Shire Hours

[jaqeboy]

I need to fix a minor bug concerning the table of intermediaries given when a chain is necessary. It does not give the whole list (as I erroneously said in the presentation) only the trusted friend on your end of the chain is given.  Actually, for privacy it's better that way, so maybe I'll just change it to say "Account" rather than "AccountS"

I think this is better for privacy of all concerned. You only really need to know the ones that you've set up accounts with, not the intermediaries... so, you shouldn't be giving out any info that's not needed!

PS: my account email address is shirehours@ijaq.net.  I'd love to set up accounts with more people - I don't have enough yet!

[Russell Kanning]

Sorry for the late reply, I just got back to Austin and caught some ZZZs.. suffice to say DAMN UNITED AIRLINES SUCKS!!

I don't fly on airlines with no profit motive ... who also fly their planes into sides of buildings.

[Russell Kanning]

I need to fix a minor bug concerning the table of intermediaries given when a chain is necessary. It does not give the whole list (as I erroneously said in the presentation) only the trusted friend on your end of the chain is given.  Actually, for privacy it's better that way, so maybe I'll just change it to say "Account" rather than "AccountS"

I think this is better for privacy of all concerned. You only really need to know the ones that you've set up accounts with, not the intermediaries... so, you shouldn't be giving out any info that's not needed!

I agree.

[Barterer]

Can I pay in Shire Hours??

Sure, just as soon as we find a domain registrar and certificate authority that will take them!  One day my friend, one day. 

Hopefully my home internet connection will be back up this evening so I can connect on my computer with all the goodies (FTP client, server login shell, etc.) and get some little thing done...

[TackleTheWorld]

Ha ha!  Cute swirls in your avatar, Barterer.

[freeman4liberty]

Has it been discussed how shire hours can be used as change in silver transactions. 

I think this could be an extremely useful benefit. 

[jaqeboy]

good point, Freeman. It seems perfect for all the odd, small change amounts. Since it's set up with an exchange rate in there from Shire Hours to silver ounces already, that makes it a natural. It never refers to dollars at all and tries to get us back to thinking in terms of something relatively stable (metal commodity: silver).

[freeman4liberty]

Is there any shire hour specific literature?  If not I think that there needs to be a tri-fold made before the liberty forum.  I'm thinking about making it.

[jaqeboy]

Is there any shire hour specific literature?  If not I think that there needs to be a tri-fold made before the liberty forum.  I'm thinking about making it.

You should talk to barterer, the developer of Shire Hours. I haven't seen him on here lately and haven't talked to him either. He came to Liberty Forum the last time to present at AltExpo on Shire Hours. I bet he'd love to get something out there. I'll talk to him to see if he's coming up again. You can just write him at barterer@shirehours.com, too.

[Fluff and Stuff]

An AP story about time banks that is very popular on yahoo right now.

`Banks' allow members to pay with time, not cash
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100603/ap_on_re_us/us_banking_time

Scores of time banks are being started in hard-hit communities around the nation — and thousands of devotees are helping each other survive tough financial times.

"Even though we were planning to do something small and simple, it takes a lot of money, time and effort. Through time banking, I got a lot of help," said Villacreses, who belongs to Community Exchange, a 10-year-old time bank in Allentown, where 500 members offer everything from electrical work to tai chi.

As the economy recovers amid stubbornly high unemployment, newer banks with names like "Back On Track" have joined Community Exchange in offering an alternative to cash. Time Banks USA, an advocacy group in Washington, says interest in time banking has surged: About 115 now operate nationwide, with 100 more in early stages of development. Membership fluctuates but is believed to total more than 15,000.

This website is down right now but will likely be back up when the story becomes less popular, www.timebanks.org/
It has a forum and even a directory.

[Sam A. Robrin]

"Time banks" sound like a great idea, but when I see the words "Social Justice," proposals to control me are just over the hill.   As to time banks--thanx, but no thanx!

[Russell Kanning]

i want my social justice!
i want it now!

[Fluff and Stuff]

"Time banks" sound like a great idea...

Yeah, time banks seem very, very similar to Shire Hours except for the system is nationally know and used by 1000s of people and effort isn't put into separating it from the government.  So if you are in a time bank system, the government may be able to figure out if you didn't pay income taxes on the barter.

I guess the Shire Hours is just a free market take on the time bank system.  Unfortunately, it hasn't really taken off like the regular time bank system has.

[jaqeboy]

The biggest and most active "time bank" that I know of nearby is in Portland, Maine. They usually have a presence at Common Ground Fair in the fall. They have changed their name, though, to an "hour exchange", because "bank" is one of those words that has a legal meaning that's touchy.

Hour Exchange Portland

The guy I've talked to about it (Terry, a board member, I believe) told me about the need to make the name change to eliminate the word "bank".

Not sure if they (HEP) have an office or if the record-keeping is done at someone's home, or what, but I think an essential difference between them and Shire Hours is that SH is completely computerized and it is on a central server. Ryan Fugger, the developer of Ripple Pay, which Shire Hours is an implementation of, is working on a de-centralized peer-to-peer version. I don't know the status of that, but if we can get barterer back on board this forum, he'd know the answer to that.

The Shire Hours system does not refer at any point to a national currency, but is essentially pegged to silver, 1SH = 0.5 ozAg.

The success of any of these grassroots systems is going to depend on the promotional effort put into it. John B. (barterer) is still out-of-state, so isn't able to promote SH in person here, though he did give a presentation of it at Liberty Forum '09 in Nashua. I've promoted it at an AltExpo community currency all-day workshop in Bristol back in early '09, as well. With the joint effort of a bunch of us, we can make the system more usable by recruiting and training more folks in the use of the system. There was talk of a series of YouTube training videos, and with the addition of links to YT vids, that could be even more workable. These vids could be linked to the FAQ section of the Shire Hours site.

There was a presentationn at AltExpo#5 at Liberty Forum '10 and there will be another talk at AltExpo#6 at PorcFest upcoming about Shire Hours, so be sure to check that out if you're interested. The schedule will be online in a week and a printed schedule will be in each PorcFest info packet.

[jaqeboy]

...The success of any of these grassroots systems is going to depend on the promotional effort put into it...

PS: Portland Hour Exchange did have a moneybags sugar daddy to help finance promotional efforts and they did have a community of co-opers that they overlaid over (existing mailing list). We could learn a lot from them and we could have them in to speak some time.