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This is my friend, Fred First – whom I have never met. Fred lives in the backwoods of Floyd in West Virginia. Amongst his many accomplishments is that he has a magical eye for nature. If you love beauty – check some of his pictures here.

Fred has written a book about finding the way “Home”. Called “Slow Road Home” it ends like this:

” A man can be fond of women, but he will settle down in a relationship and build a love affair of meaning with one woman. And so it is, ultimately – if we are fortunate – with finding our place….For the first time in my life, I feel a monogamous fidelity to one fixed and particular place that is as deep and permanent a commitment as the vows that I have taken to this one woman, my wife.”

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This is Hugh MacLeod, who I have only net once in Denmark of all places. Hugh is one of the most popular bloggers in the world and has, I think, redefined marketing with his work for Tom Mahon (English Cut) a bespoke Tailor whose main office is in Cumbria at Warwick Hall, Stormhoek and now Microsoft (Blue Monster). Hugh is leaving London and plans returning home to live in Cumbria.

Tom Mahon also writes eloquently here about why he is attracting first class staff to leave London and come and live in Cumbria, where they can have a much more complete life.

So you will have gathered by now that I’m hatching a cunning plan. My aim is to have the very best available skills in tailoring based here at, or near Warwick Hall, working together in an environment conducive to creating beautiful clothes, without anyone having to worry about the rent and the cost of living. These people are all trained on the Row, are at a prime age, and amongst the very best in their profession. We have the potential to build a really vibrant tailoring community here in Cumbria, as good as anything on the Row, that will not only turn out some of the best tailoring in the world, but also ensure the craft’s long-term survival and the happines of the people working in it.

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This is Luis Suarez, another friend whom I have never, who works for IBM and is also a KM Consultant – Luis lives on Gran Canaria off the coast of Africa. This is what he wrote last week when the Islands were consumed by fire:

“My dearest paradise is burning and it hurts. It truly hurts”

I could go on and on – is a picture emerging?

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This is my house on Prince Edward Island, off the east coast of Canada. I too walk the dogs morning and night and know that I have found home and a life that I could never have in the city. I have work here and I also have work all over the world. I have friends here and I have friends all over the world. I have access to any culture that I want. I work alone but I am surrounded by men and women that I love – most of whom live thousands of miles away.
What’s my point? It is that Social Software is making it possible for a return to living in beauty, in nature and in a scale of human society that fits our deepest needs to be connected and known. While at the same time it is making it possible for those of us to live like this while also being connected to the wider world.
The world is becoming more urban every year. But Social Software is starting a new trickle “Home” to a way of life that is better for us.

150 years ago my great grandfather, one of 8 children, walked from his family farm on the Ontario/Quebec border to Montreal. He got a job in a factory. In his lifetime brought all of his family, including his parents, off the small and feeble farm to Montreal. In time he, a farm boy who had left school at 13, took advantage of what was available in a big city and became one of Canada’s founding business leaders and a cabinet member during WWI. He did what the most adventurous and the most ambitious did at the time.

Today, if you have the skills and the ambition to have a life – you can retrace the steps back home. Thanks to Social Software, there is no give up. You have the connections that a big city gives you but without the financial and the time costs. You can return to a scale and a pace of life that brings back the humanity that can be so easily be lost in the big city.

The difference in real estate value is an important aspect. Living in a scale of community where you are known is another. Being rooted in the land and the seasons is another. And for me – being able to have my dogs and have them run free is the final jewel.

Most of my time is mine and most of the “normal expense” do not exist.

My commute? As long as it takes me to get a coffee. My business attire – shorts in the summer and jeans in the winter. Sometimes yes – my pajamas. Business meetings – Skype or a nice 3 day full on meeting and social with my clients at their place. Some have come here and stayed in my barn. Mortgage? What mortgage! My car – an Echo. Time to the beach – 20 minutes. Time to town – 8 minutes. Skype has reduced my phone bill to next to nothing. Airfare is not bad but is at risk.
Am I lonely? Am I cut off? Is there anything that I am missing? No. I even forgive Air Canada – the schedule is not bad. I can be in Washington by 10.30am or Montreal or Toronto by 8am if I have to.
In 1850, 95% of Canadians lived in rural settings. Now less than 20% do and many of them are those that did not have the energy to move. I wonder what the next 150 years will bring. My bet is that the most skilled and the most grounded are moving back and that it is Social Software that is the agency.