A couple weeks back we were doing some research and needed some numbers on ferries. Knowing we have a few readers from Seattle Transit Blog, we fired off an email asking one of their regular contributors for help — after all, Seattle has a massive fleet of ferries.
A couple emails back-and-forth over the course of an hour and we had the info we needed.
Then a week ago we had some transit-related questions regarding London, England. Similarly, we knew we had a few readers from London Reconnections so we fired off an email asking a couple of their contributors for help.
Sure enough, a couple emails back-and forth over the course of an hour and we had the info we needed.
We do the same thing. If people have a couple of questions about gondolas or cable transit, we happily answer as best we can — within reason, of course.
The point is this:
Over the last decade the internet has democratized the act of giving. Generosity of the sort I just described – of communication, community, information and research – would largely have been impossible in an era of long distance charges, fax machines, couriers, and overnight mail.
The business of city building is largely one of communication and community. Sure, it’s also the stuff of concrete, steel, and glass; but none of those ‘hard’ resources are required if you can’t first marshall the ‘soft’ resources of communication and community to develop your given project.
Fifteen years ago you had a reasonable excuse not to be generous with communication and community — after all, communication and community were expensive commodities. You couldn’t afford to give it away.
But nowadays that’s all changed.
Since you can find practically any information, or connect with multiple people who know the information, it makes sense to make friends, not enemies. You could hold on to your knowledge and your time. You could withhold communication, or give someone the run around, but then you’d have to be prepared for the same treatment next time you need that crucial information tidbit from someone across the world. Quid pro quo is now the order of the day.
You can’t shirk your obligation to be generous anymore. And that’s a good thing.
4 Comments
Plus with all the instant technology capabilities, you can’t hide. They out of office excuse doesn’t work.
When you see someone tweeting every hour, you know they’re connected. When you get emails that say “sent from iphone,” you know they’re connected.
So generally you can then assume if you send a “connected” person an email, they will see it. That almost forces them to respond, and in a relatively timely manner.
I’m not sure I agree this is anything terribly new, except that it’s now easier to connect. The main reason people don’t share information in my line of work is simply because it’s something they charge for. Call up an engineer now or 50 years ago and thed talk for 10 minutes about your design without hesitation – building good will has always been a profitable venture. It’s when you want an hour of their time that they start talking about consulting fees.
Certainly not anything terribly new, that’s for sure.
I think what I’m saying is that because our reach is now so much greater and friction-free, there’s really no excuse not to share. Furthermore, how many transit hobbyists 50 years ago (not that they existed, but let’s pretend they did) would’ve been willing/able to spend the money on a 10-minute phone call from Toronto to Seattle – or Toronto to London, for that matter. I think the point I’m getting at is that the barriers to communication and community have fallen so low that not to share just looks selfish.
We’re probably just saying two versions of the same thing – building good will is always profitable.
Steven I completely agree with you here.
I have tried to get information on historic buildings on my Island many times. I ended up starting a website instead where I post photos of said buildings. People have actually just shared their knowledge. And it is this knowledge about historical facts that gets locked up in archives that may someday burn, while I decided to publish it on the web for everyone to see.
I think it is more about availability too. Most archives are open during working hours so that students and professional may consult them in their practice, but the common civillian has no time to get in an archive and pace through shelves and shelves, especially with today’s modern demmands.