I am reading The New Capitalist Manifesto by Umair Haque in preparation for SIBOS 2011 where I will have an opportunity to join in a common conversation. I will be speaking on a panel called New Economies along with several other distinguished presenters (see Below).
New Economies = The Values
The most important thing about the discussion of new economies is the idea of Value. It is essential that we define Value much more completely than just those things that can be articulated with money and shift to include all forms of Value in our entrepreneurship. The Sun delivers value to the Earth. Parents deliver value to their children. Communities deliver value to society. A true accounting of all value is essential to the discussion of new economies.
The New Capitalist Manifesto is a hugely important book; Here are a few of my thoughts.
First; it provides a vital framework to begin accounting for what we call “True Value”; an accounting of real net value creation as opposed to borrowing, transferring, or destroying value that is not necessarily represented on a financial balance sheet.
Second; the new economy and emergent new accounting system will happen whether we like it or not. There is little that people can actually do to avoid it. The new economy is a matter of survival – it will happen at the speed and drive of survival (hence “Capitalism”). So make your choices now as these will define your future.
The third observation is that nobody is immune from the new economy. The more one resists, the more it will persist. The stronger that a country, corporation, or traditionalists hold to legacy ideas about linear value and forest-to-dump consumerism, the faster and more dramatic will be their demise.
So what does this have to do with Social Flights?
Social Flights is attempting to replace the horrific concrete wasteland of the command and control “Hub & Spoke” system with a Democracy. Our premise is that people can self-organize around two points and efficiently share an airplane that flies directly between them from smaller airports. In effect, we replace the infrastructure with cloud data to accomplish the same thing with a far superior customer experience, and therefor, greater true value.
Think about it; all of the world’s airlines are competing with each other in a race to the bottom around the Hub and Spoke system. The two largest aircraft manufacturers are beating each other up around the strengths and limitations of the Hub and Spoke System. The whole system is limping along on razor thin margins. Yet, the vast majority of “true and complete” Value of travel is the human experience and the value of relationships, communities, and their actions together. The only reason that Travel exists is being unceremoniously tossed out on the tarmac….
If you don’t listen to your customers, then at least listen to Umair Haque.
So, if you are a university, a corporation, government, or any institution dependent on physical infrastructure in order to match supply and demand while insulating yourself from competition, then you should be very concerned about the new economy.
New economies
Is money the only form of transaction value and wealth? What about social currencies? We will expose you to new thinking on new economies such as the trust economy, the intention economy, the relationship economy, the social economy and the ethical economy.
Already confirmed:
- Jerry Michalski, Founder – The REXpedition
- Art Brock, Co-Founder – Metacurrency Project
- Dan Robles, Founder – Director – The Ingenesist Project
- Umair Haque, Director Havas Media Lab and Author New Capitalist Manifesto > Via Skype
- Gregory J. Rader, Blogger – InTheSpiral
- Doc Searls, VRM initiative and Alumnus Fellow – Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard
- Craig Burton, Founder of Novell, and Founder of The Burton Group, [blog]
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