2012, cont.

[Kevin Parcell]

I was talking for hours yesterday with a friend whom has been involved
as a leader in alternative economics for many years. He's writing the
preface to the first English edition of a book about alternative
currency that was published in German a few years ago, and he's
focusing on cutting edge work to bring the book fully up to date. So
he was asking me a bunch of questions to achieve a certain clarity
about our work. My answers sorted out like this:

- Paying people to produce the essential commodities that they consume
is a deep solution to hunger and poverty. This is a truth that people
who live with poverty grasp immediately.

- To connect the dots between this production and consumption we need
money. Local currency can serve if the people value it so that it
circulates in the community. To accomplish this we discount the
commodities that we produce when purchased with our local currency.

When he asked me what keeps me working on this all these years, I had
to stop and think because no one had ever asked me that before. Over
"all these years" the mission has become as invisible to me as air,
although it remains just as vital to me as breathing. I'm working to
end hunger and poverty. That's the mission, what keeps me at it.

So when I wrote in my previous post that "the essential piece of the
strategy is SunMoney", I don't think I was clear in distinguishing the
strategy from the mission, and I think without that clarity the whole
project can sound empty because "strategy" isn't the reason we do
things.

What keeps you going?

[Matthew Slater]

I guess thats the Lietaer book in translation. 

I'm hoping to spend some time with John Rogers next month.

I'm the same as you in seeking to end poverty I don't engage with the poor as you do, but the money system is one thing and its globally pervasive and I'm seeking impact but addressing the habits of the middle classes using the internet as best I can to broaden my reach.

Matthew

--

Find out more about my work in local money systems

My personal web site including my blog, Adventures in mutual credit

Community Forge

Community Currency Magazine

Article in shareable.net

On 19 January 2012 23:38, Kevin Parcell <kjpa...@gmail.com> wrote:

I was talking for hours yesterday with a friend whom has been involved
as a leader in alternative economics for many years.  He's writing the
preface to the first English edition of a book about alternative
currency that was published in German a few years ago 

 ...

What keeps you going?

[Kevin J. Parcell]

Matthew, Yes that's Regionalwährungen by Lietaer and Kennedy. John mentioned that you're the top person working with Drupal for community currency. We're right at the beginning of the revolution in IT meeting the revolution in money, and I think you are in the lead.

I've taken your advice about setting aside my desire to learn HTML5 so that I can stay focused, and I'm finding good tools that let me employ HTML5 functionality without mastering the code. I'd like us to try to have a conference call with Citizen's Media and Brixton Pound to begin to talk about combining assets to jump forward on the community interface. If not for the eight hours time difference and the holiday madness I would have tried to make this happen last month.

Kevin

[Matthew Slater]

Kevin

My work with Drupal is leading certainly but only a field that few people think is relevant. While the accounting is very similar, all the effort around my Drupal work has gone into 'social' currencies. This is appropriate since Drupal is a 'social networking' platform.

Hard currencies systems do only accounting and care not a jot about relationships or community. They are hard to integrate with community software because they tend to be specialised and if the money is convertable to political money, security is always a concern.

Matthew

[kjparcell]

Matthew,

Thank you for your candid comments. I would also like to update you (and anyone else interested) on where my thinking stands now.

SunMoney is not a convertible currency. Convertible currencies are ultimately and always less convenient forms of the national currencies into which they can be converted, and as such are quickly converted to national currencies, resulting in the value soon being lost into the global marketplace.

To achieve some of that global functionality of national currency and to best serve our members, I want every People Power Station to also host a Time Dollar exchange that permits members to conveniently trade their services locally and globally by the hour, without use of money but with the universal convenience of money. Matthew, you understand this type of exchange, but some other readers might not so let me describe it briefly.

Time banking would permit someone in the US, for example, to earn an hour's credit through caring for a neighbor's child, which then indebts that neighbor for that hour, which debt that neighbor might retire through an hour of online tutoring a child in Zambia, for example, indebting the Zambian family in turn, which in turn might perform a service for a member in their own community, etc. A member might also earn this international time credit through contributing to the development of Reconomy systems at either a local or global level, and so the Time Dollars would be an excellent complement to the intrinsic recompense of good service for its own sake because the time currency would facilitate practical experience for our contributors trading in the system.

Isn't time currency the system you have installed at Community Forge for this same purpose, and the kind of exchange system for which Drupal is best suited?

SunMoney per se would rarely cross political boundaries because unlike Time-based currency such exchange is generally difficult or even illegal. This limitation on cross-border trade using community money is advantageous for our system because we seek to keep the SunMoney circulating locally to build self-reliant marketplaces.

I'm still wondering if we can't somehow use Cyclos for secure online banking, linking Cyclos member accounts from Drupal community member pages, and so have the Drupal platform to facilitate user generated content for our open-source community and global development.

