A Havenology Premise

Don't get me wrong - havens are not a new thing for me. I've always been interested in the kind of space that is both safe and open - the kind of place that is less like a fortress and more like a traditional trading bazaar. The original trade route bazaars - like the Khan al Khalili pictured in the link - pr0vided protection from the elements for camel caravans. They also provided a place to trade goods, services, and ideas - some of which came in with the caravans and some of which grew in the community surrounding the bazaar. In other words, by providing a safe place for trade, the community around the bazaar effectively spread not only their products but also their ideas to a world that they would never physically see.

This model, of course, works more effectively today in the form of the internet. The goods and service providers have all translated their roles quite literally from the caravan world to the computer. The idea folks are - just like in the caravan days - having a harder time figuring out how to get paid for their information. There are people making a fair amount of money by helping sift and sort content, by setting up merchandise trading or by providing tech support. But the havens themselves are quite small on the internet - a pocket here and a forum there - with vast stretches of "do not want" in between.

In other words, the internet bazaar requires that I know what I want in my haven so that I can gather the far flung resources into one place. The blogs I follow, the news sites I read, the tabs on my iGoogle and the online shops that I frequent create boundaries for the world in which I want to trade. The good news is that each of us have personalized, customized self selected bazaars at our finger tips. The bad news is that these solitary computer havens lose something very important in the translation.

I don't know about you, but I've never seen a working bazaar or seaport that didn't have some fairly serious security protocols of one kind another. The thing about opening a space to trade is that there will inevitably be some conflict of - shall we say - interests. To effectively do business in that environment, I have to be able to deal with others that are "not my people" - by philosophy, zip code, hair color or whatever else I may use to label my fellow man - in a way that is profitable for both of us. In self selecting worlds, I can choose to deal only with those that do meet my "us" criteria. This will reduce conflict immeasurably, but may also limit the flow of new ideas.

So, for my part, I'll be on a mission to modify my Ang haven access guidelines. I'm going to add some new news sites to my feeds. And find some blogs that annoy but intrigue me. And possibly even listen to some talk radio. After all, havens are places where all honest traders are welcome - not just traders that I like.