Battered by economic crisis, Greeks turn to barter networks

The Economic Times just wrote a short profile on Volos, Greece who is responding to the country's precarious economic relationship with the EU, by developing alternative economies based on a blend of credit and barter. "Part alternative currency, part barter system, part open-air market...People sign up online and get access to a database that is kind of like a members-only Craigslist. One unit of TEM is equal in value to one euro, and it can be used to exchange good and services. Members start their accounts with zero, and they accrue credit by offering goods and services. They can borrow up to 300 TEMs, but they are expected to repay the loan within a fixed period of time." The NY Times also covered this and added, "Members also receive books of vouchers of the alternative currency itself, which look like gift certificates and are printed with a special seal that makes it difficult to counterfeit. Those vouchers can be used like checks."

The Greek government is taking notice as citizens are designing economic safety nets that remove hard currency from the equation. This isn't an economic secession, but a pragmatic parallel economy based on collaborative behavior to share and exchange necessary services and goods to maintain their lives. Solidarity in the face of adversity seems to be the motivating force for the design of this service system.

Worth noting also is the sense of contribution that has been cited as a reason for participation. One member was quoted, "You have much more than your bank account says. You have your mind and your hands.”

Absolutely fantastic!

ReadyMadePGH: A Local Service for circulating clothing

After four months of research and planning we've prepared our roadmap for ReadyMadePGH. In the coming weeks, we will start prototyping the key features of the touch points; start communicating publicly; and be on the look-out for a storefront that can act as HQ.

ReadyMadePGH is a local system of services, activities, and events to circulate (re-cycle and repurpose) clothing within the local community. This project was inspired from fourteen years of holding small-scale, home-based clothing swaps and considering what impact these social exchanges could have when taken to a larger, community scale. In a nutshell, "We adopt your pre-loved clothes and create opportunities to get them into new, hopeful hands."

The ReadyMadePGH prototype has two over-lapping goals. The first is to understand the needs and behaviors that support high volume circulation of pre-loved consumer goods. The other is to understand how relationships take hold and deepen when we focus on the social interactions which are the backbone of the service. We see this project as both a community building tool as well as pragmatic public service.

When we swap, trade, barter, share clothing, not only do we keep needed and usable resources in play and out of our landfills, but we create real opportunities to have direct, meaningful contact between each other and our communities. Reuse systems rely on collective effort to work and create impact. Because of their collaborative nature, they have an inherent social component (whether explicit or not), which we believe is worth considering as an opportunity to build and deepen community ties. Services traditionally focus on efficiency and effectiveness as measures of success. These are reasonable goals. We want to understand, if we elevate the social aspects of re-use, can we not only increase the efficacy of a service, but also help to establish and deepen relationships throughout the community.

If prototyped in ways that encourage active participation and collaboration, these systems can provide opportunities for meaningful experiences for and between the people that use them. By tapping into and celebrating people’s shared efforts, needs and motivations, we can create social situations out of very functional matters. We can make spaces for people to share and workshop ideas; engage with like-minded people; enhance face-to-face time between makers and consumers; capture stories that celebrate clothing and the people who wear them; and even consider the legacy of what we make, consume, and discard. By prototyping a re-use system that focuses its attention on the social aspects of sharing and exchanging, we believe ReadyMade can help us understand how to design services that not are only efficient and effective but are meaningful and sustainable ways to share ideas and create personal connections within the local community.

Over the past couple of years, a quiet, powerful evolution in collaboration has been happening and gaining momentum throughout our society and economy. We are relearning how to create value out of shared and open resources in ways that balance personal self-interest with the good of the larger community.* Specifically we are seeing a rise in alternative or informal marketplaces (share, barter, swap, trade, etc.) where people are collaborating around the exchange and reuse of personal resources. From Rentoid (tool rental) to airbnb.com (accommodation sharing) to Landshare.com (green space swapping), like-minded people are coming together to meet, exchange and profit from these marketplaces. Motivations vary. Some collaborate for practical reasons such as ridding themselves of unwanted goods or to turn a quick profit. Others participate for socially minded reasons or to support forward thinking practices such as sustainability or community development. With the rise in hyper connectivity, it is becoming easier and faster to connect and organize with people who have similar concerns, goals, and tastes. Given this confluence between our shifting values around sharing resources and the myriad tools we have to connect in real time, the timing feels perfect to explore how to support a system of reuse that at its core focuses on relationship and community building practices.

In two weeks we will hold co-design workshops with the community to develop some tangible ideas for collecting clothing over a 3-4 month period using pop-up, mobile and guerilla tactics.

*"What's Mine Is Yours: A Rise in Collaborative Consumption." Rachel Botsman, Roo Rogers.

Stuff and Culture 2.0

Jude reaching for the stars at Swap Meet 2007, Pittsburgh

For the past 14 years I've been holding an annual swap meet in my home for my female friends. It's a simple and familiar event -- I invite a pile of ladies to come to my house with items they no longer want. They throw their clothes, shoes, scarves, fur bikinis, what-have-you into the pile and then take turns pulling from the loot. Generally, there's 10-15 people and what amounts to about 15-20, 40 gallon bags of clothing and accessories. After all is said and done, everyone walks away with something and I load up the remaining 40% of clothes and haul it off to one of my local second-hand stores.

Since starting in 1998 I've been wondering what this could look like and what effect a swap like this could have if it was organized on a larger, public scale. Fourteen years ago there wasn't yet a term for it, but today I'm asking myself, what could happen if this home spun swap meet evolved into a 2-3 day long, public pop-up clothing exchange.

The days of mass consumption certainly aren't coming to an end. The more interesting observation is that we are now asking the question, "To what end?" It's easy to see that we've entered into a stage where consumers are not solely passive recipients of the current day offering but more and more often, co-creators and full participants in the experience of exchange (book mobiles, DIY events, flea markets, buy/sell exchanges). For many, the focus of shopping is not so much about the acquisition of stuff as it is an act of participation--be it in a community or a philosophy or type of socio-sporting event. Stuff is is still desired but what seems to be trumping the stuff is the process and mindset that gets us into arena where the scoring can happen.

Following will be a little sleuthing to see what others are doing and saying; how they're doing it; and what's been on their minds as they've gone on their way.