This is great! Kaliya Hamlin and Chris Lindstrom are putting together a conference you do not want to miss. Two different communities of practice will finally converge: the complementary currency folks and the web identity folks! If you’re one of the few regular readers of this blog, you know both Kaliya and Chris. Here’s the announcement.

Update 1/31: Hazel Henderson will give the keynote.
Update 2/6: Added unMoney Convergence to the blogroll…
Update 2/9: Wiki for the unconference: unmoney.wik.is

Last night, I joined a couple of friends at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown for a midnight showing of the Dark Side of the Rainbow. Since I’ve been reading a book that starts each chapter with a quote from the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and references David Parker’s The Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, there were more than a few sublime moments.

The members of Pink Floyd deny that they intentionally synchronized Dark Side of the Moon to the movie. Anyone who has read excellent books like How We Know What Isn’t So or Fooled by Randomness are well acquainted with the phenomenon of seeing patterns where none exist by discarding data that doesn’t fit. So, if it’s true that last night was a Type I error, consider Dark Side of the Rainbow the biggest “rhymes with blind duck” in history.

Last week, Rich and I gave a talk at OWASP Austin, the open web application security group. Social network security was the title. The main idea is how the health of social networks and communities can be compromised by attacking the identities - replacing identities known to the community with ones that are less functional. When identities are degraded or made more anonymous, then the community is at risk.

Of course, we talked about complementary currency and among RSnake’s several good questions was how does a complementary currency system keep someone from taking too much. Of course, we mentioned the idea of putting a credit limit for each person in the code, but as everybody knows, it is less about the code than it is about the people and if the community is healthy and all the transactions are transparent, then people will police it themselves. If the community is sick, they won’t. Even for the hackers at the OWASP meeting who are immersed in code every day, this idea seemed agreeable.

Update 12/2: Here is the website (with blog) for the book.

A week ago, I ordered Ellen Hodgson Brown’s new book Web of Debt. Since I’m still waiting for it (alas, the order is bundled with Toni Price’s yet-to-be released cd), a podcast announced on the IJCCR mailing list is a welcome gift in the meantime.

She notes that money is just a receipt (or as Thomas Greco often says credit) that the community agrees on, so there’s no need for a private issuer. She clarifies that silver versus gold wasn’t William Jennings Bryan’s main issue. The main issue was that the government and not a private bank create the money.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trl5_BCL0qs]
Update 9/20: Extra interviews are generously being made available by themoneyfix.org through this RSS feed. As they become available, I’ll add direct links to the videos from the feed here for those who don’t use a newsreader:

1. Hazel Henderson m4v, youtube
2. Bernard Lietaer m4v

Comments

Author: necronomy

Date: 2008-03-30 13:25:00

Alternative possibility means freedom of choice: < HREF=“http://cromalternativemoney.org” REL=“nofollow”>Crom Alternative Money<>

Great Q/A and discussion at BarCamp Houston as the presentation was in the smaller of the two rooms. After the session, I had a conversation with someone who had a degree in economics and he asked if any economists had written anything about complementary currency. I mentioned to him that the London School of Economics had published a paper of Edgar Cahn’s. I’m reminded of Lietaer saying that the so-called Nobel Prize in Economics* will never be awarded to an intentional economist.

Unfortunately, I haven’t blogged much on my experience at the US Social Forum. in short, it was great and I recommend attending any one you can get to. Hopefully Iĺl follow up on that statement. I have multiple social interests, so my time was divided. I also attended as part of a family vacation, so my attention was divided.

I took part in a workshop on Solidarity Economy. There were representatives from the US, Canada and Peru speaking about very active programs. Canada and Peru
have very developed programs worth learning about.

This morning, a few friends brought to my attention the NPR story on Ithaca Hours. There seems to be an upswing in media coverage. Amy also notes the NPR story and that she paid for her yoga class in time dollars. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to use the Austin Time exchange for cooperatively-owned beer. I think an hour of work is worth a beer or two. I didn’t realize so many people listen to NPR in the morning.

There are about 844,000 BerkShares in circulation, worth $759,600 at the fixed exchange rate of 1 BerkShare to 90 U.S. cents, according to program organizers. The paper scrip is available in denominations of one, five, 10, 20 and 50.

In their 10 months of circulation, they’ve become a regular feature of the local economy. Businesses that accept BerkShares treat them interchangeably with dollars: a $1 cup of coffee sells for 1 BerkShare, a 10 percent discount for people paying in BerkShares.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070619/lf_nm/usa_economy_berkshares_dc

PRI’s “The World” ran a great story on a Time Bank experience in Barcelona.

The World’s Gerry Hadden reports that a barter system is catching on in Barcelona, Spain. People register with what’s called a time bank to trade services. They might teach a language or do home repairs. The hours they work become time bank credits they can spend. Time banking saves people cash. And for many, it provides a sense of community.