Here’s some nostalgia for you: the dial-up modem sound.
If your brain isn’t already replaying the distinct sound of that theatrical dial tone followed by incessant buzz, let me remind you.
Interestingly, the sound that preceded an (often unreliable) internet connection still exists in The Museum of Endangered Sounds, accompanied by Nokia ringtones, the sound of television static, and Tetris. Am I unlocking more memories?
Now, if that hasn’t teleported your mind back to 2002, your nostalgia might be prompted by references to popular platforms of the time including MySpace, MSN messenger and Limewire.
It was a time where internet in the home was a luxury, often reserved for the wealthy. Working from home was barely a concept, and the idea of renting someone else’s house or securing a lift with someone over the internet might’ve brought you out in a cold sweat.
Our relationship with the internet, how we used it, and connected to it, was a far cry from the internet we know today.
Mobile users today account for 91% of online traffic, suggesting that on the whole, we are always online.
Technology is helping us promote balance, opportunity and inclusion, allowing users to monetise their hobbies, assets and skills and connect businesses to customers safely and efficiently.
An extended economy
The internet has been the foundation for the sharing economy to flourish, and a new world in which we can control when and where we work. What began as a network of users utilising the internet for the benefit of business has transformed into an extension of our economy, where the internet can be used to better our lives and the planet.
While this decentralisation of the internet is empowering individuals to sell their skills and create businesses online, the sharing economy brings a whole host of benefits to our communities. Flexible and efficient allocation of resources, monetising underutilised resources and reducing environmental impact, to name a few.
Sharing economy principles have inspired us at the Social Value Exchange. We connect local community projects with suitable government suppliers looking to create Social Value, creating community benefits for local people AND winning more work for those government suppliers.
By using this model, business is doing well by doing good. Platforms that were created based on sharing economy principles are connecting users in need with the services they need and creating a mutually beneficial outcome.
The Covid-19 pandemic showed everyone that our voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) organisations play an absolutely vital role in the healthy functioning of our local communities. They often pick up the pieces, deal with the ‘hard to reach’ individuals and families or build bridges between government and under-represented communities.
Of course, the internet is at times used for illegitimate and nefarious exchanges, but when we assume the majority of users just want to do good, great things can happen. The pandemic showed us this. Why don’t we just carry on with the good stuff?
The benefits of a decentralised world
The internet is helping us to better our planet, our communities, and our relationships with each other. It’s also enabling us to extend our communities beyond the parameters of location.
Perhaps one of the greatest things about the internet today is that it is promoting cultural diversity at a global scale. Working online, we can challenge the invisible, societal barriers associated with gender, class, ethnicity and location. The ability to facilitate exchanges between individuals from all over the world means individuals from different backgrounds, incomes and classes can access those resources.
And Web 3.0 will remove the middle man, whether that’s the lawyers or whether it’s Facebook. As the internet becomes more decentralised and as smart contracts replace those middlemen, verification of ‘good’ behaviours will lead to greater value being shared amongst all those that want to invest in a better future.
Would we have been able to achieve this without our ‘always-on’ internet connection? Perhaps. But it would have made things a lot harder.
It’s exciting to think about what the next twenty years could bring. A decentralised internet could see the internet become a basic human right, enabling those from low income and less privileged communities to access the world of opportunities available?
The next few years will tell us. Maybe human nature – the need for control, the need to control – will get in the way (again). Or maybe the decentralised system will give power to ‘the people’.
Google once said, ‘don’t be evil’. Those at the forefront of the decentralised internet say they can’t be. Let’s see.
We think this might be helpful…
‘7 Things To Think About If You’re Doing Social Value And Want To Do It Right’
We’d love to hear from you.
Email: hello@socialvalueexchange.org
Telephone: 020 3488 6223