hey Lisa + PLUG, Ive worked a lot in this area, mainly with Community Currencies. It's a good thing because you can utilize excess equipment and grows social networks as well, because the transactions build up trust. I had been envisioning a skills exchange for a while, but you need basic nucleus of people who 1) understand the premise, 2) have skills/goods to trade. Lets see how many people are interested. If you've got 10 people, then you can start a trading community. Theres other aspects such as, do you want to implement monetary units etc. So if we can get 10 responses here, we should start a SIG and go from there. Starting your own site may alienate people and to have a good trading community you have to make sure youre as inclusive as possible and everyone agrees the rules are standardized. Political views, religion, wealth status all act as dividers in the trading community, and can stunt it and kill it off. I think the general economic conditions may be right for this. There was for instance a downtown phx currency. Didn't do well because it was a fairly insular group that didnt really adequately instate the currency. Not enough people felt it was reliable and it failed. Its still around and you can buy your coffee with it, but didnt really reach critical mass. They could go for round 2, but the public image will be weak. So the choice to just take initiative not only effected the currency negatively, but the future possibility of one for the area. I personally know the guy who built the LETS / community currency module for Drupal and was involved with it in its early stages. I also know some other major names in this field. Ive worked a lot with the premier open source community currency platform, Cyclos (which is J2EE based). If you're serious about starting a barter community we should move forward with all interested parties. Its critical to get buy in from EVERYONE at all stages. -jmz On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Lisa Kachold wrote: > I will setup a website for it on my drupal on it-clowns.com! > > > On 12/26/09, Joshua Zeidner wrote: >>  I'd be interested in starting a barter network...  jmz >> >> On Sat, Dec 26, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Lisa Kachold >> wrote: >>> Toss it on the junkheap! >>> >>> Can't help you right now! >>> >>> Too bad they don't have a freegeek.org here? >>> >>> On 12/26/09, mike havens wrote: >>>> Hey all; as you may know I am trapped in the world of windows at the >>>> moment >>>> but would like to break free of the M$ shackles. Would anyone happen to >>>> have >>>> a computer on which Linux will work they would be willing to part with? >>>> It >>>> can be a Windows 98 box for all I care! I gave my b rother a ride home >>>> today >>>> and he gave me his non working computer. So I brought it home and plugged >>>> it >>>> in. Nothing! No post... no beep... not even the flicker of a light >>>> indicating life. I'm thinking that it could be the power supply (he was >>>> having power surges) but it might be the 'soft switch' (this computer is >>>> from '99). If it might be power supply and someone has one could I test >>>> out >>>> my theory?.... >>>> specs: >>>> compaq power supply >>>> part number: 124892-001 >>>> input= 115V~/9A, 230V~/5A >>>> output= +5V===/22A, +3.3V===/14A >>>> >>>> -- >>>> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Skype: (623)239-3392 >>> AT&T: (503)754-4452 >>> www.it-clowns.com >>> Only the dead have seen the end of war. -Plato >>> --------------------------------------------------- >>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > > > -- > Skype: (623)239-3392 > AT&T: (503)754-4452 > www.it-clowns.com > Only the dead have seen the end of war. -Plato > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss