It is becoming economically and technically feasible that much of the global population, representing 15,000 cultures, could receive the opportunity for Internet access within fifteen years. In a world where half the population has yet to make a first phone call, new satellite and wireless technologies are bringing unlimited access to information and many other opportunities… and risks. No traditional cultural will be well-served by denying the reality of our fast changing world, or of the value of the education, and knowledge, this access represents.
How traditional cultures will learn to deal with the risks of new knowledge and ideas, the risks of access to negative information, and how they will learn to benefit from the best knowledge available, may increasingly depend on the kind and quality of advice and support the first cultural groups on the web provide to assist the cultures yet to come.
To become a true global citizen will be to not deny the inherent power for positive change the Internet puts at all our fingertips. To become a true global citizen is to celebrate the diversity of humankind while retaining the personal right to celebrate our own traditional cultural heritage.
Cultures have always changed in order to survive. Cultures adapt and are formed around shared values and ideas. The Internet presents unlimited opportunities for positive change, if used wisely. We must all learn together how to assure that this power is not misused. How we do this will reflect the beliefs and values of our individual cultures. How we each take up this challenge will soon become a fact of history. For many of us, we need to look to our past to see our future.
Many cultures do not attribute honor to those focused on personal gain, but only to those who act to support everyone's benefit. The kind of world we'll build together, hopefully will be built on this honor that comes from the giving of ourselves by helping others, and not from seeking personal gain, only.
Culturally Appropriate Ecommerce
Cultural authenticity adds value to cultural products. Marketing cultural crafts and products, growing one’s reputation for quality, can produce a sustainable living while enhancing one's cultural identity. Cultural marketing allows villages to retain their youth rather than lose them to the competing dominant culture.
At issue is a new electronic wind of possibilities. We share the challenge for each of us to show our true selves and to build valued relationships through sharing, mentoring, and teaching others. This is a time to learn to protect what we cherish.
Today we have new tools for preserving our cultural knowledge, particularly that of our elders, while they are still with us. The sum of this cultural knowledge is humankind's joint heritage, which literally tells our shared story and is of immeasurable value. We must use the tools available for such honorable purposes, or suffer the unnecessary loss of our shared cultural knowledge.
Since it is now easy for anyone to create online learning pathways and courses for others, the opportunity exists for the world’s cultures to teach about themselves, in their own way, perhaps also as a culturally supportive business such that the value of such instruction increases with one’s cultural authenticity.
There is a Native American prophecy that the seventh generation (since the white-man arrived,) will lead a new day of Native American sovereignty. Perhaps that day has come as we all come to recognize that we all share humankind’s history of cultural evolution.
Cultural Entrepreneurship and Crafts Marketing