I think I understand what you've told me about Drupal as the better choice for both trading and community functions, relative to Cyclos' limitations. Still, STRO has done quite a lot with Cyclos already and has a team continuously developing applications. In IT first-come often triumphs over the best, of course, if the first is merely functional. But would not a Drupal community system with Cyclos banking be better than a Cyclos community system? If we can advance the mobile community interface with Drupal, using Cyclos banking apps, such as by merely providing a link from each member's Drupal community page to their individual Cyclos account, then I think that might be a win-win. Otherwise, isn't it likely that the Cyclos's community interface will prevail, being first, and subsequently limit everyone?

This first-come dynamic is also the dynamic in renewable energy development. In India and the US the energy development incentives are strong now but are capped in amount and sundowned either manifestly or by the politics, and thus there is a rush to grab them while they last. The sooner we move forward with functional mobile banking, the better we'll be able to secure the highest incentives, helping us afford the largest discount in our bonus-currency strategy.

In Massachusetts, where I've completed the design of a People Power Station system using solar photovoltaic energy, the State issued is final guidelines last week, which guarantee top incentives for ten years for solar plants brought online before the end of 2013. These incentives are currently accepted as collateral by some banks, entirely at each bank's discretion. However as PV systems quickly multiply in Massachusetts it seems likely to me that banker caution will also multiply because of the recent collapse of the incentive markets in Australia and New Jersey that resulted from the high response to those incentives overwhelming national and marketplace expectations, respectively. Massachusetts' program is designed to withstand such success, while Australia's and New Jersey's were disasters waiting to happen (clear in hindsight). But the public utilities in Massachusetts will retail the solar energy and pay for all incentives by passing costs onto all their ratepayers, which will result in continuously increasing consumer dissent, and that in turn could throw a political wrench into the machine. The growing concern with that possible wrench might soon impact enthusiasm among bankers.

Our success in Massachusetts would be a boon to our development everywhere and to renewable energy development in the US as a whole, imo, because it would demonstrate the highest potential success of Massachusetts' unique incentive structure, and so advance that structure as a national model. Thus, inasmuch as we are ready to go forward as soon as we have our banking system in place, I think we should do what we can to accelerate that capability.

Brixton Pound (in the United Kingdom) has Cyclos as its platform for its community currency, and consequently wishes for a social networking platform with more possibilities than Cyclos offers. And Citizens Media (based in British Columbia in Canada) is an open-source social network seeking the best design for an online currency system. It has the excellent capability for members to create discreet communities within and across other communities, facilitating the fullest possible participation, experimentation, and evolution, and its lead programmer shares your high opinion of Drupal. One of our Group members, Caroline, is the creator and director of Citizens Media, and she suggested last month that we gather the developers of our various platforms online to talk about our needs and capabilities.

SunMoney does not need full functionality of online banking this year in either India or the US because in India we will focus first on paper currency while in the US we won't trade online with SunMoney (but could with Time Dollars) until the plants are online, which wont happen this year. But we could have scores of People Power Stations operational by the end of next year if members could enroll in the US this year through a mobile-based system so that we can launch pilots in communities where we see sufficient interest accumulate. Visibility through successful US pilots would build the resource we need to grow internationally.

Thus, to move forward now to best advantage, I believe we need high confidence that a basic mobile-based banking system will be ready by 2013.

I know that this is a lot of info for one post, and I apologize to everyone who is now cross-eyed. No one will be tested on this! I'll email Matthew, Caroline, and Brixton Pound to see if we can set up a conference call.

I'm working now on interactive flowcharts for Sunmoney within various systems and for the development of Reconomy as a whole. I think by making these interactive, so that viewers can use them to dive as deeply as they wish into any facet, we will accomplish much greater accessibility to the info, at least that is my intent.

Best from me in Costa Rica,

Kevin

[Johanna Parry Cougar]

Kevin do you remember the name of the small Canadian city that implemented this system through their city government?

Using their banking system? I visited the home of the man who lead the way to implement this system into that city. It was working very well.

It may assist people in visualizing a healthier economy by checking out the www.natural-villages.org website. This site shows how to accomplish landscape recovery while attending to re-economizing the development process. Vedic villages used this system for millenia, and it was over-layed with the barter and trade economies augmented by similar systems we have seen discussed here. No mortgage, no rent--just a very solid house and food garden system that can be passed down to your children when maintained. They last for 1,000 years, and this is a history easy to point to. Brick layer industries and Timber industries changed laws to prevent the public from easily building their own homes---this is always the key to independence.

When individuals have the ability to build their own 100% adobe home--in a manner that has it paid for upon construction, and the home is within a food production garden, and this labor is shared--you have the green sustainable stable village system used for 11,000 years on this planet successfully.

Different versions of the economic practices are over-layed onto this village-connection system that largely expands through traditional family groups doing normal territorial behaviors guided by the culture of spirituality/human connection for that region. 

When peaceful cultural practices are over-layed with healthy economy and healthy home neighborhoods--we have returned our planet into the hands of the humans who care for it---we have given the power back to that expanding human group.



~When one breathes the consciousness of the divine,
prayers become answered, through inspiration.

