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What are young adults thinking about money and value? How can we create new systems of wealth generation and abundance? What does the future hold for banks and other financial institutions in the wake of massive peer to peer exchange?
“The Future of Money” begins a conversation on these topics and invites your participation (twitter hashtag #futureofmoney)
We did it! Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this process over the past few months!
I presented this video to a room full of bankers (200+, standing room only!) as part of my keynote on Monday, 25 October 2010, at the SIBOS Conference in Amsterdam. Though I don’t think most of them “got it,” the seed has been planted. And apparently someone found my talk compelling enough to quote me in an article on finextra.com! yay! (Sibos kicks off with call for innovation).
It will be interesting to see if we whetted their appetite enough that Swift or another organization might want to provide funding for us to take the project further. Perhaps we could roll out a whole video series that dives deeper into what is really going on with peer to peer exchange, the emergence of complimentary currencies, and the social movements that are fueling this (wealth generating commons, open innovation, coworking and open design spaces, sharing, cooperatives, collaboration, data transparency, social networks, mobility, etc).
In all, I’m so pleased with this experience and the energy and activity supporting it. We crowdfunded over $5,700 over on emergence.cc, and donations are still rolling in! Pretty amazing, and resonant with a comment Linus Olsson of Flattr makes in the video, describing the new way people are thinking about micropayments and the funding of an individual’s creative process –
It’s not a question that you pay for what you already got. You actually pay for what you will get… the things that can be made because you paid.
Please pass the video around, and let’s keep the conversation going. In just 2 days since we posted it online, it’s received over 4,000 views! Share, embed, spread! A Future of Money page has also been started on Facebook, and the #futureofmoney hashtag is alive and well on Twitter. 🙂
I’d love any feedback on the video from you, or any suggestions as to where we go from here. As you know, we will also be creating an infographic as the final part of this particular project, so stay on the lookout for its release in the next few weeks!
Below is the transcript of my talk – it’s quite brief because I only had 15 minutes total, and the video took up half that time. I’ve also listed all the people who appear in the video, along with links to their initiatives/projects.
Thanks again to all!
——————–
“I’m going to talk to you about the changes that are taking place in the way my generation is redefining money and value and wealth. To help convey this message, I spent the past three weeks co-producing a video with a creative studio in Berlin, especially for this event. Just using webcams and Skype, we interviewed people from around the world – from Thailand, Sweden, Germany, the UK, the US, Mexico – all of whom are involved with initiatives that enable new forms of peer to peer value exchange. So, without further explanation, here is the world premiere of The Future of Money.
(video played)
I hope you found that both though provoking and entertaining. There was a lot of information there, so if I had to distill it down into one main concept, one takeaway, it’s this:
There is a class of young, intelligent, creative people who are disillusioned with the debt-based monetary system, and are busy building the infrastructures for a commons-based economy, which is emerging, right now, in parallel to what currently exists. The foundation of this economy is built on trust… and transparency…. and the ability of distributed networks to self organize. And using the Web as a grounds for experimentation, we’re learning more effective ways to link unmet needs with unused resources, innovate, generate wealth, and build resilient communities.
This is the prototype of the future. This is where the opportunities are.
I hope that during the Innotribe sessions the remainder of the week, we can explore ways to create bridges between these two worlds and ways of thinking, and co-evolve the next global economy.”
__________
Future of Money Interviewees:
Featuring (in order of appearance):
Edward Harran, Attention Philanthropist
Caroline Woolard, Our Goods
Alan Rosenblith, Director, The Money Fix
Hans Schoenburg, Founder, GiftFlow
Ashni Mohnot, Founder, Enzi
Linus Olsson, Founder, Flattr
Jerry Michalski, Founder, Relationship Economy Expedition
Georg Zoche, Founder, Transnational Republic
Fernanda Ibarra, Advocate, Metacurrency Project
Jessica Harris, One Blue Dot Share Networks
Michel Bauwens, Founder, P2P Foundation
Douglas Rushkoff, Author, Program or be Programmed
You did it! Congrats to you and the team. After talking to 200+ bankers you can talk to anyone.
What is next with complementary currencies (Lietaer’s term) or complimentary currencies (Miemis’ term) is up to all of us ! No each one of us, and it will emerge.
