The Netcohort Institute -- Open House

The Netcohort Institute is not planned to be operational until 2008.

We have started to develop some plans and ideas, and we are starting to put the materials we will use in the first class next to the foundation. There are several short essays, a couple of entertaining articles, and even some books that may find their way into the final mix.

If you have not yet registered for Bastiat Free University at no charge - go do it now. If you have registered for BFU college classes use this link to get to your login page.

You will probably want to log in and click through the course material, some of it is very interesting. As a further inducement you will find an introduction page within the materials that gives away part of our overall plan - there is good news if you want to join the international netcohort society and earn some personal freedom.

"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things." - Leonardo da Vinci

If you want to find a life rather than just find a job - go take a look in the course catalog for Introduction To The Netcohort Institute.

.

The Offer To You

In the prior post I made an offer to George. There was a list of difficulties facing BFU and a look at the promise of Bastiat Free University that makes it all worth while.

We can therefore assume you know there is a need for BFU, and that a diploma from BFU has value to some people. If the idea seems too bold, go read that post. The question is if you are one of those people and in what circumstances a BFU college degree will help you?

• If you lack the self discipline to finish what you start without someone controlling your actions - BFU is not for you.

Even in BFU's most structured format there is not a lot of structure. BFU was created for self-directed visionaries and entrepreneurs - students that find freedom and personal control appealing.

• If you want to be a bureaucrat - BFU is not for you.

College degree credits or a diploma from Bastiat Free University will not be accepted by government licensing bureaus, most other colleges, and many employers.

• However, Bastiat Free University may be for you:

• if you want to interact with other successful individualists in the netcohort society:

• if you want to be honored with an enviable reputation based on performance;

• if you willingly want to take responsibility for your own life;

• and if in exchange you expect personal freedom and control.

There is one more very exciting promise on the horizon, The Netcohort Institute.

For those of you wanting to find a future rather than find a job, the Netcohort Institute will be providing competency based learning. The immediate goal is to help you develop the internet and community skills required to develop new tools, businesses, and technologies.

There will be three levels of involvement with The Netcohort Institute, first will be a free team building and knowledge sharing community that will focus on finding team members to work on simple, and useful projects. As your reputation grows you may be invited to join graduates of The Netcohort Institute in commercially viable projects as a team member - TNI graduates will not pay for this level of involvement, others will pay a small monthly fee.

A third level is planned where those who have developed their reputation will be made known to serial entrepreneurs of major projects with the opportunity to become part of the next New - New - Thing.

It is something to consider.

.

The Power Of Micro-Finance

Micro Finance may be the second most powerful idea in the world.

In microfinance a poor person stuck in an exploited position is assisted in starting her own business. An example is a mother that has a job building brooms, someone drops off a few sticks, some straw, and a bit of string. A day or two latter they pick up the brooms and pay a piece work price for the completed work, a price not quite enough to feed a family.

Enter micro-finance. A very small loan is made, usually just a few dollars, to the mother to buy a small supply of sticks, string and straw. She can now sell completed brooms in a competitive market, making enough to feed her family, grow her business, and pay back the loan. The loans are almost always paid back. The repaid loan is recycled to another poor person trapped at the bottom of society.

The first and most familiar micro-finance venture is The Grameen Bank that was soon followed by The Grameen Foundation, Kiva, and other groups. These are actually micro-venture capital teams financing micro-entrepreneurs. As the Grameen Foundation says about themselves on their website:

"With tiny loans, financial services and technology, we help the poor, mostly women, start self-sustaining businesses to escape poverty. Founded in 1997 by a group of friends who were inspired by the work of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, our global network of micro-finance partners reaches over 3.6 million families in 22 countries."

The small businesses created are what capitalism once was, before governments and special interests united to control markets and centralize power. That is what makes micro-finance so powerful. Because the loan makes families self-sufficient -- it is an exciting form of giving that multiplies results and keeps giving.

These results are achieved by ignoring the dire warnings of bureaucrats and academics that view the countless poor as a drain on the world and civilization. Their talk is filled with images of mouths to be feed, housing required, waste that needs to be managed.

In reality the poor can be the worlds salvation - they are minds needing to create, desires for themselves and their families that strive to be satisfied.

They want a better world, if we but provide tools and get out of the way, they will make our world better also.

While academics write position papers that are only read by those academics that already agree with them; The Grameen Bank, The Grameen foundation, and other similar outreaches are helping large numbers of people isolated by their societies.

This is real progress. Each of those helped by micro-finance are also examples to the many around them of what can be accomplished using individualistic and personal commerce. All manner of government and non-government organizations have for decades flown to their location in chartered jets and driven around in air conditioned cars offering help - and overall life just got worse. They also know that corporations backed by government programs offer limited routes to escape from poverty.

With micro-finance however they have discovered a first step to independence, a small and personal business.

Education, corporations, governments, unions; in fact all bureaucracies are already under pressure from technological solutions. In another type of pressure, micro-financed individuals are also discovering they no longer need listen and hope at empty promises from politicos that live well while they starve.

The world is changing. The old industrial age middle class is shrinking even as the individualistic knowledge workers of netcohort are rising. For the first time in centuries there is also hope for the poor in badly governed countries. Micro-finance lifts them and offers positive direction as no promised socialist paradise ever did.

These once totally downtrodden poor, and their billions of brethren, can provide a foundation for the sweeping changes of the emerging netcohort age. Their lives will be better, our lives will also improve with each innovation and business they create.

The American dream of upward mobility, equality of opportunity rather than equality of position, may be re-born on a world wide scale. Imagine billions of people that are not motivated by promises to pull down those above them but instead seek opportunity for their own ascension. A powerful picture, and since it is happening first at the poorest levels that have been so cavalierly treated - it is off the radar of self-centered world leaders.

By the time all are aware of a groundswell of historic capitalism, it will already be a powerful force within societal structures. Micro-finance is a remarkably efficient way to assist the poor in helping all of us.
.

The Netcohort & the Netcohort Society

.

The netcohort: knowledge workers that will lead the emerging Netcohort Society.


We can complete the circle. The Netcohort Society, the emerging age that will replace the industrial age. The middle class will be replaced by the netcohort, as the guilds were replaced by the middle class.


If you are training to become a professional you are probably in a good situation. There is a need for your skills, but as industrial age schools around the world create huge numbers of competitors, expect the value of your education to decrease. Of course that may be good for the rest of us as the costs for professional services decrease.


What will have value in the future?


Learn to enjoy learning. The successful members of the netcohort will demonstrate integrity, knowledge, adaptability, and a desire to keep constantly learning.


How do I become a member of the netcohort?


Think small business on steroids. Aggressive and honorable business practices will allow you to network with similar individuals in short term, project oriented teams. Information technology netcohort teams are already producing wonderful results.


How do I prepare?


At any age, start to explore knowledge in areas you enjoy. Use technology to leverage your research. Create based on your insights; and then dig deeper into knowledge that enhances your projects. If you are serving the twelve year sentence in public schools, look beyond their doors for reality. Don't blindly accept a bureaucratic school's view of reality. If possible get yourself home schooled or become unschooled. Find areas where you want to learn and study them, discover the pleasures of self directed learning.


The final piece is to find other creative people that share your passions. Check their reputation and do some small projects with them. Over time you will develop a reputation; if your reputation is one of passion, knowledge, action, and integrity you will have many opportunities to join important projects.


This is also a fun way to live.


As part of the netcohort you will stay mobile, flexible, and open to new ideas. You will build on what others have created, as others will build on your contributions - all will profit.

Enjoy life,


Allan

.