Our Bright Future #4: Walter Almeida on The Future of Online Networks: How Communities Build Their Own Systems for Connection & Exchange on a New Earth

Walter Almeida

“Our Bright Future” Session #4
Featuring Special Guest: Walter Almeida
(Replay available below)

(NOTE: This conversation took place on October 23rd, 2020, but if you want to watch the replay, please use the “Join Us” link at the bottom of the page to register after which you will be given the YouTube rewatch link. All conversations in the “Our Bright Future” series are accessible on a “pay what you want” basis, so we invite you to inquire within yourself as to what you feel this content is worth to you and then, to share that with us as an exchange. Thank you & enjoy!)


Having recently re-watched the film, the “Social Network” (seemed pretty topical for today’s times!), the values of an old Earth were on clear and prominent display.

The themes of the film seem to be: isolation, loneliness, separation, and the ego-centricism, attention-seeking, and power/profit motive that are fed by these soul sicknesses.

All players involved in any way with ideating or founding the network spend the movie divvying up credit for it, determining how they will make a profit from it, and who will get which pieces of the pie — to the ultimate tune of divvied up shares worth millions and billions. 

And the movie came out in 2010.

Since then, the CEO of the company has become the 6th richest person in the world, and by more than a decade, the youngest of the richest – worth $65 billion in 2020. Likewise, the largest online network for goods exchange has made its founder the single richest person in the world, at a net worth of $140 billion in 2020.

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with getting rich. But as we know, there are other self-centered interests at play among these types of companies and their CEOs, many of which do great harm in the world. Further, although we may pay no membership fees to these networks and services, they are hardly free. We are mined for our data, our time, our attention… and our bodies and minds.

The stakes are high, and the interests are not aligned with ours, with those of our communities, nor those of a New Earth. 

What if there was an entirely different way to connect and exchange online that served our awakening planet and its communities?

What if we could create our own online systems for connection and exchange? How would we want them to look and feel? What would be their mission, values, and objectives? What goals would they serve?

What if online networks were established by communities to serve a set of common and shared purposes defined by communities themselves? To serve common interests such as sharing valuable goods and services? To exchange our gifts and lift the frequency and well-being of everyone? To help each other to awaken, heal, thrive, and serve others? 

Walter Almeida has spent over a decade of his life developing a technology that he is now open sourcing, that can be used to do just that. To help communities come together, identify their needs for connection and exchange, and then design their own platform to meet those needs, help and serve one another.

While working for the corporate world, he never felt the existing platforms served the highest good. He has since stepped out with a mission to create a technology that anyone can use to design their own community network online—say, the WordPress of online social and exchange networks.

Walter’s great joy and highest excitement lies not in developing something that will be an “alternative” to or “against” the current corporate, centralized systems, however. His joy lies in the creation itself — birthing something wholly new that will be a technology of a new society, something inspired by and written with a higher frequency, that will be authored by communities and will serve communities that are building the New Earth.

We have a lot to cover in this conversation, and plan to reach at least the following topics:

  • What’s “wrong” with the current online networks for connection and exchange of goods and services? How is it that despite not requiring membership fees, these platforms—and our participation in them—are hardly free?
  • Do the alternative networks currently rising online improve upon these systems? Why or why not, and which are the best?
  • What is the future of online networks? How will technologies that connect people online look in a New Earth society?
  • How can we build our own online networks—technically, and as communities in a process of building together?
  • What is Walter’s technology, and how can people use it to build their own networks?
  • How can we, as the Ownstream Community, come together to build our own network for connection and exchange, driven by our identified needs, values, and intentions to serve?

Yes—following up on recent discussions in the “Our Bright Future” series and Monday calls about new methods for exchange among our community, at the end of this conversation, we will discuss with Walter an exciting opportunity for the Ownstream Community to build its own network for exchange, to serve our community, and as one model for other communities looking to source and build their own technologies for social connection and exchange of all kinds on a New Earth.

We are so excited about this conversation, and the project coming out of it, and we are thrilled to have connected with Walter, and to share this conversation with you! 

As with all “Our Bright Future” conversations, this is a “pay what you wish” event. Please sign up below!

To Join Us…

Along the lines of exploring a new way of exchanging value, we are piloting a new payment process – specifically, allowing you to pay whatever you want for this conversation (any amount over $0.01 works for our payment processor). We are very excited for this, as it feels like a congruent method for us to both keep our platform open to any and all drawn to the information without the classic payment wall which also honors ours and our guests time and energy given in devotion of the truth and sharing that with as many as possible.

All of the monies received for this conversation will be split 50/50 with our guest – which is our policy for any and all co-creations in this new series. Once you register, you will be taken to a page containing the YouTube link where the live conversation (and replay) will be held.

Thank you, and we hope you will join us!

  • Please bookmark the YouTube link where the broadcast will be held live (this will be shared with you once your registration is complete). If you have any questions or problems with this, please contact us right away.
  • If you cannot attend live, you will still be able to watch after the fact via the live link (which becomes the rewatch link after).
  • Please confirm your time zone beforehand – this conversation will take place at 10:00a pacific/1:00p eastern time on Friday, October 23rd (click here to convert to your local time zone).

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