[1]One of the central compoents of the Connected Age is the disaggregation of lots of things; news through blogs and websites; buying and selling products on sites like E-Bay and Amazon.com; government and politlcal information using websites like opensecrets.org. But there has also been the disaggregation of financial capital -- which often leads to an increse in social capital. Here are two recent examples:
I had a wonderful visit with the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center [2] in downtown Indy yesterday. Loved learning more about their asset-based approach to building communities.
Loved even more the story that Josh Bowling told and I wanted to share it here as well. Josh lives in a changing neighborhood — that hasn’t changed yet. They’ve been trying to recruit small store owners to drop down roots in the neighborhood.
This past summer a local resident decided to open a deli and raise the capital by posting his business plan on Prosper.com [3]. Quickly, $7,000 was raised, mainly by neighbors, and the deli is going to open soon. And, as Josh pointed out, not only did the deli owner raise financial capital but the neighborhood created social capital with all of the loaners really committed to the success of the deli and to ensure that they get their money back.
Max Stephenson [4] launched his own email fundraising campaign to raise money for college tuition at NYU. He emailed 300 friends and family and so far has raised almost $6,000 from more than 2,000 people. The best part of Max's plan is to offer each donor a piece of his graduating cap and gown as the return on their investment -- plus, of course, the personal satisfaction of helping an enterprising Social Citizen afford college!
Capital without intermediaries and institutions getting in the way — hooray for the Connected Age!
*photo credit: flickr user d70focus [1]
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