(Re)Producing Value Conference

[rushkoff]

How is everybody? Long time. I miss the contact. 

Just got this from Caroline Woolard, and she asked me to post:

(Re)Producing Value

7 Conversations at The Museum of Art and Design

In the midst of a global economic crisis, alternative economic narratives gain attention. Can grassroots exchange systems (re) produce values of equity, sustainability, and democracy? What is the human economy? How do we perform alternative economies? What is financial literacy for a convivial economy? With The Museum of Art and Design as its site of dialogue, barter networks OurGoods.org and TradeSchool.coop present

a series of conversations between economic anthropologists and cultural producers. Join us for six free conversations about the history and future of sharing, barter, and exchange.

The Museum of Art and Design

2 Columbus Circle New York, NY 10019

RSVP at

in...@ourgoods.org

TradeSchool.coop/newyork

Sun Oct 28 4-6pm Reading Group

Join an informal reading group to think through texts by the economic anthropologists in this series. NOTE: this meeting will take place at Trade School: 2 West 13th Street, NYC (not at the Museum).

Thu Nov 29 7-8:30pm Keith Hart

The human economy: an interdisciplinary approach to the world economic crisis.

Thu Dec 20 7-8:30pm Mary-Beth Raddon

Creative Financial Literacies: Speaking a Local Dialect

Thu Jan 24 7-8:30pm Stephen Gudeman

Measure for Measure: What’s Fair?

Thur Feb 21 7-8:30pm Jason Pine

Qualities of “Economic Performance” in Alternative Economies

Thu Mar 28 7-8:30pm Janet Roitman
Value: Making Economies

Thu Apr 18 7-8:30pm Silvia Federici

Women, Reproduction, and the Construction of Commons 

-- 

"Society pays itself in the counterfeit money of its own dreams." -Marcel Mauss

(401)935-3071

OurGoods.org

TradeSchool.coop

SolidarityNYC.org

[Travis]

Will there be another contact?

[Douglas Rushkoff]

Not by me in the near future but maybe next year. I am certainly open to someone else doing one....

rush...@rushkoff.com 

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[Technoshaman]

I will be happy to be on the design/hosting team of anther event IF, and only if only all the efforts what it takes to put it together will not be focused on exhausted by producing a one-time gig. I am thinking of an event envisioned and designed from a holistic perspective of what is needed to strengthen the movement of humankind's awakening to its collective wisdom and sentience...

any players?

hasta la victoria siempre! :-)

george

[Douglas Rushkoff]

I guess I am thinking precisely in the opposite way. 

It's great to promote a continuous movement, but I wouldn't want to create some annual "event" that then expends more energy on perpetuating itself than the culture it is purportedly servicing. There are more than enough events in this world. 

Contact was conceived at a particular moment, to serve a particular purpose. If someone has a reason to gather the troops, so to speak, then that's ample reason to send up a flare and do so. 

Right now, there are dozens of organizations that exist because of Contact. Their founders are working together to do things related to alternative networking, collaboration, democratic process, and so on. We did Contact because we saw an emerging need and people needed collaborators and clarity. 

I would think the next Contact that I or anybody else calls would also be specific in focus. And it would be a kind of problem solving. 

But if someone wants to design an annual event based on humankind's ongoing awakening, I think that's fine, too. 

---

http://rushkoff.com
http://twitter.com/rushkoff

[Jon Lebkowsky]

I suspect some "contactees" will be showing up for SXSW here in Austin next month. Perhaps we should have a gathering? I know Doug and I will be here...

Jon Lebkowsky (@jonl)

Jon at Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Wikipedia

Work: Polycot Associates: Advanced Internet Solutions Twitter | Facebook

Blog: Weblogsky.com: Smart Thinking About Culture, Media, and the Internet

Activism: EFF-Austin

[Samuel Rose]

I wish I could come Jon. I'd still like to re-connect/stay connected
with you and what you are doing. We still have lots of awesome stuff
unfolding up here in Michigan.

--
Sam Rose
Hollymead Capital Partners, LLC
Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
email: samue...@gmail.com
http://hollymeadcapital.com
http://p2pfoundation.net
http://socialmediaclassroom.com

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
ambition." - Carl Sagan

[Jon Lebkowsky]

I think a lot of connections dropped following the event, which sometimes happens (more so for me because I ultimately didn't make it to the physical event).  Everybody's just busy, which is probably good!

[Travis Wellman]

I like that. Actually I like both.

I like that it should have a strong purpose, and "because the last one was good" isn't good enough. And becoming a self serving entity diminishes individual events.

My purpose though, would be follow through. I want to find those (and new) people again and establish a solid community that will stay in touch. Not that I haven't done fairly well on the scale of personal relationships that started at Contact, but I guess I want something bigger with a name.

That is to say, Re-Contact could be a one time concerted effort to establish something organic and continuous.

--
Travis Wellman <tra...@traviswellman.com>
http://traviswellman.com/

[Patrick Anderson]

> That is to say, Re-Contact could be a one time concerted
> effort to establish something organic and continuous.

This will require we re-evaluate the meaning of value and begin
organizing production in this new way.

We will need a way to discuss and conclude the shape of our organizational form.


I have completely original approach to this problem that solves many
problems simultaneously - maybe the most noteworthy is full-steam
production and complete investor satisfaction without the usual
troubles of profit-seeking.

After we understand how we must organize, we will then need real
property ownership in land and tools to create an agriculturally-based
"Production Arena" which we will use to generate the material needs of
the participants and so allow us to become self-hosting without the
need to pass tokens (use money) within that arena. Think of this as a
"Basic Outcome" - a play on the intent of a "Basic Income" brought
about through reorganized production.

We can achieve this through a modified form of crowd-funding I call
crowd-owning.

And we will also need people to do any work that is not considered
'play', for which I also have a solution.


Here is an attempt to describe the approach I envision, please suggest
impovements:

1. Consumers become real co-owners when the micro-invest just enough
to gain the property needed to produce what they predict they will
need. This is a bit like crowd funding, but the investors become real
property owners in the Production Arena. Strangely, this means the
product does not need to be sold because it is already in the hands of
those who need it and so the Price they pay as consumers is simply the
Costs they paid as owners and so Profit is 0 (actually it is undefined
because the transaction is missing). This means external governments
cannot collect sales tax on the missing transaction. See
athttp://Wikipedia.org/wiki/Imputed_rent for a partial explanation.

2. Workers also receive co-ownership in the land and tools used to
produce that which they need (not necessarily that which they have
skill and desire to 'operate') when they commit promises to work in
the future. This is a sort of "work bond" that eliminates traditional
wages and puts workers on equal footing with other investors. This
means external governments cannot collect income tax because there is
no transaction to tax. See http://Wikipedia.org/wiki/Imputed_income

3. Each co-owner may do whatever they like with their own surplus, but
if they just leave it in one of our storehouses, it will be sold to
those with insufficient ownership for a profit, but will then treat
that overpayment as an investment from that payer so that each
consumer also incrementally gains the co-ownership needed to supply
them with the products they need in the future. This also means the
growth of that business is autodistributed to those willing to pay for
that growth.

4. Any subgroup must be able to secede from the group for any reason
while retaining their portion of the property, or when the property is
not realistically divisible, able to sell their portion. This is an
attempt to solve the Tyranny of the Majority problem.


Thank you for your consideration.

I hope we can work on this together.

Sincerely,
Patrick Anderson
http://SocialSufficiencyCoalition.BlogSpot.com