I think all educated people should be able to list their primary fears for future of our world. Nuclear holocaust, genocide, endemic poverty, and unplanned consequences from genetic engineering all rank high on my list. However, I am especially concerned with the ultimate effects of unsustainable resource consumption and the associated changes in the Earth's natural environments. Humans are changing global biospheric processes in new ways at an unprecedented speed. I don't presume to know exactly what the ultimate consequences will be for human societies, but what worries me most is that no one else really does either. We seem content to march towards answering that question in the most uninformed and dangerous way imaginable.

I decided long ago that consumerism was the primary engine driving this problem and that working to cut off its fuel supply (increasing demand for resource intensive commodities) would is the best way to attack it. I have expended much effort trying to better understand the specific economic, social, political, and psychological mechanisms behind this phenomena. I embrace the fact that my comprehension is limited to the developed Western world because my home is responsible for developing the consumer spirit (and opposition to it) in its most pronounced form. Still, while my culture fans the flames quickly consuming the remaining natural environments, I have come to recognize that the larger threat comes from the adoption (or imposition) of this lifestyle on a global scale.

Some argue that I must take a step back... that one cannot question consumerism without first questioning the fundamental logic of capitalist economies and their inherent value systems. However, it seems to me that this line of inquiry quickly becomes very theoretical and counterproductive for resolving the pressing dilemma at hand. I am perfectly content to leave the matter with the academicians and would be revolutionaries best suited to such arguments.

Put simply, I do not believe that securing a higher quality of life for the world's people requires ever increasing levels of natural resource consumption. If I did, I would be a fatalist. Instead, I am interested in finding means to do more with less - to produce happiness (and contentment) more efficiently. I do not believe that technological innovation, market economics, and government intervention on their own will not be enough. However, I do believe that we can find new ways to harness these and other important social forces in concert to produce more efficient outcomes.

For me, one of the most compelling ways for this to happen is through the "decommodification" of particular goods and services - in other words, making them "free". This is already happening in the information and entertainment industries through the widespread deployment of web based information technologies. Often, the tools that made this trend possible were themselves produced outside traditional production processes and instead built by "open sourcing" many small pieces of a project to skilled individuals who intrinsically enjoy the necessary work and its outcome. This in turn has facilitated the development of tools that allow for easier sharing of existing resources - both digital and material. To me, this represents cutting edge social entrepreneurship and a concrete step towards building solutions to our most pressing material challenges.

My work focuses on compiling case studies of such freely organized innovations and using that knowledge to inform the building of better ones. I specifically study the use of online social networking mechanisms that encourage collaboration and resource sharing to efficiently meet human needs - in all their diversity. In this, I look at how different groups' activities are structured internally by their organizational models and externally by market and government forces. Through these observations, I hope to inform the creation of more productive organizational models in this area - those which will foster a pervasive ethos of participation in their community and minimize layers of hierarchy, bureaucracy, and technical complexity. The ultimate promise is helping people improve their lives and the surrounding world by doing what they already enjoy.