Christian, Mariska & Kids

Ubuntu; opening human motivation

Ubuntu is an ancient African word meaning ‘humanity to others’. It also means ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’.

Clay Shirky gives a great TED talk about how the recent developments which are enabling people to spend much of their free time on good things that benefit society as a whole.

One difference with the online content of the previous decade, currently people want to spend more of their free time to contribute to society, or maybe better said, have now more possibilities to do this. The amount of motivation people have to spend their free time generously on society should not be underestimated. He illustrates this by a piece of research in which people were more likely to show up in time – not because of a financial pressure – but because they felt a social pressure to avoid people waiting for them. A more visible prove that people simply want to do good to society can be seen by the huge amounts of (opensource) software currently developed for free, often made in the free time of people.

Clay Shirky talks about Ushahidi.com as an example where people create content not for the benefit and enjoyment of people from their community, but for the benefit of the society. I really like the idea behind the platform which enables easy summarizing of send data (even by SMS, see the example where it has been used to display stock outs of drugs in our neighbouring countries). It makes me automatically starts to brainstorm about possible opportunities to use it here in Tanzania.

Another comparable initiatives are Ubuntu and Wikipedia, two other pieces of software I am a great fan of: not made for profit, not made their own participants, but to society as a whole. 

Doesn’t it make you wonder how you can also contribute to society? Think also out of the box; not only by programming or doing other useful things online or in the real world. Be creative and think not about what you ought to do, but what you would really like to do! I am really wondering what your ideas about it are.

Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

You can view Clay’s talk online, of course free of charge, at www.TED.com: