What Was Mine Is Now Ours.

I want us to move forward faster.

Tech has a long way to go in order for us to get where we need to be. The good news is we’re making progress and we now have a base of innovation we can use as a springboard. We now have a little security we can use to move forward.

Security is what we needed – it gave us confidence. We are comfortable with the idea of being connected to one another. Now, we’re questioning with whom we want to be connected to.

At OurPangea we want to provide you with the answer. We want to show you who you can be connected to. We can provide the security community offers.

We can move forward faster.

When we connect with the people who support us best we are given an opportunity to move forward faster. We will have the people we need supporting us. When we think of tech it’s easy to think of how it’s connected us, what we need to think of next is why we’re connected.

OurPangea is there to help people find security in community. There are a lot of interesting hobbies and fascinations out there.  In your city, where you live, there are a lot of things to be a part of – if only they were easier to find. It’s already there, but it should be there for you.

We can help you move forward faster, in whatever direction you choose.

The credo of community is, “what was mine is now ours”.

Our shared interests, our support, our community.

What Does It Mean to Affect?

Standing in a flowing river, I find a pebble in my hand. I float along, the pebble is lost and the river changed forever.

Something given, something changed forever.
This is affect.

Credit: James Jean

My prompt this week was something new. “How OurPangea affects the culture of the Internet”, it was also daunting. Should I start with OurPangea or should I start with the culture of the Internet?  I chose neither.

To me, this prompt was asking about affect, not OurPangea and the Internet. It was asking, how does one affect another? How do You affect the Internet? How do You affect the world?         Questions all equal, all interesting.

Questions all pointed towards revealing a sacred principal of OurPangea – You affect.

In your big actions and small actions. In public actions and private actions. You affect.

This basic idea courses through the DNA of OurPangea. Our goal is to show people that every little thing they do affects; and their affects are their contribution, for better or worse, to their community and beyond.

This is affect.
Something given, something changed forever.

Browsing OurPangea, others give to you. Engage with OurPangea, you give to others and OurPangea will be changed forever.

This is how OurPangea affects the culture of the Internet.
This is how you affect your culture.
This is your affect.

Lovable Differences

Your differences are your own. Share them. Embrace.

At our root, we are all different. And it’s easy to push that to an extreme and entertain thoughts of chaos and disorder. Yet, it’s just as easy to remember that these differences are ultimately what draw us together. Adversity breeds unity – it’s differences we overcome and it’s the differences we fall in love with.

Be it people or culture, differences are what we notice. The differences are what entice and the differences are what scare. It’s easy to collapse in fear; to shut our minds and guard our hearts. It’s easy to feel pride in what makes us different. But will faith in pride make us fear what is different, or will it embolden that same pride in others?

When we become proud of what makes us different it becomes our pride, we begin to own it. And when we own it, we might begin to fear we can lose it. Do the differences of others mean we should be less proud of ours? Perhaps that’s what they tell us, that their differences are better. Perhaps we shouldn’t listen.

Be proud of your differences. Find people who will support them. Find people who will help you explore them. And then do the same for others.

Do the same for others.

It’s the golden rule. It’s what governs OurPangea. It’s what we offer.

Here, we are proud to be different. We shout that we are different. It drives us. It’s our fuel. And we want to do the same for you. We want to hear you shout with us, “I am different too”.

OurPangea is here for you to share your differences with others. To find people who are also different, to connect with them and to meet them. We’ll start with one city, and hope to share how that one city is different. Imagine if other cities were proud that they were different too.

Our differences are what unite us, if only because we all are.

OurPangea For Education

Education without schools – radical, disturbing, I know.

What I should say is education can exist without schools, but it requires having something to learn from. I grew up with the Internet. When I had questions I could always ask Google. What I really wanted, however, was to hear from other people because other people can validate you in a way a statistic cannot. Education can exist if there are experts we can talk to, and it’d only be better if there were communities of experts we could easily find.

As OurPangea grows we want to see the rise of expert communities. All of those interested people who have done their research, thought about it, and need to discuss should be able to easily connect with communities of like-minded people. They shouldn’t have to spend time searching for those people, they should be able to look at a directory, find them, and start talking.

In a sense, these communities of experts are no different than a classroom; there is simply no teacher, just interested students. Each individual will have their own perspective to share and everyone can learn from each other. Each community can create, collect, and share their ideas. The community itself becomes the teacher, encouraging each student.

I may seem to imply that education is relegated to classical fields such as math, language, and science – it’s not. On OurPangea education shouldn’t be relegated to anything. We want to encourage the arts in the ways our school system cannot. We want to build communities of artists for their sake and for the sake of those interested. There is no limit to what a single person might be interested in and we want to make sure we can connect them to people who share that interest.

It’s disturbing that finding other people with similar interests is so hard. And it will take a radical solution to make the process better. Education without schools is a supplement to the classroom. It’s for all of the things schools can’t afford to teach and encourage. It’s for all of the little things in life that might fall through the cracks if they are not nurtured. And all you need is one person. Just one person who believes in that small interest. Someone to encourage and support you.

OurPangea is built to help you find that one person, for that one interest, in that one moment.