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2012-01-10 00:59:13 (8 comments, 4 reshares, 7 +1s)

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE VBT

I would like to again thank everyone again for your interest in the VBT and to annouce a change we are making. As you may know, we first lauched this initiative on Google Buzz and then relaunched it on Google+. When Google announced its Google Pages product, we established this page for the VBT and quickly got over 700 people to follow us here, and that number continues to grow.

There are a few problems with this though. First, the people who are following this page have a wide range in levels of interest - some are intensely interested and involved, others just mildly interested and some don't even really know what we are doing - they have followed this page because someone put it in a shared circle that they added to their stream.

A bigger problem is that that there is really no way for people to participate on a Google+... more »

2012-01-02 18:47:31 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Happy New Year from the Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative

I hope this isn't too "out there", but for the New Year's greeting for the VBT I have selected this blog post written a while ago on Raptitude.com. In it, they ask you to consider a hypothetical situation. Suppose some superpower extracted your "self" from your body and your life right now, and dropped in a completely different person into your brain and mind. You would still have the same home or apartment, the same friends and family, the same body and health, the same business and job - or lack of a job, but "you" would not be "you" anymore - you would be looking at your entire life through the eyes of a completely different person.

Would this new person you to see the problems and opportunities - your entire life in a different way? Would he or she make any changes? ... more »

2011-12-30 17:14:23 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Virtual Brain Trust "Suggestion Box"
Please post your suggestions here.

2011-12-09 16:58:25 (17 comments, 9 reshares, 9 +1s)

Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative Circle. This is being posted mostly as a thank you to the people who have followed our new Google+ page. In the brief time since we set this up, more than 400 people have added it to their circles and are following our posts. Clearly something we are doing has inspired, or at least intrigued, a good number of people here. We really appreciate this vote of confidence and will continue to explore ways we can use a bit of the extra brain power we all have to help each other.

These projects will be announced on the VBT Google+ page, so be sure to add that to your circles if you have not yet done so, and also on the network we are building at http://VirtualBrainTrust.org. Some of our more advanced projects will be lauhched on that site, so please consider adding a profile there if your interest is more than casual.

It is possible this may... more »

2011-12-07 18:40:45 (6 comments, 7 reshares, 4 +1s)

Let's build a great Resource Directory. As you know, the VBT is exploring ways we can use some of our extra "brainpower" - sometimes called the cognitive surplus, as a way to help each other - and ourselves. The primary way we are doing this is by facilitating the formation of small private teams, each dedicated to the success of an indivdual member. We think this will be our best approach, and there is good reason for this. When you try to get a large number of people working on the same project at the same time you often you just end up with a big mess.

That is not to say it is impossible though - you just have to have the proper structure set up first. That is what we are doing with the new "Resource Directory" we have built on the VBT website. Anyone who is a member there can contribute to this directory by recommending websites and this could be a... more »

2011-12-06 00:08:55 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

I wish I were smart enough to do something like this. It is from a mostly forgotten John Travolta movie called "Phenomenon". The character Travolta plays is a mechanic who suddenly and inexplanably becomes massively intelligent. In this scene, someone who had their car repaired, needs it back but has no money. Go to the four minute mark to see how he handles the situation - it is only about 15 seconds long.

Now though I may not be smart enough to think of something like that, there are lots of smart people here. What if there were a team helping this guy? Certainly a group of people using their brain power to help someone would be at least as smart as the character Travolta plays? That is part of the idea behind the VBT. I will be posting more ways we can help soon - both on small teams and collectively, but meanwhile, I really liked this scene, and wanted you to see it.

2011-12-02 22:23:57 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative - Google+ Page Announcement. I am writing this post mostly because I want to send an alert message out to the dozen people or so who have expressed interest in the VBT, but have not followed me. At least some of these people seem to be intensely interested, but because I have them in my circles, but I am not in theirs, they haven't gotten any of the announcements we have made about this group.

To rectify this situation, and to separate the VBT posts from my own profile, which has all sorts of other silly stuff, we have created a new Google+ page, and request that you add it to your circles. If you are not familiar with the VBT initiative, we are exploring ways to use our "cognitive surplus" - that extra "brain power" we all have, to help people who might need it, and to help ourselves as well. The primary way we are doing this is... more »

2011-11-30 18:23:26 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

Today's Featured Member. This is the profile for Richard Reed on the Virtual Brain Trust site. He's a great guy. Currently living in Chicago, he works at a trade school where he provides assistance with job placement and resume building. He is a big believer in community and cooperating for the common good, and just recently started a group one the VBT site called "Entrepreneurs for a Better Community".

