Jules @afewbugs@librem.one

Continuing down the thought thread of connecting ecovillages or federated communities into a common tech stack. This time about #libraryeconomy and #librarysocialism, and how communities might be able to request and offer goods and services without the need for monetary exchange, and in a way that kinda follows a library of everything approach to things.

A big thing I see in subverting capitalism, and building new forms of living and organizing, is by decommodifying as much as we can. A great way to do that is to look at meeting people's basic needs, and having a way for people to both ask for something, and give something, without paying money. I guess it comes down to social capital, but I don't really like that term, and it fits better with the term gift economy anyways. In some forms it can be mutual aid, other times it can just be meeting a need when it comes up.

The concrete "how" on doing this might look like timebanks. I really like the software from timebanks.org though it doesn't have a self host option and requires an internet connection. Locally to me https://denton.timebanks.org is a great example where people can offer things, and request things as well. So it can be a very quick way of seeing the needs of people, and trying to meet those needs.

In terms of lending libraries, there isn't anything so far that I found that is free and open source that can handle things well. Most of the FOSS stuff is related to libraries. https://koha-community.org/ is a good example of this. I wish there was a way to have a library of things as well (though I guess with some finessing you could make it work)

I think it would be awesome to have the two combined, in the way that timebanks works, where people can request and offer things, combined with a more concrete way of tracking what has been lent to who.

Different communities could have their own internal sharing sites, on their own internal intranet-networks. But also they can connect, federate or be interoperable with other communities as a whole. So if a request in the community net is there, an offer can be found to meet that need. That way each community maintains their autonomy, while also being well-connected with the world at large and able to help move resources around. It would be great to have something that combines these ideas together in one place to make it alot easier, and also have it free and open source, so anyone can use it.

It's the start of an idea at least. It might be a good place to start for a real world #solarpunk experiment, of federated, interconnected communities that use technology as a way to connect with others, while organizing things horizontally and equitably, while maintaining a balance with the ecosystem by making bioregional+permaculture+indegenous knowledge led ecovillages.

One of the nicest things about #Shetland winters is when the mirrie dancers appear. Mirr means blur in Shetland #dialect. Tonight as I watched the #AuroraBorealis , it really did appear like dancing figures, the speed of their movement obscuring their edges as they merged with the darkness #nature #Scotland #aurora

“The End Fuel Poverty Coalition is advising customers who are contacted by their energy supplier about a prepayment meter installation to talk to the Good Law Project, which is looking to challenge the transfers.” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/good-law-project-simon-francis-ofgem-government-b2234879.html

Never forget, when you’re being pressured to prove that safe bike-lanes or pedestrian crossings across fundamentally unsafe conditions are ‘needed,’ it's hard to justify a bridge by the number of people swimming across a raging, crocodile-filled river.

#urbanism #cities #streets #streetsforpeople #urbanplanning #transportation #bikes #walking

The László Nagy laboratory has published a beautiful and detailed fungal tree of life of microscopic diversity. You can Download it in high resolution!!!

#micology #biology #treeoflife #mondaymood #biodiversity #microscopic_life #microscopic #fungal #fungalturn

Link: http://group.szbk.u-szeged.hu/sysbiol/nagy-laszlo-lab-poster.html

Nobody should ever go hungry.

Ever.

We have enough food to feed every single person.

The reason they don't have that food is because somebody decides they don't deserve it.

It also angers me that politicians spend their time vilifying vulnerable people, exemplifying greed while blaming those in poverty for their own situation, indulging in selfish and self-serving politics, and showing not a single bit of care for people who are vulnerable and who struggle for money.

The thing lacking from the #UKGovernment is kindness and empathy and my personal opinion is that this shows a fundamental lack of empathy and compassion in Tory MPs.

Reading this article about Morrison's #AskForHenry scheme where anybody can ask discretely for a warm meal at no charge and it brought me to tears. I think in part because it breaks my heart that some people don't have access to warm and healthy meals, in part because of the cruel environment that creates this situation, and in part because of the dignified way that people are helped with this.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/asked-henry-morrisons-caf-left-25608187

OK, so this is interesting. Some major organizations have now set up their own Mastodon instances:

European Union: EU Voice >>> https://social.network.europa.eu/explore
German gov: Explore social.bund.de >>> https://social.bund.de/explore
Internet Archive: Explore Internet Archive >>> https://mastodon.archive.org/explore

#twittermigration #mastodon #fediverse #governmentInstance
@mastodonmigration

The notion that we need more growth (more aggregate production) in order to fund the renewable transition is absurd. This "logic" boils down to saying we need to increase production of stuff we probably *don't* need in order to increase production of stuff we obviously *do* need.

Cricut cutting machines, ubiquitous in schools, libraries and makerspaces, can be used to make embossed or stenciled tactile graphics. A Braille embosser costs at least $1500 — Cricuts cost a fifth of that or less. Today I learned that I can handle the hardware and make great stencils: all that holds a Blind maker back is a set of unlabeled controls in the software. Does anyone know somebody at Cricut I could talk to about making the interface more accessible? Boosters beloved on this one!

Felt toot, might delete later.

So, the European Union has set up its own Mastodon instance, EU Voice, as an official channel/platform for all its many institutions - what a great initiative https://social.network.europa.eu/about
#TwitterMigration #europe #Diplomacy #Transparency