Posted by Karel Baloun :: July 23, 2007 @ 2:44 pm

Facebook, more than any other site, is about your friends and your networks. As a developer for the platform, I've repeatedly thought: “How can I make this activity relevant to my network?” With that in mind, I always want to notify my friends and networks about a particular feature and make them come try it too!

Now that Lending Club is available to Facebook members, person-to-person lending on Facebook is finally possible. "Chip wants to pay off his crazy 18% credit cards; can you chip in $100? You'll get $110 next year, and even better, you'll know you helped him out and you may also earn a seat at his debt-free celebration dinner." Your real friends will even validate the purpose of your loan, and strengthen your desire to live up to it.

Finance and money are traditionally such lonely pursuits. How much we make, how much we have, and how we really feel about that. These matters are so private in our culture. Do you know whether your friends, neighbors and even relatives are rich, or just deeply in debt and living beyond their means?

Is there shame in how we may have gained or lost the money? No! Sharing finances is what has built communities. Banking, retirement, insurance were all once simply family and community obligations. Co-ops and Credit Unions are rocks of stability for their members.

Poor farmers in Bangladesh can open a "telephone service" for their communities for $35, which is just about always paid back to spawn another loan. For such innovation, Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Price. Lending Club has the ability to bring microcredit to Facebook.

The concept of getting out of debt can be a shared goal, rather than a hidden, lonely aspiration. If it were open, it would be more likely to happen quickly. I can be proud that I'm smart enough to know high interest rates are hurting me, and delighted that I'm not too proud to ask for help. Who does the culture of secrecy around money serve? It serves those who currently profit from it.

Web surfing was once a solitary activity - and it will never be again. Finance too, will return to its roots as a fundamentally community activity. And with that sunshine of openness, we'll go a long way toward healing our society.