How Can Business-to-Business Trade Networks Build Local Resilience. Over the past year, I’ve been exploring the many examples out there of communities forming peer-to-peer networks in order to rebuild local economies, resilience and trust. These range from gift economies to barter groups, from loyalty programs to mutual credit systems. The latter, mutual credit systems, is the focus of this post.
The oldest mutual credit system still in operation today (of which I am aware) is the WIR, based in Switzerland, which was created in 1934 due to currency shortages after the stock market crash of 1929. The WIR is managed by the WIR-bank, a cooperative owned by the businesses using it. It’s essentially just a bookkeeping system that enables transactions to happen, and is generated directly among the businesses. I reached out to its founder, Amy Kirschner, to find out more about how it works.
How did you get the VBSR Marketplace off the ground? It’s been a long and winding road. The Marketplace was launched in January 2010. I have not yet run into this problem. Can Economic Growth Last? [slimstat f='count' w='ip' lf='resource contains can-economic'] views this month; [slimstat f='count' w='ip' lf='strtotime equals 2011-07-01 | interval equals -1'] overall As we saw in the previous post, the U.S. has expanded its use of energy at a typical rate of 2.9% per year since 1650.
We learned that continuation of this energy growth rate in any form of technology leads to a thermal reckoning in just a few hundred years (not the tepid global warming, but boiling skin!). What does this say about the long-term prospects for economic growth, if anything? World economic growth for the previous century, expressed in constant 1990 dollars. The figure at left shows the rate of global economic growth over the last century, as reconstructed by J. The difference between economic and energy growth can be split into efficiency gains—we extract more activity per unit of energy—and “everything else.” Exponential vs. First, let’s address what I mean when I say growth. Potential Gains and Limits. Untitled. The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times (New and Updated Edition) (9781844673049): Giovanni Arrighi.
Pedal powered water pumps, threshers, blenders, tile makers and more. What Are Bicimáquinas? Bicimáquinas are pedal-powered machines that assist with a variety of jobs in the home, on the farm, on the road and in small businesses. Each bicimáquina is handmade in our workshop using a combination of old bikes, concrete, wood, and metal. So far, we have developed several original designs that have proven to be both functional and economical. We have produced fact sheets and instructions for the more popular designs. We also have some Sketchup models. Bicycle Mill/Corn Thesher This bicycle machine is adapted to fit a hand powered grinding mill or a corn thresher.
The Thresher is used post-harvest and easily degrains 12 to 15 quintales (1 quintal = 100 lbs.) per day and requires only one person to operate the machine. Bicycle Blender A common kitchen blender adapted to a converted bicycle. Bicycle Rope Water Pump The Mobile Water Pump Fits on a bike and can be taken anywhere. Bicycle Nut-Sheller Removes the outer-shell of macademia nuts at 7lbs per minute. Prototypes. The Viable Systems Model Guide 3e.
How to design a healthy business: The use of the Viable System Model in the diagnosis and design of organisational structures in co-operatives and other social economy enterprises A manual for the diagnosis and design of organisational structures to enable social economy enterprises and function with increased efficiency without compromising democratic principles Based on The Viable Systems Model Pack, originally published as part of the SMSE Strategic Management in the Social Economy training programme carried out by ICOM, CRU, CAG and Jon Walker with the financial assistance of Directorate General XXIII of the Commission of the European Communities. The original version was completed October 1991. This 3rd revised version incorporates new material. This HTML version was constructed by John Waters, who also prepared the diagrams and the bibliography.
Copyright © 1991 by ICOM, CRU, CAG and Jon Walker. Version 3.1 - Last modified 5th November 2009. Matrix statt Marx. Marx macht mobil? Das war einmal. Und ist vielleicht wieder. Aber noch lange nicht im braven Deutschland. Marx, in anderen Ländern längst wiederentdeckt als Stichwortgeber zeitgenössischer Diskurse und Theorien zur Interpretation wie Veränderung der Wirklichkeit, scheint deutschen Politik-Professoren nach wie vor nicht weiter wichtig und keinesfalls für irgendwelche interessanten Gedanken zu taugen. Zu diesem Schluss musste kommen, wer eine Berliner Diskussion zur Aktualität des Marxschen Denkens besuchte.