Evol ution = love  moving from now, to now.

www.natural-villages.org         www.hamsa-yoga.org

> Subject: Re: 2012, cont.
> From: kjpa...@gmail.com
> Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:20:58 -0600
> CC: forev...@mac.com
> To: occupy-...@googlegroups.com

[Matthew Slater]

To achieve some of that global functionality of national currency and to best serve our members, I want every People Power Station to also host a Time Dollar exchange that permits members to conveniently trade their services locally and globally by the hour, without use of money but with the universal convenience of money.  Matthew, you understand this type of exchange

I think it sounds like a good idea, but you need to be clearer about how the Sun Money and hours interact. If they don't interact then are you talking about running 2 projects at a time?

Isn't time currency the system you have installed at Community Forge for this same purpose, and the kind of exchange system for which Drupal is best suited?

 

I'm still wondering if we can't somehow use Cyclos for secure online banking, linking Cyclos member accounts from Drupal community member pages, and so have the Drupal platform to facilitate user generated content for our open-source community and global development.

I agree that Drupal-Cyclos integration would be a good idea. I believe Cyclos plans to develop an API for that kind of thing but until then integration is tricky.

 

I think I understand what you've told me about Drupal as the better choice for both trading and community functions, relative to Cyclos' limitations.  Still, STRO has done quite a lot with Cyclos already and has a team continuously developing applications. In IT first-come often triumphs over the best, of course, if the first is merely functional.  But would not a Drupal community system with Cyclos banking be better than a Cyclos community system?  If we can advance the mobile community interface with Drupal, using Cyclos banking apps, such as by merely providing a link from each member's Drupal community page to their individual Cyclos account, then I think that might be a win-win. Otherwise, isn't it likely that the Cyclos's community interface will prevail, being first, and subsequently limit everyone?

Cyclos community interface will never be able to do what drupal can do. A good integration would cost $10-20 thousand I estimate. First come dynamic works in Cyclos' favour but years of government funding are probably more advantageous.

Brixton Pound (in the United Kingdom) has Cyclos as its platform for its community currency, and consequently wishes for a social networking platform with more possibilities than Cyclos offers.  And Citizens Media  (based in British Columbia in Canada) is an open-source social network seeking the best design for an online currency system.  It has the excellent capability for members to create discreet communities within and across other communities, facilitating the fullest possible participation, experimentation, and evolution, and its lead programmer shares your high opinion of Drupal.  One of our Group members, Caroline, is the creator and director of Citizens Media, and she suggested last month that we gather the developers of our various platforms online to talk about our needs and capabilities.

Count me in. 

Thus, to move forward now to best advantage, I believe we need high confidence that a basic mobile-based banking system will be ready by 2013.

Understood. 

As for me I've been developing alone for the last three years, and would like to find a partnership to develop in some of the following directions.

• Build a disruptive community owned B2B barter platform.
• Develop and implement an API for trading between mutual credit systems
• Build a module to facilitate global stuff-sharing.
• Upgrade Community Forge to Drupal 7

Matthew

[Kevin J. Parcell]

On Jan 24, 2012, at 10:39 PM, Matthew Slater wrote:

To achieve some of that global functionality of national currency and to best serve our members, I want every People Power Station to also host a Time Dollar exchange that permits members to conveniently trade their services locally and globally by the hour, without use of money but with the universal convenience of money.  Matthew, you understand this type of exchange

I think it sounds like a good idea, but you need to be clearer about how the Sun Money and hours interact. If they don't interact then are you talking about running 2 projects at a time?

Members might choose to trade time for money informally, but setting any monetary worth on the time could make it subject to taxation, consequently the systems will be distinct.

And while distinct, the complementary nature ought to make it simple, with Sunmoney as a local currency that permits trading of goods and services, Time Dollars as a currency for trading services that facilitates global exchange, and the usual national currencies for buying and selling goods internationally.

To begin, our members will need to use Sunmoney and national currency together within their communities and regions.  The time banking can be added as soon as practical.  My guess is that we'll see time banking available as a downloadable app soon enough, probably on iTunes, as a kind of Craig's List for services.  The SunMoney mobile-based system ought to accommodate offering members such an app easily, and time-banking is a mutual credit system (each debit automatically generates a credit) without the accounting challenges of local currency.

Caroline emailed us privately last week that she'd welcome a conference call, so let's all talk soon.  I'll contact Simon Woolf, director of Brixton Pound, after I hear from you and Caroline about time slots that work for you next week (if any!)

Kevin

[Matthew Slater]

next week I should be free until about Thursday.

John Rogers is coming for that weekend.

M

--

Find out more about my work in local money systems

My personal web site including my blog, Adventures in mutual credit

Brief bio and articles on shareable.net

Community Forge

[Kevin J. Parcell]

Johanna, I don't know what city in Canada you're recalling.  The Berkshares system in western Massachusetts has several banks involved.  Please let me know if you remember any more details.

I agree with you that the home is the essential center of a sustainable culture, and IMO we need to build communities around the meal, beginning with the home and the family.  I hope you will continue to involve us all in your dream of an adobe pilot project in Pabal, India.   I would love to get my hands physically into that!

Kevin