Visionary Business:
Ethnography of a Virtual Community in the Age of Internet
The ultimate purpose of a visionary business is to transform the world by doing what you love to do. - Marc Allen
By Silvia Austerlic
Cabrillo College, Aptos CA
May 2000
1. Introduction
2. My Encounter with the Virtual
3. Visionary Business in the Age of Internet
4. Gaian-Doers, Hands on the New Game
5. The World We Want
6. Works Cited
1. Introduction
There have been few times in history when one could say that "the future is already here." At the beginning of
the 21st Century, I am talking about a new cultural scenario, made possible by the Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). Since the early '80s, Western societies are the protagonists of an
extraordinary process of technological change, that is leaving its mark on practically every aspect of our private
and public lives. Generically known as the Internet, an expanding system of computer-mediated networks is
allowing people to discover and invent new ways to share relevant information, to create new knowledge, and
to build new kinds of communities, virtual communities, whereas the frontiers between "the artificial" and "the
natural" are being rapidly eroded. These are communities not of common location, but of common interests,
webs of human relationships linked in cyberspace (Holtzman 25).
Two are the goals of this work:
To visualize the Internet as a emergent anthropological phenomenon, in the sense that, for many, is
bringing forth "a nascent culture of simulation [that] is affecting our ideas about mind, body, self, and machine"
(Turkle 10); and
To reflect on how my personal life was affected when I started using a computer-a window to the new worlds-in
1995.
Essentially, an ethnography involves studying a specific culture or community. "By living among the members
of a culture and playing the role of participant-observer, ethnographers attempt to define the beliefs, rituals,
symbols, problems, and patterns of behavior that distinguish this culture from other dominant cultures" (Moxley
310).
Thus, my voice will be that of a participant-observer describing my personal experience as a member
of a virtual community network, Gaian-Doers, where a visionary business is taking shape. >From virtual
messages to the list-serv and personal conversations that I've had with other members, I'll try to re-construct the
discourse of the new culture that Sherry Turkle and many others are talking about: what brings
them—us—together, and which new worlds they—we—want to create and inspire.
2. My Encounter with the Virtual
In her book, Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle describes the computer, not only as a tool to manipulate
data but also as a mirror that "offers us both new models of mind a new medium on which to project our ideas
and fantasies." Digital instruments—such as the World Wide Web, virtual reality (VR) and multimedia
CD-ROMs—represent new vehicles of expression that are not only changing the way we communicate with
others, but also "the way we think, the nature of sexuality, the form of our communities, our very identities"
(Turkle 9). Though machines are not to replace the human being, "In my computer-mediated worlds, the self is
multiple, fluid, and constituted in interaction with machine connections; it is made and transformed by language,
and understanding follows from navigation and tinkering rather than analysis" (Turkle 15). In these digital
worlds, the possibility of instantaneous electronic connections between two (or more) terminals practically
removes the barriers of time and distance that separate people (Holtzman 31).
McLuhan's vision of a planetary global village has become true. We are witnessing the emergence
of a new type of social space; virtual communities that bring together people from across the planet to
"exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge,
share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play
games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk. People in virtual communities do just about everything
people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind" (Rheingold 3).
It was back in 1995 in my homeland, Buenos Aires, that I first became interested in the cultural impact of the
Information Revolution, in particular, in the collaborative potential of the ICT. Since then, my concern has been
not only to understand the global changes that are affecting the world as a whole, but also to see where I (then a
29-year old Argentine graphic designer) could locally fit into the new "Big Picture." I had the impression that
digital technology meant much more than a new set of technical inventions. I could somehow see that "we're on
the verge of a major shift in our culture" (Holtzman 11), and that I wanted to be a creator of the new worlds to be
born!
My sister Claudia gave me her old—my first—computer in 1995, which I would use not only as a
"sophisticated" typewriter, but later on, as a portal to cyberspace. This term—coined by the science fiction
writer William Gibson in his book Neuromancer, published in 1984—stands for an imaginary place that exist
only as bits of information and is located entirely in the digital domain. "[Cyberspace] is where whatever you
view on your computer screen exists-the text documents you view, the three-dimensional computer-generated
graphic worlds you experience, the electronic geography you traverse-when you are connected to the World
Wide Web" (Holtzman 15).
