Monday, December 25, 2006

The Wealth of Community

Josh Mailman is a founder of the Social Venture Network, Business for Social Responsibility, Threshold Foundation, and a founding investor in Grameen Phone, Stoneyfield Farms, Seventh Generation, Utne Magazine, Stirling Energy Systems, Global Telesystems, Wayfinder Systems, A.B., Motivano, Econergy International plc., the Fund for Global Human Rights, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, U.K., the Joshua Mailman Foundation, and an advisor to the Pema Fund.

To say the least, he's been busy!

He's certainly one of the leaders of the movement and I found the following quote from him in Kenny Ausubel's book "Bioneers" :

"I'm much more sanguine about the impact that we've been able to have, but I don't want to discount the small acts. We have a need for small acts, and I consider the things I have done small acts, hopefully compassionate acts. To the extent that I've been able to make a contribution, it's been out of a desire to build community, realizing that I'm no more important - and I think in many ways less so - than some local activist. The real leaders are the people that are in there day after day, slugging it out, who have chosen something other than monetary gain, who are there because they are fed by the experience of community that they have."

A recently published book "The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom" speaks to this truth, in the context of the internet and our economy...

The book is available onine CLICK HERE.

Our community is our greatest wealth, I would add.

As I reflect on my life, I see that my life depends on a vast network of people 99% who I don't event know, literally. Just think of the number of people it took for you to have your daily cup of tea or coffee, or piece of toast, or oatmeal, or electricity... and that's just people. Add layers of animals, plants, earth, energy, air and water, and the community you live in expands exponentially!

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