AND we can turn it into a business.

Awesome.

But as usual, I was left feeling a little empty.  Something is missing from this space.  Then on a bike ride it hit me:

The internet can be a cloister.

Cloister, as in “safe haven from the real world.”  Sure, great things go on inside it, but there is a world out there you’re not experiencing.

While I love all this technology as much as the next nerd/businessman, we have to remember something.  We have to remember that while we’re immersed in developing the next business model, while we’re parked in front of Hulu, while we’re Tweeting ourselves silly, there are still starving children.  There are still women being trafficked into prostitution.

Rather than remaining locked up in our technology, whether playing games or making millions, we need to break out and put this to good use.  If we can leverage the money-making, whuffie-creating power of the internet for the good of all people worldwide, we can do something mind-blowing.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not against playing games or making millions.

But don’t get locked inside the cloister.  Don’t forget that while you sit in a big comfy chair hooked into Grooveshark, Twitter, Facebook, and Hulu while signing a six figure advertising deal, there are real people hurting.  Some are hundreds of miles from you, some are ten minutes from you.  But they’re there.  They don’t have a Facebook account.  They don’t have a Twitter space in which they can ask for food in 140 characters or less.

Will you help me figure out how to mobilize people to help the starving, the hurting, the helpless using these awesome new tools?

Sam

More to come soon.

That is service networking. This is a new concept drawn from the social networking movement on the internet. Service networking is based on two things:

• Interactive, easily accessible opportunities for doing good (ServiceBlogs and possibly ServiceTweets)
• A social networking platform based on world-changing interests (homelessness, trafficking, poverty, etc.)

The combination of these two are what I call the “service network,” and would allow for people to:

• Be aware of local and global service opportunities, getting involved when and where they can
• Get connected to other people in order to start new projects

Imagine being able to log-in to “YourCity Service Network,” check out your favorite ServiceBlogs, and learn that Friday night 40 people are needed at a soup kitchen. You then get a ServiceTweet (on your mobile!) telling you 15 people are needed this afternoon to clean up an elderly woman’s house after a major storm. This inspires you to start a new project, so you check out who else has the same interests as you. You friend them up, and off you go, dreaming about how to change the world and getting out and DOING it!

Sounds pretty cool to me. The goal is to develop a “Service Network” platform that can be adapted and customized according to the needs of different areas and demographics: university service networks, city service networks, or religious service networks.

The idea is that technology can aid with not only profit-making, but people-helping. As evidenced by the internet bubble, web-based companies are going to come and go. Money can be made and lost. Technology will change, constantly out-dating the latest and greatest thing.

People are forever. Legacy lives on. Take some time to help your neighbor, and the effects are long-lasting and much more rewarding than something shiny.

Leave me your thoughts!

Sam

Things I’ve recently explored:

Digg
Pownce
Viddler
OpenID
Yelp
Revision3
Twitter
FriendFeed

All these things are incredible. Seriously. Look, Facebook and MySpace have had their day in the sun. They’re overrun and messy. Even audio podcasting is starting to go the way of the dinosaur, as video has become so easy to throw up on the net. As for good old fashioned words, well, who knows. (Why am I writing?)

The world is changing. Personal branding is the name of the game. As Gary Vaynerchuk has pointed out in numerous interviews and video blog posts, transparency is the way of the future. Our parents were worried about fraud and theft (for good reason), but the web of today is totally different.

This worries me, because evil isn’t any different. People are people, and somewhere along the way someone is going to start exploiting weaknesses – both technological and legal. It’s the wild, wild west out here.

This stuff jazzes me up, though. It makes me passionate. It’s freaking exciting that the internet has come such a long way. Technology is improving every field, and you had better jump on the bandwagon. You’ve got to be hitting up Pownce, Twitter, and other social networking sites. You’ve got to be on board with Digg and del.icio.us and other social bookmarking sites. I don’t care whether you’re a realtor or a rapper, technology is the name of the game. You’ve got to get savvy and start bridging your human interactions with your virtual community. It’s the best way to build brand.

But here’s my deal. Can we utilize this killer technology for good? As Western technology becomes more transparent, more instantaneous, can we use it to help people? Can we have instant volunteering via Twitter? Can we have someone brand himself/herself to END human trafficking (that will be me, in case you were wondering)?

What are your thoughts about connecting the next generation of the internet + personal branding + helping others?

Remember: local movement, global change.

Sam

Woot!

Sam