I first "went out" to cyberspace in 1996, where I found like-minded individuals and groups with whom to
share impressions and concerns. Since then, I have virtually met lots of amazing people with different cultural
and professional backgrounds, and I have participated in many networks in tune with my personal and
professional interests like:
· Latin American Humanist Networks (which purpose is to support collaboration between Latin
American researchers from different fields) -- http://www.ldc.lu.se/latinam/indexe.htm
· Women on the Net (an international virtual network which purpose is the use of information
technology to empower women in the developing world) -- http://www.sidint.org/won/index.htm
· Gaia Preservation Coalition (a network of interdisciplinary academics and lay people who
address global issues and seek their resolution by creating ideas and actions that move humanity
towards a more harmonious relationship with Gaia) -- http://www.enviroweb.org/gaia-pc/ and,
· Gaian-Doers (which purpose is to provide insight and support amongst and between a wide
diversity of participants intent on making a difference in society) --
http://egroups.com/group/gaian-doers .
3. Visionary Business in the Age of Internet
The Internet is enabling conversations that were simply not possible in the era of mass media. The World Wide
Web is a window into a new public space. While mass media is a ‘few-to-many’ technology, the Internet affords
‘many-to-many’ communications. This innovative marriage of hardware and software "allows a computer user
to create links between related texts, songs, photographs, and video, as well as to travel along the links made
by others" (Turkle 17).
It is relevant, then, to ask about the cultural impact of the information revolution on the business
world and how it is changing the rules of the game.
In his book, Visionary Business, Marc Allen says that "[t]he ultimate purpose of visionary business is
to transform the world by doing what you love" (Allen xi). That ideal way of understanding work and business is
described in another book, Infinite Wealth, written by Gaian Doers member Barry Carter of
http://WinWinWorld.net:
Imagine working in an organization in which you love your work as much as your favorite hobby. Your
work makes you feel that you are making a difference in the world. It connects you with a deeper
meaning of life. Within your organization you work in a small team-a collaborative partnership in which
you are connected with partners on a personal level. Your team is interconnected with and
interdependent upon other small teams. It forms business units and a massive global networked
organization, all through the information highway. All members of your team and organization are as
passionate and devoted to their work as you are to yours (Carter 3).
Visionary businesses are those in which a plan turns a dream or future vision, into a goal or
business plan. The following concepts—drawn from another book, The Cluetrain Manifiesto—can help set the
back-stage of the new game. Human communities are based on discourse-on human speech about human
concerns. Online Markets are person(s)-to-person(s) conversations between human beings, in which the
community of discourse is the market. Networked markets are beginning to self-organize faster than the
companies that have traditionally served them, enabling powerful forms of social organization and knowledge
exchange to emerge. Thanks to the web, people and markets are becoming better informed, smarter, more
organized and more demanding of qualities felt missing from most business organizations nowadays. To
traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear confused, because these "have better tools,
more new ideas, no rules to slow us down" (The Cluetrain Manifiesto, Thesis 94). Thus, companies should
now learn to speak with a human voice-that is, to share the concerns of their communities. Participation in a
networked market changes people fundamentally. This new attitude is expressed in the following statement,
"We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting" (The Cluetrain
Manifiesto, Thesis 95).
According to Barry Carter, as we enter the new millennium, "what we are seeing is a shift at the very
foundation of our [Western] civilization--wealth creation and work [...] At the core is a shift from fear to love. It is
the most significant change in all human history and the beginning of the height of the human journey" (Carter
5). We are then talking about new rules for the business game, based not on competition but on collaboration.
Carter has identified the three pillars of the new civilization, building blocks for a win/win wealth-creation
system, which are:
· A shift from finite wealth, which operates on win/lose rules, to infinite wealth, which has the
potential to operate on a win/win norm.
· A shift from a competitive, seller-controlled society to a collaborative, buyer-driven society.
· A shift from a market place dominated by employment to one in which individuals own the
specific work they perform and are compensated directly by customers for the value they add
(Carter 10).
Gaian-Doers is a virtual community to which I have belonged since its beginning in January 2000. It
exemplifies the new virtual organizations connecting people with different cultural and professional
backgrounds, with common visions and views. Doers’ purpose is to think about both the global changes that
are currently going on throughout the world and the real-world changes that they—we—want to help bring forth.