Looking forward to 2h of executive producer talk with you.
Great Job!
Will SIBOS be doing any follow up or posting any videos on their site of your presentation so we can see you in action?
Here she is. 2010-10-25 at Sibos, Amsterdam. Be proud.
Clip from
Innovation keynotes: The big tectonic shifts
Highlights from the opening session of Innotribe @ Sibos
“Linking unmet needs with unused resources” <– Great way of describing this
Great job Vanessa, and congrats to you, Gabriel and all the contributors.
One direction that I hope we all take this project in is to promote the idea of money in the larger context of incentivizing, distributing, and accounting for value. Money is but one mode of accomplishing these goals though many people now perceive traditional money to be synonymous with these goals. Many ‘alternative currency’ proposals have tacitly accepted this notion by positioning themselves as idealogical or adversarial competitors to state issued money.
I think the people and ventures that you highlighted can help to change this attitude because they are all innovative, they focus on addressing unmet needs and solving new use cases. I hope that example will continue to spread and people will begin to see the future of money as a discussion about tools and mechanisms of all sorts that promote the creation and recognition of value.
agreed. i think this will come down to transparency and trust and reputation. in terms of web as medium, if we can have robust digital identities and profiles that allow us to express ourselves in terms of skills/resources/personalities and to have a mechanism to be brought into contact with those who have similar visions or can help us reach our objectives, i think that will be the start of a new economy and a new kind of world and life. and it’s already happening.
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Congrats, have you heard of P2P currency http://www.bitcoin.org. Also, please see http://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2010/10/rally-in-bitcoin.html
Cheers, Jon
yes i have, thanks for the links.
Congratulations!!!
A few suggestions —
1) Add a Future of Money blogroll category on the right side of the EBD page
2 ) Create a page that lists specific research, transcription, or other small projects/tasks useful to the Future of Money initiative ( Soylent precedent at http://j.mp/cZaWqK )
3) Offer a page where individuals can issue personal “gift certificates” of time for these projects
The third part could be a first step towards implementing Doug Rushkoff’s personal currency ideas, as outlined in his O’Reilly keynote here
http://rushkoff.com/2009/11/21/radical-abundance
What do you think?
Best,
Mark
@openworld
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your suggestions 🙂
I just completed the English translation for the English subtitles of the video using a great new tool from Mozilla called Universal Subtitles. Anyone who wants to get involved is welcome to add their translations. The process is super simple and there are tutorial videos embedded in the process explaining how it works!
http://universalsubtitles.org/videos/qe1mdjC1NPXc/?saved=true
— Gabriel
thanks mark! ok, i took your suggestions and added a future of money tab and put a few links. what else would you suggest i add there?
the other suggestions seem to require a site upgrade to wordpress.org so i can get some higher functionality… (which i plan on doing soon!)
i talked to doug the other day about the personal currency thing, but he didn’t really make it sound like it was something viable to be considered, just an idea he was throwing around to stretch the imagination. (though i could be interpreting that incorrectly.)
– v
Glad to see the new links in the Future of Money category.
Here are other web sites/blogs that may well be worth adding –
– PicoMoney … https://picomoney.com/faq
– KarmaCorn … http://www.karmakorn.com
– Ripple … http://ripple-project.org
On emerging scenarios for personal currencies, here are a few further sites:
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_monetary_system
– http://www.baum.com.au/~jiri/ae/blog/01187941187
– http://beyondmoney.net/resource-links/e-c-riegels-valun-mutual-money-plan
– http://rushkoff.com/forums/bbs/comments.php?DiscussionID=47
– http://rushkoff.com/forums/bbs/comments.php?DiscussionID=109&page=1#Item_0
Look forward to continuing the conversation.
