Transition Town Conference 2010

I only attended for one day, but this is what i learned about currency initiatives within Transition Towns.

First of all the pound projects are 'losing steam'. Though warmly received on the whole, Brixton have expressed a need for more incentives, especially to shopkeepers, who are unable to pass their pounds on and are cashing them in. Totnes also report that the pound is slowing down, and this indicates, according to Peter North, the level of ongoing attention needed to sustain a local money project. However, the migration of Paul Glover, the intrepid Ithaca Hours protagonist, away from Ithaca to California, indicates that these projects can eventually become self reliant.

Transition Bristol is leading the way in the UK at the moment. They are boldly innovating in three ways:

1. by involving Bath, theirs will be the first regional currency. this added scale may help to overcome the problems experienced in Brixton, that the variety of goods produced in any one town are not enough to close the economic loop. The scale of the project has also attracted greater funding, which is paying for
2. digital, plastic, and mobile phone transactions will be introduced at the outset.
3. They are also involving the local council, if not for the payment of council taxes (the holy grail, according to Lietaer), then for the payment of council services such as the leisure facilities.

I hunted down Ed Mitchell, leading the web initiative, related how they are providing simple microsites, based on Drupal Groups, for smaller transition initiatives. He recounted how the Post-carbon Institute had been over-stretched when their community platform was too ambitious, so the transition microsites were modest. However, he was excited that the last DrupalCon had spawned a new initiative, Transition Towns Drupal, and that moves were afoot to make an installation profile. (This sounds suspiciously like Community forge's model.) Transition Towns would be very supportive of such a project as long as it was done 'in the right way', i.e. inclusively and collaboratively.

Andy Goldring from the Permaculture Association said that the LETS movement was very much nurtured by permaculture in the 80s. He was looking at ways in which his movement could better foster exchange, especially using their current Drupal site.

CC news from Sweden is that Drupal is a very popular platform there, but because of the law on exchange, the movement keeps a low profile. Apparently gifting over 30,000 Crona is taxed in that country

More than one person I talked to expressed the opinion that LETS in the UK had not been a success. The term mutual credit did not meet with objections; though in many cases the term is not understood, I encountered no opposition to the idea. Its just that pound currencies are felt to be more tangible and good for introducing the idea to communities.
Transitioners are keen to move on from their pounds and introduce something more innovative and resilient. There is a talk both of energy-backed currencies and digital currencies in the air, which I can't wait for!