4. Gaian-Doers, Hands on the New Game
Gaian Doers is a listserv (forum), co-founded by Bernie Slepkov of http://mergetel.com/dreamteams
in January 2000, along with Barry Carter. Bernie guides his DreamTEAMS International Business by a vision
statement of “Healing Fragmented Communities” and mission statement of “Servicing and Stewarding
Partnerships of Fused Visions, Professional Missions, and Community Sustainability.” The visionary business
of DreamTEAMS (Teachers, Experts, Associate, Mentors, and Students) International is profoundly articulated
with Bernie’s self-examination beginning with:
Are our communities fragmented and in need of healing? It depends on which fence I happen to be
sitting and in which direction I look. From a purely self-centered perspective, I could hermit myself,
closing my eyes completely to the world around me and caring very little for others until I die. It would
bother me little how many people - if any - were to come to my funeral. In that case, what do I care if my
community is fragmented? --http://mergetel.com/dreamteams/musings/healing.html
I met Bernie in another virtual forum last year, where he invited me to board this virtual "ship," since its
beginnings. In one of the first messages introducing new members to the list, Bernie says that "it is this group's
prime objective to go beyond dialoguing by bringing about actual societal transformations through our
collaborative efforts" (Feb 7).
Bernie, who refers to himself as a ‘Societal Transformationalist’ believes that
(social)entrepreneurship "has the very real potential of regenerating our communities, more so because of
trends in matching one's interest/talents/passions with creating a business by which they can best serve a
consumer base [...] Learning Communities, for me at any rate, is the 'container within which all these various
components [self-directed learning, skill-building, personal and professional development/empowerment,
mentoring, facilitation, teambuilding, partnerships, collaboration] come together and self-organize" (Apr 21).
Within the same breath, however, Bernie also warns that (social)entrepreneurship holds a very real threat to
already strained North American social systems unless conventional/traditional systems and methods
change.
Bill (William) Ellis joined along with me from the same “Creating Learning Communities” listserv -
http://egroups.com/group/LearningCommunities - to which we all belonged. Bill Ellis’s community corporation
TRANET - http://www.nonviolence.org/tranet/ - has been producing an internationally known digest of
alternative and transformational movements for the past some twenty years. The meaning of the listserv’s
name, composed of the words Gaian and Doers is eloquently explained by Bill thusly:
The emergence of the Gaian Paradigm from chaos, complexity and Gaian theories suggests a radically
different base for our future cultures. That is, that man is not on the top of a chain-of-being in which all the lower
rungs, women, children, other cultures, animals, plants and the earth - are there to serve the rung above. Rather
all humanity is just one more holon of the Gaian holarchy - the Earth and its life forms - and we are all equally
dependent on one another.
The Gaian Paradigm provides a radically different base on which to form society. It suggests that we
"belong" to Gaia (that is one another and to the Earth) and that we must care for Gaia, so that Gaia
can care of us. In my humble opinion, ‘removing the Tyrant Paradigm’ is creating a substitute for it.
And it is happening.
Perhaps our major effort should be DOING SOMETHING to be sure that Gaian cultures truly emerge, and
emerge fast enough to prevent the self-annihilation of humanity within Gaia. LETS, CSAs, CoHousing, Co-ops,
EcoVillages, ESOPS, homeschooling, local scripts, community ownership are just a few of the actions we can
take to ‘remove the Tyrant Paradigm.’ Could we use this list in any way to make any of all these social
innovations develop faster, to bring them into concert with one another, to bring them to the attention of the
masses, the media, academia, or the granting foundations? Can we DO SOMETHING? (Jan 9).
A shared interest in collaboration, self-organization, the use of virtual tools, and the intention of
team-building are central features of Gaian Doers' participants. At the moment there are 25 members
dialoguing and exchanging ideas both on the listserv and off-line (on the phone and chat-rooms), "trying to
reconcile our different agendas and existing ongoing projects" (Flemming Funch Jan.30).
Flemming Funch—brought onboard by Gaian Doers by Katie Hernandez, founder of the Hei Kids!
