The business relationship! 50, 20, or even 10 years ago it would seem ludicrous to do business without establishing a solid foundation of this somewhat touchy and indefinable understanding between two parties that both of them are there to suck every ounce of possible profit from the other. In the normal world, relationships are built upon caring, giving, and understanding. Why have we tried to force these same principles into a forum where they are not necessarily needed? You don’t need to be funny, kind or enjoyable; I don’t even have to like you. As long as you demonstrate to me that you provide me with some kind of value that I cannot find elsewhere, the relationship will be just fine.

And with this feeling comes the true value of these social business networking sites like LinkedIn, Ryze, and Tribe. They strip away all the unnecessary chit chat and tiptoeing that goes along with the normal ice breakers that arise during your first blind meeting with someone. Soon I will be able to walk into a meeting, already knowing all the necessary background information about this person. Through discussion with other networkers, I will already know if he is honest, shady, caring, giving, thieving, or backstabbing. And with that, is lunch even needed.

With the rise of Skype and other video messengers, the personal meetings that used to take up time and effort are now being streamlined into a forum where I don’t even need to leave my house. Just last night I had a 3 way skype meeting where I was in my dorm room, one person was in Cranberry, and the third party was in China. Yes China. Without these geographical limitations, the efficiency, simplicity, and quantity of my business meetings are endless. The networking sites of the future will be the ones that can best link all these together.

The past century has exhibited a dramatic shift in the political and economic ideologies which predominate the global marketplace.  World War I and the years following exhibited a very statist approach to management of the marketplace and world economies.  It was believed that governments could more effectively manage markets than those in the marketplace.  Although socialism is the extreme of this view, most countries around the world did employ statist approaches at some point.  The most common manifestation of this approach is in tarrifs, import taxes, quotas, and currency devaluation.  These all fall under the approach known as Import Substitution, an approach designed to reduce the spending of the government and in turn, the debt.

With the failure of most statist regimes, a new approach has burgeoned.  This new ideology is often referred to as neoclassicalism.  It seeks to remove the government from everything but what is necessary to ensure the liberty and property rights of citizens.  Of course, within this philosophy is a wide spectrum of beliefs and varying degrees of adherence.  Liberal neoclassicists want to eradicate all of government, while some are more conservative.

Kiva is unique.  It is riding the wave of globalization, and also of neoclassicalism.  By providing the opportunity for private investors to lend money to others in third world countries, the need for government intervention via subsidies, loans, etc. is reduced.  Kiva is promoting a form of globalization focused on the individual, from individuals, for individuals.