I was thinking that there is a massive amount of knowledge skills and expertise visit these boards and if I was to design a framework where we could collectively pool our resource to everyone’s benefit then it would be a good job done. I’ve come up with a rough design (based on a very old one) I’ll call it “The collective” for now. It takes the form of a web site containing a board much like this one. When a person becomes a member of “the collective” they are given passwords to the site and granted access. Let me define some terms at this point. “cd” Credit day represents approximately 8 hours work. “Bank” the bank is where everyone has an account containing CD visible to the other members. “Requester” the person/s requesting a “Task” . “Provider” The person/s accepting a “Task” . “Task” is a detailed specification with a formal layout and forms a request for work, the task is complete when the requester is happy or in the event of a dispute the moderator is happy. “Project” is a main heading within the board it has an owner and a description. “Team” is anyone with at least 1cd invested in the project. The amount of cd required to achieve a “Task” is agreed between the “requester” and the “provider” along with a timescale. Let me do a little hypothetical example : Bob creates a project called “Bobs new game” and within the thread he creates a Task called “web site for Bobs new game” and publishes the specification. Say “4 pages looking like this linked to each other with a embossed logo back ground and a natty new logo made from the letters BG”. William agrees to do the site for 4cd. William within Bobs thread creates a task called “logo and background”. Gillian offers to do the logo and the background for 1cd and William agrees. Bob receives the source for the site including the logo, the cd is transferred to the team. So the team is : Bob in debt to -4cd. William 3cd . Gillian 1cd . Bob is in debt to the collective this is not necessarily a bad thing although his standing within the collective is now below Bob’s and Williams. Now hypothetically lets say bob sells his site for $400 it would be his to sell end of story. I don’t want to go into much more detail as this post is quite long already , but I value as always your input .

Ummm... sounds good, but how would you maintain an economy like this, without any cd to start with? is the a representation of dollar --> cd?

I think the whole point is that the aggregate CD never fluxuates (is always zero).

If a member quits the collective, then their CD balance is slowly reabsorbed. The problem is that if someone falls way behind (-200CD) and just quits, you effectively have a hit to the economy.

George D. Filiotis
Are you in support of the ban of Dihydrogen Monoxide? You should be!

...and this then brings up a very good point: you''ll have how many newbies coming into "the collective" wanting a few cd''s work done on "tHe Nhexzt kyllyr gamE!: (insert description sounding TOO MUCH like *FINAL FANTASY*)"... someone comes along and does some work. Newbie gets bored, quits collective, perfectly good source ends up in some 12 yr old''s recycle bin. "cd" essentially becomes indicator of "how much you''ve worked for someone else''s gain", and the sum total of the collective''s cd points -skyrocketing,no doubt- are a measure of how many DAYS worth of work have been sapped by those who simply didn''t want to do it themselves.

I think we''re a little better off with the current system: if you want/need something, find your own moxy (and time!) to ask around and find someone who is willing to spend their own good time to help you. That inconvenience alone has halved the "help me!" cries, herding many towards *horror of horrors!* looking it up . I simply don''t think honest Collaboration and Economics mix.

---email--- Tok ----surf----
~The Feature Creep of the Family~

Negative CDs are not allowed. It''s that simple. The Collective is not in the business to loan CDs to individuals. Any individual wishing to become a member must have CDs upon being a member.

When a member joins, they receive 1 CD. The more members who join, the more CDs which are minted. Anyone can join as many times as they wish under different usernames, but they can never pool their CDs, so they will never be able to purchase something worth more than 1 CD without actually doing work.

You can''t buy anything withuot CDs. No loans. The initial economy will value every project at 1 CD, because no member will have more than 1 CD. As more members join, more CDs are created, enabling some members to amass riches. This would only occur though if they actually produce. Eventually, the value of projects will become finely nuanced as members have a differing level of CDs to pay for projects.

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Well, there is a potential problem regarding the same user joining multiple times under different usernames. He could have one of his selfs by from another of his selfs to pool his resources.

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Good point bishop_pass about 2 accounts bumping up cd I had thought of this already and it is extremely important that nothing is allowed to undermine cd, as it represents someone’s hard work. We would need a mechanism to spot and remove such people from the collective for good.

Also your point about never going into debt with cd, I was thinking that someone new to the collective would have to build up credibility in fact build up some cd by working on other projects. I was reluctant to suggest no negative cd because a team nearing the end of a project could run out of cd and all the team members hopefully would be enthusiastic about completing it.

I am disappointed with the response or lack of it, perhaps I never put the point across very well, the more I think of the idea the more beautiful it becomes, it’s the removal of “money” which makes it.

It’s a way for people to escape the corporate 9 to 5 shackles and actually have their dream realised without the need for money. Someone who loves say modelling or sound production can gain recognition and experience or have their dream realised without bank loans, without the “career path” without some “suit” getting all the recognition for their hard work.

It may be some peoples dream to gain a 9 to 5 job in their chosen field of expertise but as you are all aware you can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience with out a job, it’s a money thing.

why must the dosomething:letsomethingbedone be 1:1 (if you understand what I am saying, I forgot the right word to use ). Why don''t you get, for example, 5 cd''s if you do something and lose 4 cd''s if you let something be done for you. This means, if you helped 5 people with a project, and you let 5 people do something for you, you''ll have (if you have 1 cd at the beginning) 6 cd''s.

I think this (your site) is a very good idea, because nobody is skilled in everything needed to make a site or game or whatever. For example, i am going to make a game with some other people, but we are really short of artworkers. A site like this would be a good place to find people wanting to help you.

If you come up with a more detailed plan I''d like to join, or even help, if I can fit it in my other busy scedules .

They can because they think they can