How about being meaningful?

By @KChabaldas - #YourTurnChallenge - #day2

Finally it looks like I will manage to post 2 days in a row. It’s quite a meaningful step for me, considering what I was discussing yesterday. I’m starting to experience how it’s true when some people say that it all comes down to focus, motivation and commitment for “shipping” on a regular basis. Therefore, I’m really happy to have taken on this challenge alongside thousands of bloggers from all over the world.

Before the start of the week experiment my idea was to actually link up all the posts to the new side project that I have in mind (turismop2p.com), where I will focus more on p2p travel platforms and experiences. The original intention was to publish here for 7 days in a row exactly what would become the 7 first posts of the new site once it’s live, but now I already feel it wouldn’t make sense to avoid mentioning more personal and meaningful aspects around this 7 day experience. Making reference to the daily questions proposed by winnie also adds plenty of value to this experiment, surely it will help us in learning more from each other. It even serves me in getting a flow of words going!

What’s important to me?

Many things. Firstly of course the health and happiness of my family and close friends, as I guess it is too in your case. Secondly, doing something meaningful in life (which was precisely the reason that I started blogging). My passion for the collaborative economy goes beyond just a temporary hype, I really feel it could actually lead us to a much more sustainable, creative and fairer world. It is perhaps already doing that in many ways, as an example we can take what Javi Creus mentioned in one of his articles about 3D printers. I chose this one because it immediately draws the attention to the huge accessibility and environmental benefits we could gain from these technologies.

“At your home, in your neighbourhood or from your computer. The information travels, not the materials” – @javicreus (Ideas for Change)

But the deep “cultural change” implied for the collaborative economy to develop its full potential (in the way many of us would like it to) largely depends on people (i.e. humanity) to change ourselves, and this will surely be the most difficult challenge of all. How can this be achieved? I often wish it would be as easy as simply pressing a “reset” button.

Having said that, common sense suggests that it’s generally easier to have an impact on smaller groups of people than on large ones, and this is the main reason why I’m planning to focus on a more local perspective. Whichever place I live in is of course important to me too, even more when it comes down to my hometown, and I think it should be important for every one of us to somehow deliver a positive impact to society.

ceuta, meaningful, local

Photo by the courtesy of Pepe Gutiérrez

Although Ceuta holds its charm and attraction, we see plenty of structural problems here on day to day basis. Most are the same problems as in the rest of Spain: high unemployment, lack of opportunities for its youth, an education system that doesn’t meet present needs, environmental issues, etc. I would also add an extreme lack of innovation and creativity by local policy makers to meet people’s needs. We need to attract people not only to increase tourism, but also work together effectively to turn the situation around so that talented individuals look forward to come and live here, whether it’s to settle indefinitely or just for a certain period of time. This would be essential to add the creative values that this town has lacked during the past 20 years. At a time of European economic uncertainty where the EU is looking to growing African countries for new opportunities Ceuta’s strategic spot at the tip of the continent should be considered a treasure, so that we really understand the best way to meet needs without repeating past mistakes.

ceuta, meaningful, local

photo by Pedro Redondo (under a creative commons license on Flickr)

As mentioned yesterday, I also believe it’s an ideal location to test the benefits and overall effects of p2p travel platforms. Other parts related to the collaborative economy could follow, and especially a “collaborative city” approach could genuinely serve the challenges of having such limited public spaces due to the town’s small dimensions. Being able to connect instantly with anyone in the world is of course a huge blessing for such a small and often “isolated” place, it now enables us to learn from each other at an accelerated pace no matter where we are – and this basically is what OuiShare and Sharitories are about.

“Small is the new big”, as Seth Godin said in one of his posts. In fact, sometimes I’m not sure if I would be comfortable living in a big capital city again! 🙂

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This post has been submitted as #day2 of the #YourTurnChallenge – an experiment promoted by @winniekao and @ThisIsSethsBlog

Huge number of contributions by bloggers from all over the world: http://yourturnchallenge.tumblr.com/

My contribution on day2: http://yourturnchallenge.tumblr.com/post/108692656890/how-about-being-meaningful

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