Real Names Be Proof

Sometimes I forget to appreciate how amazing Internet services can be. By that I mean how often they can expose the real world to us. Which is interesting because the criticism of our Internet-always-connected-society is that it removes us from the real world, it creates false virtual connections in place of real human ones. 

Not true. These services can bring the real world to us in ways we could never have imagined.

How so? Some examples (some of which USV has invested in).

Search etsy for "magic wands"  

More than 4,000 results, but more importantly, from hundreds and hundreds of real people who, for whatever reason, make magic wands. People like TheHappyStar or deannaharward.

Similarly, here is the list of just some of the open loans to small business on the Funding Circle small business lending platform:

A company in Wales looking for capital to expand chicken housing.  A small construction firm in East Anglia looking to expand.  A small hotel in need of capital to to upgrade their lighting to energy saving LED.

Over at Kitchensurfing Clare Lang will come into your house and cook you brunch.

Over at See.me some artist named Nicolas Silberfaden has a portfolio and community showing his superhero (I guess) art.

These are just 4 quick examples selected at 6am on a cold dark NYC morning when I am sitting alone before anyone here is awake.

There is so much humanity in these services, these are real people doing real things connecting with .  . .  the world. I can't imagine anything more real, and important, than that.