Why You (And I) Need OurPangea Pt. III – Looking Back

The last two months here at OurPangea have flown by. We have grown and evolved immensely in the time I’ve been part of the team and our goal is getting clearer every day. The end of my internship is coming up, and I have learned so much about OurPangea’s mission to embrace the future of social innovation. It’s an experience I wouldn’t have traded for anything and is one I fully plan to continue after my internship here is over. I will be spreading the word and helping to coordinate community efforts even though my official position here at OurPangea is coming to an end. Why will I do this? Because OurPangea is important to me. Because I believe that our goals are important and I want them to succeed. Because I believe that OurPangea can change the world. OurPangea can be the greatest tool to bring together communities of all shapes and sizes from everywhere across the world or even across the street.

But it’s not just me that needs it. You, reader, need it. All of us need it. The future is marked by increasingly doubtful frontiers, full of disparate connections. More and more, the internet is taking a central place in our lives – it is where we live to connect and share with our friends and family. To grow as a human species, we must learn to also connect and share as a global community, learning to discover and build our communities at home and involve ourselves with them. We must use new methods of connection combined with time-tested philosophies of togetherness, both online and offline. That is why OurPangea is so important. OurPangea can synergize these two worlds, the world of our connection online and offline to create a new type of platform that shares our wonderful ideas with each other, unified in our community’s purpose. We as a global community can work to inspire hope in one another and share our connections to make the entire world a better place.

Hittin’ The Streets

OurPangea has been busy over the last few weeks! We have begun a full-scale mobilization on the streets of southwest Austin and beyond, surveying the world about OurPangea. The reaction we have gotten from people of all shapes and sizes has been enlightening and encouraging as we continue our mission to help bring the world together. Consistently, we have seen trends in the answers to our questions that only help to further our desire to get OurPangea up and running. We’ve found that the best way to get the conversation going about community is to merely ask about it. What does community mean to you? Is it important to feel connected to your communities? Do you wish your communities were as connected online as they are offline?

These questions, and others, have helped spark the flame in communities. The following responses to these questions are from you, and people like you. These are the people who want to see online communities realize their full potential, and we are working to provide this dream for all to come.

“Community online is more about the individual and less about community as a whole. There are a lot of websites that some communities have but even then a lot of them aren’t trying to bring the community together.” 21 year old F

“Community is often disproportionately driven by advertising for nightlife, etc. It should have more representation of activist groups, citizen groups, etc.” 19 year old M 

“Community is really not very represented online. Everyone connects to things objectively as it pertains to themselves and only really interact with other people to the capacity which they either feel obliged or have something to gain. It’s very easy to stay mostly disconnected to groups except for to the extent you feel necessary.” 25 year old M

“Community online appears to be more exclusive, and status depends more on who you know, instead of who you are.” 24 year old F

Everywhere we look, more and more people have expressed to us their ideas and opinions on communities – how to improve them, how to organize them, what they mean. We are here to bring those ideas – your ideas – to life. The input of average people is a more invaluable resource than any other, because it helps us tap into the true pulse of the greatest community in the world: the human race.

Using OurPangea to Gain Perspective

Think about where you live right now.  Is it an apartment complex? A city block? A college residence hall? Have you lived there for a long time? Are you friendly with your neighbors? Do you have a family or roommate or do you live alone? Are you involved in groups and committees in your neighborhood? Do you love your home? Do you not?

Now think about where you grew up. Do you still know all of your neighbors? Do the same traditions still exist? What is different? What is the same?

No matter how you feel about where you live, one thing is certain: you will not be there forever. And once you’re gone every community keeps living, breathing, and growing without you. New leaders are elected, new residents move in, and new stores will open and close. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to keep some connection to your old home through parents still living there, friends still in your old neighborhoods, or alumni associations keeping tabs on your high school or college graduating class. But we all inevitably lose the sense of belonging we used to feel with our old stomping grounds.

Think about your educational experience.  Weren’t you involved in any student or school groups? Were there any classes or teachers you particularly liked? You may not still be a part of those things, but wouldn’t you like to see what is happening with them now?

Imagine if you could reminisce on your old experiences and feel like you’re a part of the new ones being created. This is a perfect example of how using OurPangea will help us reconnect with groups and experiences in the same way Facebook has given us the ability to reconnect with old friends.

Alumni associations and Educational departments could use OurPangea to help alumni retain their connection to the schools, teachers, and groups they loved. Community centers, galleries, and museums could showcase annual events and exhibits for past participants to remember and meet the new ones.

Further, OurPangea can be used as more than simply a window to the past. Imagine being an incoming college freshman getting ready to move to a new city surrounded by people you don’t know. If our university communities are represented on OurPangea, incoming students will be able to see what their experience will be like in the major they’re entering. From participating in social discussions to learning how students see their peers to meeting classmates from around the world, it would be possible and maybe even expected to become an active part of the community goings-on before even getting there.

When our events, neighborhoods, and social lives live on OurPangea it will help us maximize our time in the present, relive the best experiences from our past, and proactively discover the things we might want to join in the future.

Using OurPangea Within Our Small Communities

Among the easiest ways to construct a community is by sharing a living space. This can be abstracted all the way out to cities, states, and nations. But it’s not uncommon also for smaller communities to be the most saturated with thriving culture and identity. With OurPangea’s innovative system of networking hyper-local communities, these shared living spaces can connect and interactively these individual cultures together.

I grew up in a small neighborhood called Lamar Park, just off the edge of Corpus Christi Bay, in South Texas. My neighborhood consisted of friends, pets, families, events, adventures and everything one could ask for in a small community. We had community Christmas caroling, 4^th of July barbeques, garage sales, carpools, and much more. We created our community based on our shared living space. Every community in the world has the same story. Each of them has created their unique cultures and traditions based on the communication and connection of the people within them.

But a neighborhood is only one way of sharing a living space. More structured living spaces with offices and front desks would have the perfect opportunity to utilize the community organization OurPangea brings. An apartment office could coordinate its communities for the events and social gatherings they hold and the notices they send. Residence advisors could use OurPangea to connect and foster an environment of collaboration for students. An apartment complex or a university residence hall could quickly use OurPangea to create a sense of belonging and networking to the residents within by sharing their common ground with one another. In all cases, OurPangea acts as a springboard for community discussion, gathering, and connection.

The foundation of any community starts with a shared characteristic among its members. OurPangea’s organizational system will organize its communities by these traits, helping individuals come together and share in these communities. Neighborhoods, apartment complexes, and residence halls are the keystones in OurPangea’s vision. By creating communities of shared locations, shared interests, and shared topics, we will create “neighborhoods” that transcend our traditional notions of what a community should be, while at the same time bringing together and sharing all the communities that are.