Re: [ox-en] A 'Sharing' project
- From: Stefan Merten <smerten oekonux.de>
- Date: Wed, 03 Jan 2007 08:41:46 +0100
Hi David and all!
Last month (57 days ago) David Collins wrote:
On Wed, Oct 25, 2006 at 08:58:31AM [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED], Stefan Merten wrote:
I see such attempts as a possible building block for a GPL society.
The main advantage IMHO is that they overcome exchange.
Well, I would be very interested in your thoughts on an idea I have to
extend the scope of the project beyond shareable goods - to incorporate
services, and maybe non-shareable goods as well. I was thinking of then
re-defining the project as a 'Free Co-operative' - or 'Free Co-op'.
^^^^^^^^^
What strikes me if you put it this way is the emphasis on "operative"
:-) . That would be indeed a useful goal to strive for.
To
me, the word 'Free' - in this context - would symbolize a number of
things:
(i) the project would aim to provide people with the scope for making
economic decisions without the use of money
But wouldn't the term "moneyless" match better then? Well, using
"-less" is of course no good marketing ;-) . And the word "free" is
English has more connotations of moneyless than in German probably.
IMHO it would be useful to clarify what "economic decisions" means
exactly. This is probably a key question.
(ii) participation should be voluntary
Not only a fundamental precondition on a theoretical basis but also a
good basis for an indicator of the project's usefulness: If people
contribute voluntarily then the projects meets (some of) their
interests.
(iii) the project would be only one of a myriad number of attempts at
building a 'free' society
(iv) the project would use FLOSS - Free/Libre/Open-Source Software; in a
society which is increasingly dependant upon advanced technology, access
to information about how this technology actually works - as well as the
scope to modify it for one's own purposes - seems important if people
are to be in control of their own lives
Sure.
May be one word of warning might be useful: If you are planning to
write an own application make sure that the development of this
application doesn't get the most important part of the project. I say
this because especially when a project has difficulties to take off
this can happen easily. Remember that software is always a tool - not
an end in itself.
And I am thinking of adopting the word 'Co-operative' - not because I would
advocate that people involved would bend over backwards trying to adhere
to the *legal* definition of a co-operative, or even to the concept of
cooperatives as defined by, for example, the Rochdale principles
(although I broadly agree with most of the principles myself) -
Well, the concept of cooperatives is certainly a point deserving more
discussion. Years ago we had some discussion about this topic on the
German list but not as broad and deep as it should be. I'm planning a
page about cooperatives in the Oekonux introduction somewhen so my
posting of this page may serve as a starting point for such a debate.
but
simply because the project would hopefully foster 'cooperative' - as
opposed to competitive - economic practices.
That's what many desire.
I have written a brief amount more about the motivation behind the idea
here: http://ie.uk.to/index.php/motivation
Quoting this page:
Succinctly put, the motivation behind this project is to provide
people with the scope for making economic decisions without using
money. Hopefully the project will also: (i) provide a basis for
theoretical discussion and criticism, and (ii) provide a basis for
safe, and careful, experiment.
Hmm... There is a large array of examples of such attempts. I know the
situation in Germany and I know there were many such experiments in
the past (mainly 1970s and 1980s). Before starting the next wouldn't
it make sense to study these experiments and try to learn something
from them before making the same mistakes again? IMHO this would be
something absolutely worth the effort!
Mit Freien Grüßen
Stefan
--
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