Some Exciting News!

First off, we have been entered into the first ever Startup Idol tournament!  Startup Idol is a new bracket-style competition to help brands gain awareness and traction for their CrowdFunding projects. The first round consists of 64 startups and lasts from April 3rd to April 6th. To support all all you need to do is visit our profile on Startup Idol and vote for us.

Secondly, we have updated the Our Community section on ourpangea.com to include Hail Tos to our fans.  Stay tuned next week for more information about Hail Tos.  While you’re visiting OurPangea, remember to sign-up for updates!

Being A Part of the Human Community

The human race.  Humankind.  Humanity. These are terms that get thrown around a lot, indicative that we as humans share a common bond. But too often our ability to unite as a human community and consciously recognize our collective humanity is just a response to a disaster or intrusion from some inhuman—or perceived inhuman—source.    Think the Tsunami in Japan, the Earthquake in Haiti, the Stop Kony campaign, and 9/11. But we are quick to forget our bond as humans and return to conflict because we identify more strongly with our ideologies.

And then of course there are the non-human threats, like the ones in Independence Day, District 9, Watchmen

This behavior might lead one to believe it’s in our nature to be aggressive, confrontational, violent, and self-interested.  However, new theories  are suggesting this tendency towards conflict with other humans isn’t a part of our nature, it’s the result of our environment.  Researchers hypothesize we are, in fact, wired for empathy to seek sociability, attachment, affection, and companionship. The reason behind this wiring could be the strongest innate driver of empathy:  the drive to belong. If we begin to see each other as a single community of humans rather than many communities segmented by nationality, religion, and ideology, we can start to act as we are wired to do and actually embrace our innate empathetic natures. So what’s stopping us?

Empathy is defined as ‘the automatic or intellectual reaction to identify with and understand the plight of another you feel connected to.’  So when something harms  or impedes another human – like learning of a natural disaster – we automatically empathize with the affected because we are humans.  And yet, in today’s world we don’t consciously make this human connection favoring instead the containers of nationality, religion, and location.   My question is, why do we do this?  Why inherently dismiss our connection as humans so easily?

Don’t you feel bad for this kid?

Throughout history the empathetic connection between humans has expanded and evolved to conform to the man-made constructs of community we’ve created. People of faith expect to feel connected to others of the same faith, as it is with nationality and ideology.  We have segmented our identities to feel like we belong, but we still do not consider our humanity to be an obvious link.

But this connection is not completely forgotten. Just look at the response to any modern day natural disaster or world event.  We instinctively empathize with our fellow man halfway around the world.  We feel the connection, but what we need to do is consciously acknowledge it. Empathy based on our human community should be something we expect and something we cherish, not a feeling we dredge up after some terrible occurrence.

This hints at our need of a place for us, as humans, to belong, to collaborate, to interact, and to enjoy our relationships.  As a human community we can put aside our disagreements, dismiss our differences, and collaborate together as equal human beings recognizing our innate relationships as human beings.

There is nothing to do this yet…
So we’re resurrecting  OurPangea.

What Is Semantic Social Networking?

Semantics is not an entirely foreign notion in the world of social networks, but it has so far only been used to help link ideas and concepts together, not people. We want to take the idea of using semantics and make it social by creating meaningful connections not just between abstract concepts, but between people. Kind of like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with fewer degrees.

Ok, let’s break this down.

Semantics.  You’ve probably encountered this word before. Semantics is the study of meaning through the analysis of relationships. If you’ve heard anyone refer to the semantics of a sentence, all they are really talking about is how a sentence is worded.

We have semantics to thank for explaining why “Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo” is a complete sentence.

The idea of semantic networking came into being over one hundred years ago and started as a simple framework to explain the relationship between different things. (How can a dog and a cat be linked semantically?  They both have fur.  That’s one oversimplified example). The general application behind semantic networking is actually pretty simple: just gather and organize data according to the things they have in common.

For example, I love to cook and you love to cook.  Now we have a semantic link between us.

Do you see where we’re going with this?  With social networking, it’s possible to bring the idea of semantic networking out of its purely conceptual mold and create a tangible, user-driven semantic social network. The application of a semantic social network can be a little more focused, purposeful, and explicit: organize people according to shared interests. 

It sounds simple, so why haven’t we seen this come to fruition yet?

Semantic theory on the world wide web has already fallen comfortably into search. Besides sporadic evidence that the industry is trying to make semantic framework applicable to social networks, such as Google’s purchase of a Semantic Social Networking patent, we have yet to see any legitimate examples of a semantic social network, which makes me think it is either being overlooked, ignored, or is secretly in development and soon to shake things up.

Personally, I’m hoping for the latter option.

What is Proactive Networking?

There are two types of networks, reactive and proactive.  When we look at the field of social networking this becomes very important to understand. The difference is that of a ‘website serving you’ versus ‘you serving a website’.

The reactive network is built off the connections I have already made. It reacts to what I have already done. It helps me keep track of the relationships I have built, but it does not help me create new ones. It’s not built as a tool for me to wield , it’s built as a tool to record and observe.  I have to put all of my information in before their network starts to do any work for me. On Facebook I have to import all of my friends before I start to see any value from their product. It works for me, but only after I have done the work.

On my social network I have to import all of the people I have already met so the social network can start providing value. Before I put my relationships in there is no value offered; it’s a function of me and totally reliant on my cooperation. Once I put my relationships in I can start to mildly interact with them via photos, apps, and messaging.  Even then, the reactive social network is not really designed around the interaction. It’s designed to record what I do, but doesn’t really facilitate much action or exchange. It’s built to be a history, a timeline, not a living environment.

The bottom line is even though reactive networks work correctly according to their design, they are restrained by being reactive. There are other ways to build a network. And I think the correct way to build a network is by making it proactive, not reactive.

Life is a two way street. So is a proactive network.

In a proactive network we would be able to explore new and old relationships. We wouldn’t have to import our personal lives, we would find it in the network. Your friend groups, communities, and curiosities will all be there for you to freely interact with. It’s like being given a box of Legos to build with; a reactive network being more like a solid statue, fixed into being and not manipulable. A proactive network is an environment you can interact with. It’s not a reactive network because it’s built for you to use, not to use you. It ‘s not reliant on you importing your life and doing all of the work, it’s about creating your life and exploring all the possibilities.

With my proactive network I would be able to reach out to people I have never met but are in pursuit of similar interests. I would be able to learn more about the cultures and people I discover. I would be able to break out of my shell and explore everything.

Proactive networks would allow me to define what online environment I interact with instead of having it algorithmically presented to me as the reactive network does. When I get to choose my environment I’ll be able to make new relationships instead of having only the existing ones I’ve submitted. A reactive system only has the relationships I already have, whereas a proactive network will offer me all possible relationships to choose from including the ones I have.

The proactive network is a living environment where all users coexist together. It’s a free environment to explore as I like. It’s a proactive network that encourages me to collaborate and exchange with everyone.