web2.0

From the Department of Wild Hypotheses

(update: providing a concrete example at the end of the text)

Second Life, OpenSim, web2.0, open source stuff are pointing to a possible different future for the global economy. In a very negative sense, this future announces itself through the current financial crisis. In a positive sense, extreme customization, collaboration and more egalitarian organizations make part of a bifurcation of the development of capitalism. However, there is a very considerable danger that the other part of the bifurcation may prevail: a more protectionist, authoritarian version of capitalism.

The basis of my hypothesis is the text The Depression: A Long-Term View from Professor Immanuel Wallerstein.

I am almost through my first week of the Connectivism course. I must admit that I felt a bit lost, as most participants did, but I don't mind. I know that feeling lost can very well mean one is experiencing and learning something new.

The "learning" is partly an exercise in absorbing academic theories, but also a practice, and experiencing developments we were already aware of, but experiencing them in a more intense way.

Thinking all this over, I have a suggestion for my favorite group in Second Life, Metanomics: we should open up our activities, discuss and study broader issues than Second Life or even Virtual Worlds. Of course, virtual worlds are very important and illustrate dramatically crucial developments of this day and age, but I think we should think beyond virtual worlds.