And here’s something else “they” will struggle to understand…
“But why do people do it? I just don’t get it…”
How many times have you heard people ask that question when they discover that you work in something to do with blogging, Twitter and Facebook?
They start to struggle when you tell them most people don’t do it for money. That makes them very suspicious. Not for money? Must be something really suspect then – possibly perverted. Perhaps you’ll end up using *that word*: “altruism”. That’ll get them smirking nervously. Altruism. Oh yeah.
Try them on the term “culture of generosity” and you’ll probably get personally abused, as if the very idea of human acts of online kindness between “strangers” marks you out as some sort of deranged and – quite frankly – dangerous fantasist with a weakness of character.

Some of the coverage of Twitter over the past fortnight has been lamentably stupid. Elin’s post provides some hilarous examples. The come-latelies don’t understand the culture of generosity. It’s that feeling I get when I read the Mail: it’s-all-going-to-hell-in-a-handcart, glass-half-empty pessimism. People who just can’t bring themselves to feel good about other people. I honestly don’t know why.
We should round these cynics up and bus them into London tomorrow night to watch ‘Us Now‘ – a new British documentary film the ways people are using the Web to support each other in non-commercial activities across the political, social and cultural spectrum. The film covers a range of subjects: the site couchsurfers.com runs a system of free accommodation for travellers; slicethepie.com connects music-lovers to the demos of hopeful musicians, where they take their pick and pledge a fiver towards the making and marketing of that band’s CD, and of online fan-owned and managed football club Ebbsfleet United. The film’s on tomorrow night at 8.30pm at the Barbican.
BTW I found out about this film through Twitter again (thanks to @leebryant) who provided a shortened link this morning to an article in the FT.com. If there are any nay-sayers reading this, that’s another great example of Twitter saving me time: I follow a network of people posting links to the things I’m interested in… it’s easier than searching.
24th February 09
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About the author
Tim has been creating innovative online community stuff since 2000 and was recently named as one of Revolution Magazine's 'Future 50' - one of the the "marketers, authors, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who will shape the digital industry of tomorrow". It also called him "disruptive and challenging". Tim is a founding partner of Made by Many, Agilist, strategist, Dad and designer of social software.
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Comments (3)
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Responses (0)
Hi Tim,
Strange, isn’t it, that a lot of these people who don’t get these kinds of behaviors online, wouldn’t hesitate to be helpful and nice and share ideas or things offline. So maybe it’s not that they don’t get generosity etc. but that they don’t get how you can do nice stuff without being face-to-face to the recipient… and without strictly controlling who get’s it.
Cheers
Eva
Eva Schiffer
February 24, 2009
at 3:18 pm
Eva – right – yes I agree with that…Have a look at this new invective against ‘the social’. And remember… they hate you when you’re winning!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/24/social-networking-site-changing-childrens-brains
tim
February 24, 2009
at 5:57 pm
Funny how no-one thinks that The Sun might encourage infantile behaviour, or all the crappy shows on TV!
tim
February 24, 2009
at 5:58 pm