation of structures whose value is often much larger than the sum of its parts.

We believe that todays social framework based on hierarchy and competition is not the only way we can organize ourselves. Imagine that we could coordinate ourselves in a much more organic and distributed manner, just like ants, but without giving up on the complexity and will that is characteristic of human societies. We can do that, people have been imitating nature with great success.

The greater is the number of people collaborating towards a common goal, the harder it becomes for others to stay away and compete against it. Competition is not part of human nature, but is today the dominant strategy. We now have tools that can help us work together and collaborate in a global scale. if we properly deploy those tools we could tomorrow perhaps make cooperation more profitable than competition.

Lets celebrate the Global Sharing Week - http://www.thepeoplewhoshare.com/global-sharing-week/ with our small community in DC, by sharing some of our favorite things with each other. Bring your former favorite clothing item to swap it, a dish or beverage that you would like to share and a skill that you want to show others or some interesting thoughts and stories, and come and learn more about the collaborative economy and the different global and local communities that bring these to our neighborhoods. Alongside we will be accompanied with some live music to create a community atmosphere worthwhile to hangout. This event is free and open to everyone, just don't forget to RSVP.