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So, up until now you may have heard about this crazy guy who has decided to live without spending money for 5 years. You may also have heard that this guy plans on giving away R555 555 555.55 by the end of the 5 years. Some of you may be his friend on Facebook, some of you may follow him on Twitter, some have even gotten involved with his story either by trading with him or sponsoring him and some of you might have your logo tattooed on his right arm!
The more perceptive of you may have realised that this guy that I speak of is me. Hi there. 
Even though it may appear that for 10 months I have succeeded in living without spending money, the truth is that I have only accomplished what you have allowed to happen or what you have supported me in doing. WE have made it possible for one guy to live without spending money.
What’s also kinda beautiful is that it all happened rather organically. I have tried my best not to ask anyone directly for any kind of support, preferring a ‘just putting it out there’ strategy. That way, anyone who has responded to an invitation has done so out of their own free will…their action or contribution then is their own idea, their own creation. This has made me happy, yet I do feel that if I had been more comfortable asking for help, this story may have progressed a bit further than it has, and more people would know about it.
It is clear to me now that a community of people is way more interesting and powerful than any individual. My friends: Kelly Guidry Robinson, Calvin Dorman (also my minister of transport), Priscilla Talle and my trusty side-kick Anita B have helped me see that in the last 10 months, I have already begun to build that community.
In my previous message, I mentioned that I wished the story had been documented more effectively. That is an understatement. I’ve always known that the success of this experiment is dependent on its story being told. What good could come of this experiment if no-one knew about it? However, stories have the power to do much more than just spread a message. They can be leveraged in many different ways.
The story is where I would like much of the focus to be from now on. In the world of instant media and self publishing, stories are a powerful business tool. Being a part of this story has arguably been my most valuable trade item and I want nothing more than to add value to my friends, my country and the world. With a bigger and better story that reaches more people, WE can do that.
So how do WE tell a bigger and better story? In short, WE tell the story TOGETHER.Welcome to the future of story telling which I call WIKI-ALITY! (if wikipedia and a reality show were to fall in love and have a baby, that baby would be called wiki-ality!)
Seriously though, imagine an online reality show:
- that is Crowdsourced
- that is Open source
- that is a real time documentary
- where all the content is generated, contributed, shared, edited and published freely by a community of collaborators
- that exists on any and all social media platforms like: Youtube, Zoopy, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter etc etc.
I don’t think anything like this has been done before so we’ll figure out the best way to do this. We will use the Facebook group to have discussions as well as real life brain-storming sessions and face to face meetings. Everyone is welcome be a part of this process – all input is valuable. You don’t need to be an expert to be a part of this.
With social media EVERYONE has an audience and ANYONE can tell a story. If you are on Facebook, you basically have your own little multimedia reality show already and you are watching your friends’ shows too. What if we put a little intention behind that and chose to tell stories that have value? Wouldn’t you rather keep up with what your awesome friends are creating in the world than those silly Kardashians? Let’s create our own reality shows, let’s tell the stories that we think should be told.
All you need is phone with a camera and you can create content. With an internet connection you can share that content instantly with your own community, and their community and so on. Your reach is bigger than you think. By sharing that content with people who have skills that you don’t, the quality of the product (the video, blog post etc) can only improve. My biggest fear has been editing. I know that there are people out there who love editing. If we provide them with footage, they can add what they love to it. Animators can make cool titles, musicians can make sound tracks etc. Maybe you like to take pictures but are not a confident writer. You could share you images with the community and allow others to use them in their posts. The reverse is also true, writers you can find awesome photos to add to your articles.
The best part is that you get to tell the story that most interests you and your community. You get to tell your own story or your version of another story.The possibilities with collaborations like this is endless.
WHAT STORIES DO WE WANT TO TELL?
I see 3 immediate areas of focus: the people who make up that community, the community itself and the projects created by the community.
The People:
Well that is you and me. So far I have been doing this for 10 months so maybe my story is the biggest so far. However, like I’ve said before, many people have played an integral part in that story. The interactions that have taken place and relationships that have made it possible for for me to live without spending money are what is really interesting about this story. Let’s say I have exchanged value with 5 people so far, then there would be 6 unique perspectives of those exchanges, 6 possible stories right there. But then, those stories could be perceived differently by the greater community and someone may choose to retell those stories to his or her community, then we have 12 stories. You see how this could work?
The Community:
The community that we are creating already exists. I was its first member, but you (my friends) are where its real value lies. Although it already exists our task now is to systemise it and formalise it so that it can be more effective.
It will:
- Answer the question “What can we create without spending money?”
- Support members to share and leverage value between each other by means of trade, sponsorhip and donation
- Be an incubator for the projects (social enterprises) that will make the money that will be given away (R555 555 555.55)
The Projects:
The projects are social enterprises designed make money to give away. What is special about them is that they will all be created without spending money. Everything that these ‘businesses’ require to create their products & services will contributed by community members.
By documenting each of these areas we make it possible for many stories to be told. You can either be the subject of a story, play a part in telling a story or share other people’s stories.
I believe that the best way to tell a really big story is to tell many small stories, don’t you? What story do you want to tell? How do you wish to get involved?
The following discussions have been created on the Facebook group (see if you can spot the subtle change in the name and description):
What part of this story is most interesting to you?
What type of projects should we work on?
Please join the conversation.
Much love
Adin & Team
