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matslats' blogCC Magazine picked up!Community Forge has decided to take on the publishing of the CC Magazine and run it as a Community Production. There will be one final issue published by Mark Herpel, the originator of the project. We are appealing for volunteers to help identify content, build relationships, and help with the Desktop publishing. John Rogers of Value For People, has already agreed to write a regular column and we have 2 tentative graphics volunteers!
Local currencies and search engine optimisationWhat do people looking for alternatives to our debt money system, or looking for ways to build up their local communities search for on Google? Insiders seem to cluster around the term Bernard Lietaer coined, "Complementary Currencies" but ten years since the publication of "The future of Money", this term is only used by practitioners themselves, and has yet to enter the public vocabulary.
CC Magazine bites the dust?The Complementary Currency magazine, an attractive monthly offering featuring from all over the web, including a monthly 'new currency roundup', is no more. Mark Herpel, who has been single handedly producing the magazine for over a year, announced on his blog that he has to reduce his workload because of health reasons.
Prep for Grassroots Innovations Complementary Currency workshop
"Provide a one paragraph bio and up to two pages focussing on what innovative about my project"
BioMy aim is to be the designer of the software that runs the mutual credit economy. My work therefore finds me not only designing software, but coding it, helping people use it, consulting about software and CC in general, strategising, building up a public persona, networking, explaining the economy, and promoting CC and good practice within it.
Drupal 6 multistep form exampleI had a very hard time making a Drupal multistep form finding an example which wasn't trying to be clever. So when I had a nasty problem I made my own multistep_example module to help debug. the bug by the way turned out to be with the hide_submit module disable mode, which breaks when there are two submit buttons.
Platform neutral description of architecture for complementary currencies within a social network.
Intent/AudienceThis document is for developers aspiring to build a mutual credit accounting ecosystem in a social network. This is not idle or idealist talk. The Complementary Currencies for Drupal implementation is planned for September release.
Transition Town Conference 2010I only attended for one day, but this is what i learned about currency initiatives within Transition Towns.
Correspondance with the Bank of England (ongoing)I can't find the answer to this question. I understand that the Bank of England is wholly owned by the government. I understand that the National Debt is owed in large part to the Bank of England Does that mean that the National Debt is owed by the government to the government? Is there a paradox here?
The state of CC software, for IJCCRThis report briefly covers the field of non-commercial mutual credit software, discussing the issues and challenges they collectively face in meeting the needs of the movement. The author's purpose is to draw out some themes of collective concern to a few small, under-resourced, and disparate projects which are working along very similar lines, and to encourage discussion. The intention is not to make direct comparisons but to take a higher view, with concrete examples. Disclaimer: The author is the developer of the Drupal module and Co-founder of Community Forge
Community Forge: Here's why we're going freemiumCommunity Forge hosts community web sites including a complementary currency payment system. We're making a leap of faith.
Community Forge goes Fremium!Ning recently announced that it would stop providing sites for free. Now Community Forge is bucking the trend by switching back to the Fremium model. Are we crazy? How will we survive - especially in this economic climate?
Mutual GuarantorsI read Thomas Greco's 'The end of money and the future of civilization'. He talked about mutual guarantor groups, which are common in microcredit loans. This idea had natural appeal because it's more about trust in people than arbitrary formulae, and it has predecessors in many cultures and works very well.
The situation in Auroville
To do, or at least, needs doing, 2010Just for reference, here is the hopelessly bloated list of what I think needs to be done, as soon as possible in order to create change from below in the global financial system. Community Forge
A brand new currency for Worcester shoppers?
Response to proposal for a Worcester Pound (page 32).
I would like you to consider a different local currency mechanism to the ones being used in Totnes, Lewis, Brixton, and Sussex.
3 types of local moneyIt seems to me that local currencies come in three flavours.
Generic article on sustainable moneyNeither sustainable nor just: the current financial systemThe story of money is the backstory of history, and some see in it a catalogue of the largest fraud and theft campaign in history, the present problems being no exception.
More fiat vs mutual credit I have understood for some time now that by ignoring the currency issuing account or creating other accounts, a mutual credit system can be easily adapted to different sets of needs. As a systems thinker, I like the elegance of zero balance systems where balances add up to zero and there is always exactly the right amount of money. However the fiat approach though a little messier has some interesting different qualities.
Sustainable Money
Following a presentation I made on the subject of money and sustainability, I thought it would be useful to note a list of the characteristics of the present dominant monetary system, and why it is unsustainable. Anyone care to add, or elaborate?
Settled in Tamil NaduJust a quick post to say Nick and I are settling in Auroville, an experimental community on the coast of Tamil Nadu. We are sorting out regular cheap sources of food, regulating the electricity and internet supplies, meeting people connected with the project, and also working on Community Forge 1.0, which is eagerly awaited by several communities in France and Belgium. For those whom it may concern, pictures are below! Street view Facade
Choosing Cc software 2009Now communities have a choice of software, they need advice as to which is best for them*. Here are the questions they should be asking. (Like most of my blog posts, this is a work in progress, so when you need to refer to it, come back to the site itself, not to your RSS reader)
Beyond Drupal...Barely a sigh of relief as I release version 1 of the Complementary currencies module for Drupal is laid to rest. I have already, in connection with the current project, shamelessly started improving it. This week two turns in the roadmap each revealed large vistas of unexplored future.
Appeal for sponsorsSummaryAs faith in the banks and the conventional economy is waning, we are seeing an increase in interest in complementary currencies, but the large scale adoption of these systems is hampered by lack of software. New kid on the blockAfter one year's voluntary development, and a handful of implementations, the Complementary Currencies project for Drupal is now attracting significant attention. See Appendix A for a list of some sites using or in the process of implementing the module.
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Auroville in South India (population: 2000 ish), is a conscious experiment in building a model city of the future, in accordance with the ideals of the esteemed Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Work is going on here with energy, permaculture, transport, education, therapies, water treatment, art, development, (typically in the surrounding villages), spirituality and of course currencies.
Some folks in Worcester are planning to introduce a local pound. I would like to offer an opinion during this design phase.
