I was just reminded once again of the mission

I was at this conference with 125 entrepreneurs yesterday, and it reminded me of what I’m trying to do with Collaboraid.

Basically, I believe that we’re seeing a sweeping cultural change towards a very positive and constructive form of individualization, which we can call the network society. Each individual tries to be true to him or herself, to maximize his or her own potential, by building positive relationships with other people, and by contributing, sharing, learning from each other. I believe this is happening all over the place, in education, in workplaces, in personal life.

Students at universities want to know what’s in it for them, they want to be in control of their own education. People in jobs demand to not just fulfill a certain position or role, they want to use all of themselves, they want to learn and grow.

Collaboraid is about building software that supports these people.

Yesterday’s conference was for entrepreneurs, but basically entrepreneurs are just another example of this move: I believe that more and more people will come to see themselves as entrpreneurs, whether they’ve started a business or not. It’s about having the courage to contribute what you have to contribute, to take yourself and your ideas seriously, and make them happen, whether you do that at home, in a job, by starting a community, a conference, a business, or simply throw a well-crafted party.

Open source software is to me an integral part of this movement: Being strong enough to share, realizing that we can move ahead further by sharing and using each other. It’s like the difference between the Enlightenment and the medieval church. It’s also about not accepting that other people try to dictate what software we should use, having the power to change what you’re unhappy with.

Weblogs are an expression of this trend, too. Why not share your thoughts and ideas, so others can get inspired and think up even more exciting ideas. It’s about letting things out in the open by default, and only keep things closed when there’s a good reason to. It’s a central part of the cultural revolution that’s going on.

This revolution has been fueled by technology since the beginning. In the early 70’s, the personal computer was born, putting computer power in the hands of individuals. In the 90’s, the internet took the world by storm, enabling these people to get in touch.

So what’s the software that we now need to build to support these people? It’s a software that enables individuals to find each other, to get in touch, to communicate online. Software that helps people build up networks of people. It’s software that lets people share what they know, and collectively build up catalogs of their combined knowledge. I’m sure there’s years of work ahead in finding innovative ways to let people open up their personalities to each other in creative ways. And it goes without saying that it’ll have to be open source.

Collaboraid was created to build this software.