1 | Henrique

2 October 2009 at 9:58 am

Very interesting examples found in your story. It seems to me, and I am hoping on it, that we are going to start using other ways to reward the exchange of knowledge and time.

It seems that trust will always remain an important value validator in this alternative currencies.

Also interesting to see: LETS which are Local Exchange Trading Systems which I think is the foundation for this new movements seen in the videos on your story.

2 | Massimo Menichinelli

3 October 2009 at 8:18 am

Hi Enrique,
yes, LETS and all the local currencies are the starting point, what Open Money projects are trying to do is expanding this projects developing new tools and strategies for a broader use. While local currencies are really interesting tools, but usually can’t be used that much outside a community or a locality, these tools should help spreading the adoption of such community-based currencies hopefully anywhere.
Moreover, as they are open tools for open currencies, they are a great metadesign approach: they are note the final solution, but a design tool for enabling communities designing their own currencies (metadesign). And the software itself is open source, so we would have a second layer of metadesign: we can design, modify and adapt a tool that enable people designing their own currencies! It may sound a complex issue…but it’s exactly what I think we need in order to face complex social problems with/for communities (or Community/Locality Systems, as I usually say).

…and congratulations for Letsevo, it’s a great project!

3 | Henrique

3 November 2009 at 12:23 am

Thanks!

you mentioned:

“but it’s exactly what I think we need in order to face complex social problems with/for communities”

I agree, and I would add in parallel to complementary currencies, we need to come up with open business models that encompass sharing and rewards.

We are starting to have the tools in our hands to do that, at letsevo we are trying to see how we can design products in an open way, sharing our knowledge with the community and profits with sponsors, suppliers, and even users. But we still have a long way to go…