Best,
Mark
@openworld
Posing the question “where do we go from here” for myself i am still one of those who is observing this project from the outside and asking questions that will allow me to accept how this is part of a larger picture that enables me to become part of the solution, in other words this for me is a problem, not because i don’t accept the “future of money” but because i am still among the many who may not fully understand what is going on, and continue to “go on”
thus, asking the question where do we go from here, i fully believe you’ve planted a seed, gathered and continue to gather a network of smart, innovative and creative people who believe in the seed and help it grow, as i continue to observe from the outside, i think taking the perspective of wanting to understand more and comprehend, how can this be explained as simply as possible for those who would take the initiative to participate, and in doing so help create the memes necessary to evolve such an initiative to embark on a new journey towards what is called the “future of money”
it’s implications are many, most importantly how we want to see how this will fulfill “Jobs” of people, and how it will make our lives better.
thus, we grow and the way we grow is to fertilize the foundation, thus it’s not something that only grows to be a flower, but a tree that will stand the |”test of time”
if you believe it will, and others do as well, then the continuous effort will create a larger picture for everyone to believe in it as well…
that larger picture only becomes “evident” from many pieces to a puzzle, of which you folks are doing here especially the ones who are “day in and out” helping to make it so…
nevertheless, congratulations to all of you and i hope continued success will come from such passion to participate in helping “improve” the way we would want to see the future, create it and thus make life that much more enjoyable…
cheers
spiro
thanks spiro. i am feeling the same way…. the video was an inspirational seed – if we continue the conversation, it would be helpful to unpack this information and distill it, explain and show what is currently going on that is contributing to this larger movement / emerging economy, and provide paths for people to explore or participate as they choose.
Nice job! I think you can still make higher use of the stuff you’ve collected. You may consider 1) releasing 5-10 mini topics on the future of money, 2) editing it into a more structured educational overview piece, a primer, that could be used in classroom settings, chock full of infographics and labelled sections.
totally want to do that. there were plenty of angles and perspectives that simply didn’t make it into final cut because of constraints. once infographic is done, we’ll start looking into ways to keep the conversation going.
I was so glad to meet you Gabriel and Venessa in Amsterdam.
I see this video as a trailer – a preview of a work to come. A bit like one of the “footage” pieces in William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition book.
The video identifies a number of key topics (wealth as opposed to or compared to money, our behavior on social networks, our free access to information, and others). Each key concept/topic could merit a deep dive video on its own.
Looking forward to more collaboration.
Ciao, Kosta
That’s funny you should mention Pattern Recognition Kosta — Venessa and I had been discussing that book quite a bit in the weeks leading up to SIBOS. Nice connection!
I think there is a common feeling amongst us all that the work could be expanded.
looking forward to it as well. i’d love to have innotribe/swift commission a deeper dive into these topics. 😉
The key here (and all those involved seem primed to receive this) is that *everything of value* is a form of money. I am looking to buy dollars, euros, RMBs, or just a nice dinner, with the currency of my enterprise architecture (for instance). We all already have money. We just need systems (social systems, of course, but supported by various technological systems) to recognize and enable the potential of this.
exactly right. it’s a matter of creating the infrastructures to allow these “currencies” to flow.
Thanks, Venessa and all who help you. Indeed, “there’s something comforting about watching you all go by in the twitterstream. ” We love you, too.
Guys, reply here.
Now where do we go from here?
Thanks Venessa
Amazing stuff.
Looking forward to participating, sharing, seeding – and ultimately building – the future of money together.
What did John Hagel say about the conference?
Did his language translate to “the bankers”?
And if so, how can we find more translators to help seed that world with ours.
Or, as you said, maybe we don’t need to. We are making a world anyway.
Venessa, friends – I have bad news (it’s worse), and good news (you’re not alone).
The bad: Foreclosuregate exposes an ugly side of corporatist banking that tends to shift my breakfast into reverse.
The good: What if social networking acted as currency?
Featuring Banking Customers in the Year 2012: Accenture Research Woohoo, you’re not alone in what you want from a bank! Plus, a draft of a concept of mine waiting to connect to the right places.
Venessa, friends – I have bad news (it’s worse), and good news (you’re not alone).
The bad: Foreclosuregate exposes an ugly side of corporatist banking that tends to shift my breakfast into reverse.
The good: What if social networking acted as currency?
Featuring Banking Customers in the Year 2012: Accenture Research Woohoo, you’re not alone in what you want from a bank! Plus, a draft of a concept of mine waiting to connect to the right places.
Check out another movie trailer: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1499037415/money-and-life
also this one, by some c0-conspirators:
Symbionomics: Stories of a New Economy – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1658818436/symbionomics-stories-of-a-new-economy?ref=search
they’re raising funds now!
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I have the feeling that you guys are trying to invent a monetary system just because you felt off the existing one.