Bard Conference - Local Currencies in the 21st century

Outline of presentations by Michael Linton


It was William Blake who warned us about Single Vision:

"May God us keep
From Single vision and Newton's sleep!"

But more of that later. My first response to the conference request for proposals was to take three themes from the conference objectives and address them from an open money perspective.

1st workshop

"Understand the issues that lie behind the local currency movement and why it is potentially such a powerful tool in the creation of a sustainable and democratic future"

Anyone who uses money, and could use some more ...

• "a undertaking in accountancy" E.C. Riegel
  
  the two forms of money and how they differ
  LETSplay - on-line demonstration game
  open money space/platform for multiple cc
  cc service providers (ccsp) network
  naming the space
  digital selves and currencies commons

2nd workshop

"Learn the basics of how to create a local currency in one's own region and explore ways to increase its chance of success."

• where the rubber meets the road
  
  paying the way, sustainable cc development programs
  community way and fund-raising for 3rd sector
  local, regional and national co-ordination
  chaordic collaboration models
  smart cards, and phones

3rd workshop

"Spread the word so that the critical issues around money and its creation are made part of a broad public discourse."

• got 'net?
  
  network or not work? - moving memes
  collective intelligence & emergent behaviour
  do-say relationships and other such 'versive activities
  worlds enough and time

However - now (in the program, I think) this has been changed fit into to two workshops on Saturday afternoon.

1:30 - 3:00 pm: open money - "an undertaking in accountancy"

LETS (sometimes called Local Economic Trading Systems) are by far the most
popular local currency system to date with thousands of systems in operation
around the world. In this workshop Michael Linton, designer of the original
LETSystem, will discuss the two forms of money - "real" and "virtual" - and
how they differ. He will then cover further development of community
currencies, including: the LETSplay-on-line demonstration game; the open
money space/platform for multiple community currencies (cc); cc service
providers (ccsp) network; naming the space; digital selves in the currency
commons; paying the way, sustainable community currency development programs;
"community way" and fundraising for third sector; local, regional, and
national coordination; chaordic collaboration models; smart cards and phones;
network or not work; moving "memes?"; collective intelligence and emergent
behavior.

and then - after a short break -

3:30 - 5:00 pm: open money - where the rubber meets the road

Michael will briefly review the previous workshop and go on to discuss the
introduction and management of cc services platforms - developing short,
medium and long term viability at the local, regional and national levels by
making OUR money work.