Today’s Meatspace Monday is a guest post by Tyler Gillies.  Some interesting thoughts here and I’d challenge you to think how we can get off our butts and help someone in need, not just technologically!

Thanks Tyler!

Social Serving

You all have probably heard the term “Web 2.0″.

For those of you not in the know, this term is used to describe the “second phase” on the World Wide Web. It is a place where we do not just interact with a client/server paradigm. We now interact one-on-one, mano y mano. The Web is no longer something you experience yourself, but it is now something you share with your friends.

Out of this era of Web 2.0 has risen a beast we like to call Social Networking. Social networking is essentially the same as face-to-face networking, except that it occurs through the internet.

What is the purpose of networking? I’m talking about networking as we experience it in the physical realm. Isn’t it just used to establish some sort of relationship with someone, so that, in the near future you might be able to call upon their services. Here is an excerpt taken from Wikipedia under “Social Network“:

In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to determine the social capital of individual actors. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines.

This “social capital” is what I’m addressing. We measure the worth of our network contacts by how much social capital they provide us.

What if we started something radical? Something that was different than the rest of the way the Web functioned?

What if we no longer judged people by how much social capital they provided us with, but rather judged their relational worth the way Christ does?

What if instead of spending our time seeking what we could get from other people, we dedicated our time and resources to helping other people get what they need done?

I’m thinking that we could form together as our own network to purposefully seek others to help out. Christian Crowd Sourcing if you will. What do you think?

I haven’t really developed a model by which to accomplish this yet, so I’m open to your opinions.

Christian Social Networking from Tyler Gillies on Vimeo.