[p2p-research] Michel; A question

[Nathan Cravens]

Hi Matt,

Are you familiar with Kew Eco Village?
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Kew+ecovillage&init=quick#/group.php?gid=88020757939&ref=search&sid=827336664.2453887916..1

>From what I can tell its mostly meshwork or spontaneous and emergent without
specific protocols; if but a general few. For this free association and
non-obligation to work in the long term it will need a solid technical
stigmergic structure to make sense of otherwise random bouts of foolishness.
I'm preparing to work with the fab lab and hackerspace communities to secure
build-in management structures that learn autonomously what works to keep
and what doesn't to alter, for example, newcombers can pick up where someone
else leaves off. This will ensure fruit from spontaneous activity and
prevent militaristic enclosure and destruction of these seed commons.

I plan on visiting this urban community to study what works. This is a
curious type which seems to want to be a back-to-the-land within the urban
itself; to meet all wants or needs within a small area in a communal way.

I'm really excited about this new experimental community model and delighted
to see you are pursuing something more structured, yet flexible, in this
way.


Nathan





On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 10:17 AM, Matt Boggs <matt at digiblade.com> wrote:

> But first, a little bit about me:
>
>
>
> I live in downtown Denver Colorado and have just recently secured a decent
> sized warehouse with a 15,000 sq. /ft. lot suitable for growing. My partners
> at this space include very talented hardware engineers, a Horticulturist,
> specialized tradesmen (welder, fabrication, etc.) and myself. I put this
> group together to explore various sustainability studies, engineering and
> reengineering ideas. The ‘soul’ of these studies is rooted in the P2P
> Foundation and the betterment of my community. My first goal is to focus on
> a small group of members (300-500) of ‘mostly’ people I know to be
> sympathetic to what I’m doing (I am not new to community building). Before
> the group gets too big, I would create another ‘chapter’. Each chapter would
> be free\encouraged to communicate\exchange with each other. To start, our
> first production studies will include; a large greenhouse, a biodiesel
> facility, a walk-in cooler for EG (Excessive Goods that are not for resale).
> We will also set up educational workshops on these topics and their
> associated components. Future near term projects include solar, algae
> production, byproducts from biodiesel\greenhouse, micro gardening, open
> source hardware modules and a good deal of hacking items into other things.
>
>
>
> And now my question; I would like to accomplish these tasks with a minimal
> amount of money. There will always be ‘hard costs’ but I feel this project
> will be incomplete without the inclusion of some sort of organized system
> like LETS, which I know you are familiar with. Why does the P2P Foundation
> not start a non-money system? God knows, I’ve seen some great ideas shared
> on the P2P list over the years. Here is what I envision: A social network (I
> know you dislike that word) like MySpace, but includes a person’s social
> currency value. That value, in the form of; what I can do and what I’ve done
> for the community would be displayed as a graph. I would also throw in a
> little bit of Craigslist as well for good measure while keeping the concept
> of federal dollars out and social\time dollars in. I believe the fastest way
> to educate the people on P2P (bottom up) is getting them comfortable with a
> system that is familiar but different enough to subtly change their mindset.
>
>
>
> Anyway, Michel, I’ve wanted to write this note for some time. I figured now
> was the best, as I’ve put both feet into this new project.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Matt
>
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>
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