Possible Effects

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Gordon Brown, Prime Minister for the UK, recently addressed the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford. His comments on Global ethics in a connected world are even more powerful on a local level.

He asks what the possible effects would be if “the power of our moral sense (was) allied with the communications facilities we have”?

Global Voices, Local Connections

We marvel at communicating with people in China on our iPhones, but in looking so far afield we’ve lost sight of our own back yard. The same technologies that let us communicate our ideas on a global scale are far more valuable in connecting us to the shared experience of our neighborhoods and communities.

What can we do to better equip our communities to begin this kind of dialogue? What can we do on a personal level to insure our worldwide communications networks are mirrored in our local networks?

Building a Base

The power to connect with each other in a shared economic and technological network is a wonderful tool. SMB’s need to leverage and build these networks to insure that the communities they serve remain solvent in these trying times. Entrepreneurs need to build a base, a solid platform, for these initiatives to take off in their communities and then the world.

This great article from the New York Times (posted by @valdiskrebs on Twitter) goes into some of the challenges and rewards that businesses are seeing from collaborative efforts:

Netflix Competitors Learn the Power of Teamwork

What can we do as entrepreneurs and business owners to help foster collaboration not only in our industries, but also in our communities?

Check back later in the week when we’ll talk more about these relationships in a post titled, Phantom Partners.