Es könnte so einfach sein: Man lese Marx, und schon haben wir verstanden, was es mit der Finanzkrise auf sich hat, was in China passiert, was Stuttgart 21 mit den arabischen Aufständen verbindet, und wie wir aus dem "Deep Shit" (Slavoj Zizek), in dem wir uns befinden, herauskommen. Es war ein spannender und fruchtbarer Gedankenaustausch, der aber neben vielem anderen doch eine überraschende Phantasiearmut und Ratlosigkeit wiederspiegelte. Es geht nicht um Gier Mag sein. Marx Reloaded News. UK PREMIERE - ICA, London, 10th - 16th Feb 2012 We are delighted to announce - at long last - the UK premiere of Marx Reloaded. The first of six screenings will take place on Friday 10th February at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Apart from the ICA - London's world famous arts venue located on The Mall - other screenings at selected UK cinemas are being organised. In addition to the screenings themselves, a debate will take place at the ICA on 15th February involving Robin Blackburn, Paul Mason and Laurie Penny.
More details will be published as we receive them. Tickets can be purchased through the ICA website. If you are interested in organising a UK screening of the film at your university or college then contact us directly at the following email address: filmsnoirs (at) yahoo.fr Please note that all UK press and distribution enquiries should also be addressed to us here. Click here to download press kit and ICA promo image. 10 Projects Moving Us Towards a Superfluid Economy. Over the upcoming months leading up to the Contact Summit in October, I’ll be highlighting various projects and initiatives working to construct a globally networked society.
As humanity and technology co-evolve into higher orders of complexity, it can be said that social media is now facilitating the emergence of new forms of culture, commerce, and governance. We want to bring attention to the great and liberating stuff that’s happening, and encourage connections, conversation, and collaboration.
The past few weeks have been focused on technology infrastructure, starting with the Towards A Distributed Internet post and the resource list of mesh networks, and continuing on with the formation of a Next Net google group that’s thriving with over 90 members already! We’ll continue to circle back and revisit conversations and progress, but for now I’ll move on to another hot topic: money and value exchange. What is the future of money? 1. On twitter: @metacurrency 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Micro-transactions, virtual goods, and monetization | Live Gamer.
Twollars | The currency of appreciation. ITEX Payment Systems - a small business community and barter network. CrowdFlower - Crowdsourcing / Labor-on-Demand. nAn Coeur. The Collapse of Complex Business Models. I gave a talk last year to a group of TV executives gathered for an annual conference. From the Q&A after, it was clear that for them, the question wasn’t whether the internet was going to alter their business, but about the mode and tempo of that alteration.
Against that background, though, they were worried about a much more practical matter: When, they asked, would online video generate enough money to cover their current costs? That kind of question comes up a lot. It’s a tough one to answer, not just because the answer is unlikely to make anybody happy, but because the premise is more important than the question itself. There are two essential bits of background here. Here’s why. In 1988, Joseph Tainter wrote a chilling book called The Collapse of Complex Societies. The answer he arrived at was that they hadn’t collapsed despite their cultural sophistication, they’d collapsed because of it.
The ‘and them some’ is what causes the trouble. Dr. Or it might not. 1,000 True Fans. The Top 50 Social Entrepreneur Blogs To Watch In 2009. Social Banking 2.0 – Der Kunde übernimmt die Regie. Plattform für soziale Projekte - Ihre Spenden werden zu 100 Prozent weitergeleitet. LittleBits. Engagement Economy [SR-1183]
IFTF is pleased to release the latest research report written by game designer Jane McGonigal. In Engagement Economy, McGonigal turns her attention to the pressing problem facing leading organizations today: how to actively engage users. She writes: In the economy of engagement, it is less and less important to compete for attention, and more and more important to compete for things like brain cycles and interactive bandwidth. Crowd-dependent projects must capture the mental energy and the active effort it takes to make individual contributions to a larger whole. But how, exactly, do you turn attention into engagement? How do you convert a member of the crowd into a member of your team? IFTF is pleased to release the latest research report written by game designer Jane McGonigal.
In the economy of engagement, it is less and less important to compete for attention, and more and more important to compete for things like brain cycles and interactive bandwidth. DICE 2010: "Design Outside the Box" Presentation Videos - G4tv.c.