Full Circle Associates

Recently David blogged a wonderful piece, Web as world. This one paragraph was like a cup of dark, hot chocolate.

"some things become clearer if you do not start with the premise that people are fundamentally isolated and battle against noise in order to connect with others. Instead, we find ourselves in a world shared by others. Connection comes first. Isolation and alienation are withdrawals from the pre-existence of what is shared. I think that helps explain why some sites 'work' and others don't. Many of the sites that work for me are ones in which I see that my participation helps create and enrich this shared world; I have that sense at del.icio.us and Flickr, at every place I leave a review or join in a discussion, and every time I blog. I can't explain that by thinking of the Web only as a medium, but I can explain it if it's a shared world that we are building together."

In the past week there has been an intense and often challenging conversation on the Online Facilitation Yahoogroup which I moderate and sometimes even facilitate. It is a lot of work to keep a 1000+ diverse group moving forward and sometimes I ask myself, "why bother." Well, David summed it up. It is because it is a communal act of building something together. It is a shared world, even if it has warts, bumps and wrinkles. They, at least, are our bumps, warts and wrinkles.

Thanks, David, for continuing to keep the heart visible in all of this.

[lead via Bill Anderson]

P.S. (posted a bit later) Make sure you read the comments following Dave's post with Dave Rogers.