Tag: Social capital

My 30 day challenges, day 29 – by Philip Dodson

Posted on by philipdodson

Day 29, the finish line is always within grasp, just one more day to go. Although, I must say, habits do form and much quicker than I initially thought they would.

It’s likely that I will continue with most of the 8 challenges beyond tomorrow and I already have some new challenges in the pipeline.

So today’s picture is of one of the chalk boards that we have at the hub to advertise events coming up, this particular one is a comedy & networking evening on 22nd October (shameless plug!).

pic 29

My thoughts today turn again to co-working, which in itself is not a new thing, nor is collaboration. The whole concept of co-working, however, is evolving and it’s rapid rise globally is a reaction to a desire to have a real alternative to corporate world, to the isolation of working solo at home and to the cost of an office.

However, co-working is perhaps the wrong term, as really just working in the same physical space with other unrelated people, is not what it is about for me.

The fact is, humans are social animals and in order to thrive, be happy and in a good physical and mental state, we need to be around and interact with others.

So just working together is not it, it is interacting and building a community together, an eco-system, where the exchange is not simply chit-chat. The exchange must be social capital in order for co-working to be what it really should be.

It’s about using the physical space to create a social capital exchange, where both parties benefit from sharing and helping each other for no initial financial gain. The money will come, as the community becomes stronger and when the need arises. The needs will arise though as you will get to meet, like, know and trust others.

The corporate world is failing and is in decline, co-working is rising, but has yet to evolve as the solution. The solution lies in the meshing together of the evolving sharing economy and the old corporate world. They both need each other. Co-working is the catalyst for change.

My 30 day challenges, day 28 – by Philip Dodson

Posted on by philipdodson

Day 28 has passed without any slips, so just two more days to go to complete all 8 challenges.

Today, I finished the campaign of Splinter Cell on PS3, great game with amazing graphics and loads of tension. I’ve got the game on loan from my mate Brad, but I will definitely buy the game now.

Splinter Cell

It’s interesting world now, aged 47, I’ve gone from a black & white TV with two channels to choose from, telephones that you had dial by literally turning a dial for each number, before PC’s, before video, before the internet!!

Now, some of the things that I’ve grown up with, like TV and more latterly, email, are things that are likely to disappear in the not too distant future.

I find that I spend more time on gaming, YouTube, social media and virtually no time on TV, and less and less, on email.

Technology is really going to dominate more and more of our lives. In many ways, that is for the good, as technology, if used wisely, will be able to solve many of the enormous challenges the world will face.

I was discussing all of this with Mrs D today, the conversation drifted, and she reminisced about her early years in Porto as a child and all the different smells of certain shops, like the pencil & paper shop. I then remember the old newsagents that I went to as a child, Hewitt’s, and all the soldiers, airfix models and assortments of toys that were there.

I loved that place as a child, rushing there with my pocket money and wandering around the jammed packed shelving. Now we’d simply go to Amazon, click and the item appears at the door in a day or so. Nowhere near the excitement of a trip to Hewitt’s and I doubt anyone in 30 years will reminisce about buying something on Amazon.

We both concluded that the world had changed forever and that some of the smallness of the world had gone. Now everything is global, connected and ubiquitous. Some of the memories are indeed tainted with rose coloured spectacles, ‘it wasn’t like that in my day’ is a common phrase that all generations use. Not all things were good.

However, there is an opportunity to turn away from the ‘global village’, where every high street is rammed with the faceless and soulless outlets, that dominate every part of the globe. To turn away from only ever ‘googling’ something, to then just clicking to buy.

By using collaboration and the principles of a sharing economy, smallness can return and compete with the giant corporations.

If businesses are smart and work together to share social capital, instead of financial capital, then previously non-viable businesses, that provided the smallness and more human experiences, can thrive within a community focused world.

Then we will create something to reminisce about again.