Value Creation in the Next Economy: Can the Next Generation Internet Support the Sharing and Caring Economy?

👋 Hi NGI-er!

Did you know that the concept of value creation is evolving?🌱

In the Next Economy, value is measured by financial profit and social, environmental, and communal benefits. The Next Generation Internet (NGI) can support this paradigm shift towards a sharing and caring economy.

✨In the next economy we build, value is being redefined beyond profit, beyond the usual economic measures and extractive and individualistic we are all so accustomed to living and working by.✨

Social and environmental value creation are explicitly recognised. Social value, related to enhancing community well-being, social cohesion, and equity, looking after each other and our wider ecosystem of interactions, is recognised as the glue that binds us together, essential to fuel a sharing and caring economy.

@Mafaldaquotes

✅Environmental value, promoting sustainability, reducing ecological footprints, and fostering regeneration are essential parts of the picture.

✅Economic value moves away from the measure of “money” and presents a picture that ensures the fair distribution of resources and opportunities for all, reducing inequalities.

A sharing and caring economy is inclusive, collaborative, regenerative, and with mutual support mechanisms embedded in its practices.

✨It ensures everyone can access resources and opportunities, encouraging cooperative efforts and shared ownership, like a system of systems that prioritises long-term ecological health and resource regeneration and promotes reciprocity and collective well-being.✨

The role of the Next Generation Internet, with its key features of openness, decentralisation, trust, privacy and user-centric design, helps build and secure the long-term vision of the next economy:

• It is an infrastructure that promotes transparency, open-source technologies, and user control.
• It reduces the concentration of power while enhancing the security and privacy of interactions.
• It focuses on the needs and rights of users, ensuring equitable access and participation and protecting user data, fostering environments of trust.

These qualities allow for the emergence of tools and constructs that support the sharing and caring economy:

✅Digital platforms for collaboration facilitate cooperative efforts and decentralised work, reducing reliance on traditional hierarchical structures. Examples of these tools are Slack, Trello, and Mattermost (a personal favourite ).

✅Resource-sharing systems like P2P networks or time banks encourage the sharing of skills, services, and resources, fostering community interdependence and reducing waste.

✅Sustainable marketplaces like Freecycle, promote the reuse and recycling of goods, and cooperative marketplaces like Fairmondo, aim to reduce consumerism, encourage sustainability, and ensure fair practices. Finally, community and platform cooperatives, like Resonate for music streaming or Smart for freelancers of the cultural and creative industries, empower users, ensure fair distribution of profits, and align business practices with community values.

✅The technological infrastructure implementing NGI for the Next Economy brings together blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) to ensure transparency, security, and decentralised control, building trust and accountability essential for cooperative and shared economies.

✅ Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enhance personalised user experiences and optimise resource allocation, improve efficiency and user engagement, and support data-driven decision-making, for example, in workplaces (meaow). The Internet of Things (IoT) also has an essential role to play, connecting physical and digital worlds for smarter resource management, enhancing sustainability and efficiency, and promoting community-based resource management.

🔔Call to action! All these developments need explicit support from policymakers and public administrations.🔔

We need more policies and regulatory support for cooperative models, data privacy, and digital rights. We must ensure a fair and secure digital environment, encouraging innovation in the sharing economy.

But we also need investment, and I´m not talking only about intent and action, but also governance practices, education, and awareness:

• Governance is essential to foster community involvement in decision-making processes to ensure digital solutions address real needs and reflect community values.
• Education and awareness are crucial to promoting digital literacy and understanding cooperative and sustainable practices. An arduous process of unlearning existing capitalist and destructive practices is a must in this journey, both at individual and collective levels; otherwise, we will not be able to empower individuals and groups to participate actively in the Next Economy.

The Next Economy, supported by the Next Generation Internet, represents a transformative shift towards a more inclusive, regenerative, and equitable world🚀🚀🚀

Leveraging open, decentralised, and user-first digital technologies can help us create systems prioritising human and ecological well-being. This economy values sharing, caring, and mutual support, aligning economic activities with the broader goals of social justice and environmental regeneration.

As we imagine and build this future, remaining committed to openness, inclusivity, and trust is crucial. Committed as individuals working together to build the next economy, committed as builders of the Next Generation Internet and the tools and frameworks necessary to support this vision, ensuring that technology catalyses positive change in the economy and society.

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Important News: NGI Talk 📢

🌍 Can you imagine a digital future of work that is resilient, open, trustworthy, and grounded in human values?

✨Join me in this NGI Talk: The Next Generation Internet is building the Next Economy: a resilient, open, trustworthy digital future of work grounded in human values.✨

Learn how a new world of work is being built, inspired by the renaissance of commons-oriented, feminist economic and care-driven working practices.

👉 Watch this NGI Talk by clicking here