The Future of Money project has infectious optimism about the growth of collaborative consumption, crowdfunding, and alternative currencies. All things that I’m always hopeful for, but not without caution. (Because I am a total grump.)
The project summed up in a nice infographic:
(Flickr: Venessa Miemis, Design by Patrizia Kommerell)
You can read the A-Z initiatives text on a large PDF that’s found on the post at emergence.cc.
And the final video which features interviews with the founders of many web based social value exchange tools. Most of which were new and awesome to me.
Seeing the kind of value swapping platforms that are out there and are being developed makes me really excited.
My Favorites:
Flattr.com – Allows fans to make small payments to web content creators.
Craigslist.org - Classifieds for everything
Freecycle.org – Advertising free things
Yard Sale Treasure Map – Maps yard sale data on Google Maps from Craigslist.org
Kiva.org – Non-profit microlending platform
Kickstarter.com – Crowdfunding platform
Quora.com – Knowledge sharing in question and answer format
Developing:
Giftflow.org – Localized trading platform.
Onebluedot.org – Organizational tool for share networks.
Offline, I look forward to seeing the expansion of cooperative services like food co-ops (Wheatsville Co-Op), credit unions (University Federal Credit Union), childcare co-ops. I have really great hopes for resource sharing opportunities like bike sharing, car sharing, tool sharing (especially camera equipment sharing!) It’s cool to notice what established sharing institutions look like (public libraries, public transportation); and how for-profit rental companies (movie rentals, car rentals, appliance and tool rental from hardware stores) can be subsumed by web based share networks.
thanks for the nice summary! we learned a lot in the process, and there will probably be upcoming videos that dig more into value exchange, work, & collaboration.
- venessa miemis
Like I said, your optimism about the future of money is infectious. It’s a wonderful project that has really excited me. Looking forward to seeing more!