Yesterday I had the tremendous pleasure to be a guest on one of the smartest news programs in the world, The Stream on Al Jazeera English. Their concept is quite revolutionary – base a news gathering organization around social media and have the community’s most talked about stories appear on a daily newscast. It is smart, fast-paced, erudite – and I didn’t even know about it until they asked me to be their guest! I showed up as a talking head and left a big fan.
The subject of the show was the rise of micro-currencies, a topic I just covered for The Atlantic. The economic crisis is leaving out increasing numbers of people, and after feeling depressed about their fate, lots of them look for new ways to trade goods and services, improve their communities, and make the world a better place. This is a fun and uplifting topic which runs the gamut from the rebirth of barter in Greek agoras to community currencies that encourage local relationships, to electronic currencies that side-step government authority altogether. The hosts and guests are great, and a wonderful discussion ensued.
Check it – and don’t forget to check their hastag #ajstream to participate in future shows!