Organization at http://www.hei-kids.org—has been the driving force behind a couple of the Internet’s more
renouned networking websites such as, The New Civilization Network at http://www.newciv.org and the World
Transformation Organization at http://www.worldtrans.org
As I said, “In my eyes, at this point of time, *we* (Gaian-Doers) are searching for the inner (heartfelt) pattern
that connects each one of us to one another as a COMMUNITY *while* thinking about an outer (business-like)
pattern that could link us a NETWORK/TEAM, to the rest of the world. One of our VISIONARY tasks, then,
would be to integrate both realities -- and come up with sort of a "model/mindset" that can help others
"Heal/Integrate Fragmented Communities" (April 23).
5. The World We Want
From a traditional perspective, a mindset like Gaian Doers may seem to belong to another world-but it
does not. This, and other virtual groups, are composed by ordinary people who are concerned about what's
going on in the world today; who feel that we are in a planetary crisis that is affecting humanity as a whole, and
want to help.
The number of world problems we are currently facing is enormous. In his on-line article Life Purpose
and Social Transformation --http://www.earley.org/Transformation/life_purpose__social_trans.htm
--transformational psychologist Jay Earley mentions "nuclear war, ecological decay, terrorism, homelessness,
drug and alcohol abuse, crime, violence in schools, corruption and deception in government." Regrettably, Jay
who was brought into Doers by Bernie, was perhaps far too busy to remain. Yet his article still profoundly
reflects the essence of Gaian Doers’ timely culture and purpose. According to Jay, these world problems are
by-products of a traditional world-view "based on science, rational thought, and competition for power. (The
competition for power has been going on for 5000 years). Because of this worldview we have treated
everything in our world as a machine to be analyze and controlled. We have treated the natural world this way.
We have treated other people and other nations this way. We have even treated ourselves this way."
However, there is a grass-root movement of awakened planetary citizens who think that "[t]he real
problem lies not in the physical constraints imposed by the external world but in the constraints of our own
minds" (Russell 187). We are looking for ways to heal our fragmented communities, encouraging a change of
values and positive visions of the future that could play a crucial role in shaping society. For Earley "[w]e don't
know what it will finally be, but we have hints that is will be on a foundation of cooperation, interconnectedness,
and an interest in the inner life, and that it will involve cultural diversity, human scale institutions, and
reverence for the earth."
Paradoxically, although technology has created part of the problems we need to solve together, virtual
spaces and group communication tools can also play an important role in the solution because of their
propensity for breaking through barriers of various dimensions. On-line conversations, virtual communities
and visionary businesses can help a new world vision emerge wherein individual voices of aspiration, hope,
and value do make a difference. The challenge is whether we—humanity as a species—can understand what
is happening, and learn to use this new medium in ways that empower people's voices and strengthen
democracy all over the world. "Citizens are talking, planning, organizing, publishing, problem-solving. Perhaps
there is a literacy to be learned here" (Rheingold, 125).
I believe the literacy Rheingold is talking about does not refer to scientific nor expert knowledge, but
learning to read and write a new multi-cultural reality—moving forward toward the development of a peaceful
global society and healthy local communities. Minds on collaboration and hands on technology, the possibility
to create the world we really want has just begun.
6. Works Cited
Allen, Marc. Visionary Business: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Success. California: New World Library, 1995.
Carter, Barry C. Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era.
Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999.
Earley, Jay. Life Purpose and Social Transformation. 15 April 2000
http://www.earley.org/transformation/life_purpose_social_transf.htm
Ellis, William. A Gaian Respective on Global Governance: A New Paradigm and World Governance
http://mergetel.com/dreamteams/Archives/gaian-perspective.html
Holtzman, Steven. Digital Mosaics: The Aesthetics of Cyberspace. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Moxley, Joseph M. Becoming an Academic Writer: A Modern Rhetoric. Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and
Company, 1994.
Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. New York:
HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
Russell, Peter. The Global Brain Awakens: Our Next Evolutionary Leap. Palo Alto: Global Brain Inc. 1995.
Slepkov, Bernie. To Give and To Take: Healing Fragmented Communities
http://mergetel.com/dreamteams/musings/healing.html
The Cluetrain Manifiesto. 1 March 2000 http://cluetrain.com
Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
