I have occasionally spouted on about globalisation versus localisation. What most people think of when they talk of that G-word is huge corporates dominating the world economy. And so they do dominate. But that's not my perspective. What I think of is the ability to operate in "local" mode across the globe. Over its time PopG has had users from places such Norway, Australia, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Canada, USA and of course the UK. (And if you are a PopG subscriber, past or present and I have forgotten to list your country then email/IM me and I will try to make amends in some future list.)

I list this list not to show off, but to indicate that although PopG's business is global in one sense, in reality it is local. The reason is because of what the other G-word is, and because of what PopG is. Together we are building very close-knit global community(ies). I know you, and you know me. You know what makes me tick and how to rattle me. But most of all we are a community. An increasingly very strong community.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure to attend a Groove Networks developer conference in Beverly. At that conference a play was made around Groove's eco-system for its partners. At that time I treated the comment as a paternal top-down commentary on how partners might benefit from being part of the umbrella. And I am sure to this day that the comment was made in part at least with that intention.

But that paternal (or maternal!) part is, with no disrespect to any individual or group, a small trivial component on the true Eco-system that currently exists. The truth is that I know some of you better than I know myself. I trust you better than myself. And, though it is probably an odd word to utter in a business framework such as a Groove blog, but what the hell: I love you better than myself.

At that Groove conference I was having a beer and suddenly met someone face to face for the first (and so far only) time: I felt very emotional, and it wasn't the beer. We came across each other in the early days of Groove 1.x and shared a private space where we exchanged thoughts. Since then I had lost contact with over the last two years until last week. And there helping to run SA2 event I was pleased as punch that that same person was busy working on the project.

The result of this happenstance - increased productivity. When you know someone and trust them then you can just get on and do the job. If the job needs more work, it just gets done. And because you are working with friends you work harder and more openly, naturally.

I am not unique, my little story is being played out between pairs and groups of people across the Groove Globe. That's an Eco-System of the first order.

posted by Andy Swarbrick/PopG at 14:43