What is The Next Economy and what does it has to do with The Next Generation Internet

👋Hello, NGI-ers!

Some ten years ago, before I saw myself as the "Next Economy Agitator" (a self-proclaimed title that some snub), I started a journey of discovery of the technologies and practices that are changing the world as it is.

I started observing my life and work community and asking myself why everything was so rotten. Why were relations and practices twisted? Why was there a lack of warmth and feeling wrong?🤔

I started to look at anything I saw, experienced, purchased and transacted and asked myself: "Isn't there another way? Are there other ways to meet these needs? Which of my needs are being addressed by this or that transaction?"

🔥Then, I started to imagine a world where there is no money.🔥

Repeat.

🔥🔥Then, I started to imagine a world where there is no money.🔥🔥

🫵 Now you do it.

Imagine a world where there is no money. How would you and your community meet your needs? Work. Relate to each other.

Can you imagine an economy like this? What would an economy look like if it worked for everyone without one left out? What would you see?

✨I would like to see a world where people, individuals, and communities are free from systems and structures that exert control, impose constraints, or exploit them✨

✅ A world that understands, acknowledges, and addresses different forms of oppression that combine uniquely with different forms of marginalisation.
✅ A world where regeneration practices are praised and promoted instead of extractive ones.

An economy that works for the most discriminated against and disadvantaged, an economy that works for all. An economy of Belonging that fosters inclusion and mutual support vs. an economy of Othering that perpetuates and divides it.

If we define "The Economy" as the collection of strategies humans use to meet human needs...IS THE BUSINESS-AS-USUAL ECONOMY WORKING? 8 men have as much wealth as 3.6 billion people. Is that, what would be the word, fair?

Going a step further, the technologies that surround us today mirror and amplify this situation in many ways. If we define "The Internet" as a global data communications system, a user-centred experience, IS THE BUSINESS A USUAL INTERNET WORKING FOR THE INDIVIDUAL?

The answer is no. Plenty of abuse has been committed through its use, both by individuals and by organisations.

That's why we need an internet we can trust that works for all and empowers users with the freedom of choice among a range of open-source, decentralised digital solutions that embody values like openness, inclusivity, transparency, privacy, cooperation, and data protection.🚀

A Next Generation Internet that aims to support the emergence of a next economy that meets human needs, its currency one of trust and sharing. A technological infrastructure that enables an interconnected and interdependent web of relations to take place and businesses and communities to operate in safe digital spaces, creating value beyond growth.

What do I mean by this? Check out my next article, "Value Creation in the Next Economy. Can the Next Generation Internet Support the Sharing and Caring Economy?".

I'd like to finish with a quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer that I came across while participating in The Next Economy MBA by LIFT with fellow post-growth entrepreneurs. It touched my heart, and I would like to share it with you all:

You might rightly observe that we no longer live in small, insular societies, where generosity and mutual esteem structure our relations. But we could. It is within our power to create such webs of interdependence quite outside the market economy. Intentional communities of mutual self-reliance and reciprocity are the wave of the future, and their currency is sharing.

Ditto.

💫And we need technological infrastructures that mirror this vision.💫
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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 the NGI Talk by clicking here