The Money Crunch: Complementary Currency Solutions, Naropa University/Access Foundation, March, 19-21, 2004 Report on Complementary Currency Innovations

The Money Crunch: Complementary Currency Solutions, Naropa University/Access Foundation, March, 19-21, 2004

Report on Complementary Currency Innovations from the Field

Gilson [email protected]


The City of Knowledge is a research project founded in 2001 at the Institute of Advanced Studies of the

University of São Paulo (IEA-USP), Brazil.

Envisioned as a living network, it could be described as a “digital city” built by “communities of practice” that

develop new space-time frameworks for the production of cultural identities and collective intelligence.

In an optimistic scenario, the democratization of knowledge creating networks could be the foundation

for a developmental “leap”, especially through the improvement of human development indicators.


The Mission of the City of Knowledge at the University of São Paulo is to promote research and development that favor public, community or cooperative use of new digital information and communication technologies in Brazil.

See the position paper "Knowledge City: a Digital Knowware"

presented in the "development by design“workshop , MIT/ThinkCycle project.

http://www.thinkcycle.org/tc-filesystem/?folder_id=13025


USP •founded in 1934 in a historical period marked by important social, political and cultural transformations by decision of the Governor of São Paulo,• one of its intellectual mentors was Júlio Mesquita Filho, editor-in-chief of the O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper,•offers 617 courses, 130 of which are undergraduate courses attended by approximately 45,000 students, and 487 are graduate courses (including 257 for masters' and 230 for doctors' degrees). USP confers an average of 4,600 bachelor or equivalent diplomas each year and 40% of all PhDs in Brazil, • the university community comprises 4,705 teachers and 14,659 other employees.



The City of Knowledge proposes a collective, nation-wide sensitization, mobilization and consultation on the design and workings of the future

society (already materializing in the 21st century) through hands-on networked action-research projects.

This process will involve groups from all levels and ranks, resembling in its

form a network that formally mutates according to waves of social and institutional innovation.

It is rather a network of networks, whose development is induced by an agenda in 2004-2006 that focuses on 3 issues: complementary currencies, open source software and cultural change in favor of Brazilian expressions

of culture, education, technology and knowledge.


Ministry of Communications

Ministry of Science and Technology

Ministry of Social Development

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Planning

Ministry of Defence

Civil House – ITI

Natl. Council of Social and Economic Development – “ Concertartion”




Cultural Money for workshops, telecenter

G$(garatuis)

New habits

Lifelong learning

New ProductsServices




Planning

Telecenter

Workshops


Activities in 2004

•Telecenter in Sibauma•Second round of workshops•Telecenter in the Baturite’•Central Bank and other StateFinancial institutions: persuasionand monitoring•SPiN: network mills in underservedcommunities in other regions•Intl. Conference

Documents

The Money Crunch: Complementary Currency Solutions, Naropa University/Access Foundation, March, 19-21, 2004 Report on Complementary Currency Innovations