Austin Time Exchange 1st Anniversary Celebration

Please come celebrate with us!!! You are invited to attend an event marking the 1st anniversary of the Austin Time Exchange.

On Sunday, June 3rd from 6pm-9pm, we will be hosting a gathering at Monkey Wrench Books. We will be enjoying beer and light refreshments from 6pm-8pm and will be screening the documentary, “The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” at sunset. You can view more information on the film at http://www.communitysolution.org/cuba.html . A pay what you can donation is suggested to help cover the cost of the refreshments. Additional funds collected will help cover ATEN operational costs. This is a family friendly event.

A recent article about Paulo Coelho (a Brazilian writer whose works are filled with mysticism) describes how his bookshelves collapsed one day and he realized he was hoarding things he didn’t need. So, now his shelves are empty and he regularly leaves his books on park benches and other places when he is done.

In another way to play with “free as in libre” and profit, Coelho has had a third of his upcoming novel posted on his blog, only removing the text when the book was released in print.

A lot of people who understand and enjoy Open Source Software don’t necessarily realize one of the main problems with the way the Software industry entrenches itself in a way to remove the ability to innovate form the general public and society as whole..

Software is a mutant in the sense that it can be both copyrighted and patented. The article Software ain’t patentable, damn it! (2) points out the difference fairly well while discussing a legal case putting junk patents at risk.

Economia Solidária

I have trouble blogging frequently because I use to write fully researched articles and was called a journalist before bloggers came along.

Instead of infrequency, I think I’ll settle for short bursts like others do. This time, I’ll point out the remembrance that I understand Spanish and Portuguese. I often enjoy story that aren’t all over Slashdot, because they are all over barrapunto.com (the Spanish Slashdot). At some point a week ago, I ran into a Brazilian page, which led to Spanish pages. Outside of Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez is personally promoting community currencies, there is a very large community of people dealing in various kinds of social currencies. Some of them from banks dealing in national money as well.

Austin Time Exchange
http://www.austintimeexchange.org
These are the dates for upcoming Time Exchange orientations.

Orientation Dates

Tuesday, May 8th at 7:00pm — Ventana del Soul Cultural Center, 1834 E. Oltorf

Saturday, May. 12th at 11:30am — Terrazas Branch Library, 1105 E. Cesar Chavez St.

Monday, June 4th at 7:00pm — Terrazas Branch Library, 1105 E. Cesar Chavez St.

Tuesday, June 12th at 7:00pm — Ventana del Soul Cultural Center, 1834 E. Oltorf

Monday, July 2nd at 7:00pm — Terrazas Branch Library, 1105 E. Cesar Chavez St.

Participants earn time to receive services for their work building open source software to benefit the nonprofit community.

(Austin, TX) The Austin Time Exchange Network (ATEN) helps people trade an hour of work for another hour of work within a community. Instead of bartering between just two people and placing different values on the service, our network allows equal sharing of an hour for an hour within the whole community.

In the Future of Ideas and Money and Lessig and Lietaer posts, a community currency is compared to the Internet. Both of them form an innovation commons.

Associated with community currency design is protocol. Contrast this with national money where laws generally regulate use.

Protocols on the Internet are generally established by the IETF. Jeanette Hofmann describes this process:

The IETF is open to anyone who is interested, provided they have the necessary technical competence and practical engineering skills. The exclusionary effect of this prerequisite should not be underestimated. The IETF has traditionally understood itself as an elite in the technical development of communication networks. Gestures of superiority and a dim view of other standardisation committees are matched by unmistakable impatience with incompetence in their own ranks.

We are looking for nonprofits to attend, but also for technology professionals willing to present or just participate in sessions to add to the information presented.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Penguin Day Comes To Austin
www.austinpenguinday.org

Popular One Day Conference Showcasing Open Source Technology Use For Nonprofits And Communities Makes Austin Debut

Austin, a city well known for its technology-centric offerings, festivals and a motto of keeping Austin “weird” can add one more item to its growing list–Penguin Days. The popular day long convening of software developers, activists and nonprofits will take place on April 28 from 9 am to 5 pm at Ventana del Soul.

CODEATHON 2.0

PRESENTED BY KNOWBILITY AND LEAGUE OF TECHNICAL VOTERS

Create open source software to benefit nonprofits. Two events! Two chances to participate! Free food, prizes, unique entertainment. All types and skill levels of designers needed. Collaborate on issues of usability and accessibility, graphical interface and high-level software architecture.

More info and to sign up:
http://codeathon.pbwiki.com/

Log in with password: codeon

Kick off party at Triumph Café
Friday, 4/13, 8 p.m. - 11 p.m.

This is a followup to The Future of Ideas and Money.

Bernard Lietaer reveals the difference between money and currency. What a central authority requires in payment of taxes, thereby imposing it as legal tender, is money. Taxes lock us into money. Money is the Yang. It promotes competition and scarcity created through hierarchy. Currency is whatever a community chooses as a means of payment, thereby accepting it as common tender. Social currency is the Yin.