We are caught in a paradox. Never have so many been able to access so much with so little. The world seems flat again. We are connected as never before. Yet the very big boxes, financial instruments and communication devices connecting us to a worldwide market of goods, services and ideas are making us feel isolated, helpless and distrusting.

We are in the process of recovering from a period when what we have, became more important than how we got it. We rewarded those who provided us with more without concern for how they did it. We savored cheap goods without concern for lost jobs and meaningful wages. We accepted credit ignoring the means by which creditors survived the inherent risk. And the fallacies of these practices suddenly came down on us like a tsunami. We are realizing that ageless beliefs cannot be ignored. That personal responsibility is paramount. That face-to-face interaction is valuable. That service over price has merit.

We at VillageSoup^® are focusing technology on these basics. We believe geographic community is the ageless foundation on which personal responsibility, social interaction and service over price is learned. We are using technology to integrate community-based news, discourse and commerce to revitalize these places people call home.

Thomas Jefferson said “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have government with newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Yet today, our newspapers are disappearing like the morning frost.

We at VillageSoup^® are aware of this loss and the sense of uncertainty that grows from it.  We know that we must come together as community.  We honor personal responsibility.  We honor personal interaction. We honor service over price. We believe in the uncensored sharing of information.  We believe in neighbors helping neighbors. We reach out to small businesses to help them serve the way big boxes can’t. We bring daily news where otherwise there is only weekly news. We serve as a community bulletin board where any and all citizens can post their information and gather ideas from each other. We provide a Main Street for all businesses. A place where residents browse before crossing the threshold to make a purchase.

We promise to be good community citizens ourselves. We contribute at least five percent of pretax profit to educational, health, arts and advocacy groups and encourage individuals to volunteer their time and talents to such activities.

We believe that each staff member possesses worth and dignity: we have no tolerance for intolerance. We regard our workplace as an arena for growth and learning in which all are teachers and all are students. We guarantee excellent wages and benefits for honest effort. We believe in profit sharing because it links personal effort and company success.

We honor the natural world and support its conservation as the most valuable legacy we can leave to future generations. We conserve energy, recycle what we can and through both action and advocacy, strive to improve the quality of the environment in all its aspects.

To help others sustain local high quality journalism and independent ownership, VillageSoup created VillageSoup Common.

Here is how this model works. VillageSoup handles the technical stuff. While a version of the platform code is available free, the installation, maintenance and improvement of the code is not. Software engineers and connectivity costs can be shared among all members of the Common. VillageSoup also allows provides the brand and its promotion. This promotion goes in two directions. To the public, we promote theSoup as a trusted source for hyper-local information around the globe. To the major product brands, we promote theSoup as a direct connection to the hyper-local residents as they head to their local retailer. Finally, a VillageSoup Common wiki provides a repository of experiences and ideas which empowers small operators to learn and advance in ways not achievable as stand-alone entities.

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