To join that group, meet Richard and other cool people like him, please consider joining the VBT site if you are at least open to the possibility of using a tiny part of your extra "brain power" to help other people, and perhaps if you would like to get some smart people to help you as well. The site is still new - needs lots of work, but we really have some incredible people there, and would like you to be one of them.

2011-11-29 20:09:20 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

Home Based Store. This is just around the corner from where I live. One of my neighbors, who I just met, has set up his own store in front of his apartment. This kind of thing is common in the developing world, but in the US. - not so much, except perhaps in rural areas. I'm all for it. Increasingly more and more of us aren't able to get corporate jobs, or have otherwise fallen out of the system. My neighbor's name is Eric, I didn't get to talk to him much except for asking permission for these pictures, but he is apparently also selling motorcycles that he customizes - so I assume he is doing ok. This isn't for everyone, of course, but it is another example of the new economy that is emerging and I think this is a good thing.

2011-11-28 22:46:10 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative. Are you smart, but unemployed or underemployed? Having a rough time with your business or startup, or otherwise struggling in this rough economy? Having marriage. family or relationship issues, or even health problems? You are not alone.

Would you be willing to use a tiny fraction of your extra "brain power" - to help other people in the same boat, and in turn get help yourself? That is exactly what we are trying to do with the VBT, and we have gotten off to a respectable start. What we are doing is facilitating the formation of small private teams, each dedicated to the success of one of our members, and that member, in turn, volunteers on at least one team that is dedicated to the success of another member.

With this approach, we are attempting to help each of our members form their own private "think tank" with a... more »

2011-11-28 22:13:01 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

I just volunteered to be a part of a new group, The Virtual Brain Trust. Essentially, it's a group of volunteers who don't mind giving advice, doing a little work, etc. to assist someone else. I love it. We all have something we are good at, why not share it? So all my geeks need to definitely register--we do this all day anyway!

The Virtual Brain Trust is the brainchild of +Rob Gordon, and is very much similar to my +The Dollar Project. A little bit, from a whole lot of people, can go a long, long, way.

I think there is truly a new class/breed of people starting to emerge, I'm going to start calling them the #UWS movement. Don't confuse it with #Occupy or #OWS. #UWS stands for "United We Stand." The first half of the motto of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and something extremely true, because "United We Stand. Divided we Fall." ... more »

2011-11-28 22:05:32 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Master Document Index. The link below leads to the "master document index" for the VBT. We are using this as part of our "knowledge base" for this initiative. This needs some work, but is a good place to start for those who want to know some of the thinking behind the VBT, and some of its history.

2011-11-08 02:44:56 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative. A series of discussions are underway on with a group of people on a private circle here on ways we can use "the cognitive surplus" to our mutual advantage. The basic idea is that we will each have individual "teams" - private and confidental and totally dedidicated to our success, and each of us, in turn, will volunteer to be on another team dedicated to the success of another member. This group should be useful here for anyone who is unemployed, underemployed, small startups, or anyone just trying to deal with this extremely difficult economy. Even people who have other issues where they think a private discussion group could be of use - such as those with personal problems or marrage and family issues, or legal or financial problems. In addition, we have some people, who while things are fine for them at the moment, are volunteering to at... more »

2011-11-08 02:28:36 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative

Hi Everybody! I'll bet you thought I forgot about this, didn't you? I have started a private circle for people who have expressed interest in the VBT - maybe just by hitting the +1 button on the original post I wrote about this, or one of it's shares. If you have forgottion about this please re-read, or at least skim, the long post I wrote about this at the attached link. If this is something that might interest you, please let me know and I will add you to this circle.

As I wrote there, one of the reasons the original effort was because it simply did not have enough people. The private circle I started for this is not large, only has about 40 people so far but I do think many more people expressed interest. When I went back to compile this list, I was shocked to find Google hadn't put a working search into this product. They have... more »

2011-11-08 02:23:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative

Friends, I wish to announce that I am considering a relaunch of the Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative or something like it, and would like to again throw this idea out to the universe, or at least to "the crowd". This is longish, but I have been hinting it is coming, and would appreciate your finding the time to read it, if it is something that might interest you.

The Virtual Brain Trust Cooperative was an initiative, first conceived in the early days of Google Buzz, as a way of helping all of us bootstrap our lives, careers or business. The idea was really quite simple. Imagine for a minute you were completely broke and really down on your luck, or otherwise in a really difficult situation. For many of you, I know, there is no need to "imagine" this. Now imagine something else. Suppose that while you were still broke, or... more »