CES for online community

[Sabine Maennel]

I am just wondering whether CES would also work for an online community, people helping each other with their websites for example?

Sabine

[Les Squires]

Sabine, if you're saying what i think you saying, I believe your suggestions is very profound. I'd like to talk with you to explore these possibilities. Do you use Skype from http://skype.com or may I call you at the number you included when you registered on this site? Please suggest a few good times when I might call. I'm in Boulder Colorado in the States -- 8 hours earlier than Zurich.

[Sabine Maennel]

Hello Les, you may call me at that number. I am up now. But have to get my son ready for school in about 45 Minutes. Another good time would be afternoons (your mornings), but sometimes with the kids at home and school work to help with, it gets very busy at that times. Especially today (Tuesday here) afternoon will not work, since I have a class to attend in the evening. Most other afternoons or evenings could work though. I am usally up until 10:30 pm our time, that would be 2:30 pm your time.

I am a software developer interested in politics building up a website on books about politics. It is just for fun, so I can not afford to pay for the things I am not good at myself. I was wondering whether it would make sense to establish an exchange for guys like me to help each other out. There are forums of course, but you can only ask questions and not for a big job to be done. Website development is kind of complex, so that most people have something they are good at and other things they would rather need help for.

Looking forward to talk to you.

[Karl Harris]

This idea could certainly be expanded upon and be applied to computers support or any other kind of support for that matter. The question I would have then is what would be the supply and the demand that would both parties would supply? For example the supplier of the support would also need to be able to receive something that was offered by the other party. If you limit an exchange to just support each participant would have to supply and receive support. Would that work?

One idea that I have that is somewhat similar to this is offering phone support or phone answering services. I have been in many businesses, where the phones are ringing but there are not enough people to answer the phones. Imagine if a network of people that "work" from home could have unanswered calls passed to them to answer. The business could subscribe to this service by offering their products in exchange for CES points that were used to pay for answering their phone calls. If you got a lot of businesses to subscribe to this plan you would have a large variety of products that could be exchanged. I think that this would help businesses save on their expeses, allow people to have their own businesses which they operate from home and promote CES as well.

I work with the Asterisk (open source) phone system already and know the the phone side of this idea will work.

[Sabine Maennel]

I explained my idea above as reply to the comment from Les.

[Dawn Pilatowicz]

A lot of people offer online support - remote support - services. They simply charge for this via the CES by debiting the other person's account - they can then spend their CES income on anything within the community (or any of the other CES communities worldwide). That's the beauty of having a global network of local networks!

[Sabine Maennel]

There is no CES in my area, before I build one up myself, could I become member of an international one, just to try? Would you have any suggestions for me? I am also wondering how much effort it would take to start one myself.

[Nizam]

Hi Sabine,
There is a CES near where I live, but I just noticed the international one too. Did you get a chance to join one? I would like to start one too, a CES, and am wondering what "is necessary"...I think it is worth the effort to join a movement, a global network of like minded people. As the word spreads, people will be glad to see CES all over the place, where one can earn in one network and spend in another.

I just saw on tv this morning that Good Morning America played a segment on Timebanking, which was also featured on Marketplace Public radio.

Nizam
www.legendaryteachers.blogspot.com

[Sabine Maennel]

Hi Nizam,

you are right. I also think it should be a movement. Where I live there is no CES, but it could help too. I really would like to engage more in the Complementary Currency scene, I just got a little discouraged recently and I do not want to start another go it alone project. I am a software engineer, right now active in the Open Source Movement, especially Drupal. I would love to volunteer my time to help with whatever brings CES and timebanks forward, but I need partners who have an idea where to start. Maybe I should contact Tim Jenkins, I am just a little at the moment, due to some missteps that happened in the past when contacting people on that matter. I actually do not know how much time it takes to set up a CES.

[Nizam]

Hi Sabine,
The Timebanking story was very favorable, but it was a brief story, and there was no discussion of a new money system, the way CES is. I think the CES site is great with a vast set of resource links. If only people knew more. In some ways I am trying to figure out what to do as well. Don't feel discouraged, Sabine. We are a social network of people, ideas and resources. I believe the movement will and is growing. I ask myself, do I have what it takes to make it happen? I have to believe that one can take small steps in the direction of your dreams. I wonder if my blog is enough to focus my efforts on, or whether I want the additional role of starting an exchange.

Sometimes, great roles come to us, through the Law of Attraction. A role we were born to fulfill. Trying not to let doubt and fear enter your mind is all about focusing on what will fulfill you. What would you like to do? I too want my next step to count. But so what if I make a mistake. I learn. I readjust and I try something else. Experiment, and know that I can conquer an obstacle. You should contact Tim Jenkin. He has some great articles written, and he has added me as a friend. You should too and share any ideas you have and what you would love to do.

That is cool how you are a software engineer. My sister is an environmental engineer.
I love playing with the computer.

www.legendaryteachers.blogspot.com

[Chris Caston]

Hi Sabine,

I plan to in some way incorporate CES into the business plan for my website Rejuvepedia which is a wiki based project to build and encyclopedia about rejuvenating the human body on and organ by organ and system by system basis.

The web address is:

http://www.rejuvepedia.org

I have also been talking to people at the immortality institute about adopting community currency. We inter operate with other groups as well so there could be a potential for trade using community currency.

I would consider http://www.lifestarinstitute.org/ as another possibility.