Open city
For the last couple of years I have been interested in the phenomenon of open source software. Not only the benefit of free software without piracy. More the idea that you share information and knowledge with others, and make it easier for these people to continue on your own work. Lately, after reading Monty’s (the MySQL guy) blog and his new company’s web page, I have started to think about the idea of an open company. A company where everything is shared with the public, from bookkeeping to company secrets. It would also be a company which the employees own together, with the principle of Monty’s new company. Would a company like this work? It would definitely work on some things, but when sharing secrets, the company might dig its own grave.
Today I also started to think about the idea of an open city or an open community. It has been in my mind before. Thoughts like this always come up when I’m on vacation, and I start to wonder what it would take to live in a city with these attributes. Like currently I’m in Kivik in the southern part of Sweden. We are staying at a youth hostel just 50 meters from the ocean, sitting on a balcony in the shadow resting my eyes on the blue water and writing this on my laptop. Couldn’t it always be like this?
The goals I have for this Open Community are the following.
Everybody owns the community together
Just like a condominium. This so everybody takes a common responsibility for the place in which they live. So I guess the community can’t be too large.
Everybody gets their own apartment in the community
Everybody has right to a minimum apartment for free. All electricity, insurance, health, water, phone, tv, internet etc. is free. If somebody like a bigger or fancier home they have to pay a certain amount of community points.
Everybody gets all food for free
The community grow most of the food within the community. To get healthy, ecological food.
Everybody can through a webpage be a part of all decisions in the community
It will be a true democracy, where everybody can be a part of all decisions about the community. All decisions and meetings about the community will be published on the webpage.
Everybody has to help with the community work
Either people are spending time or money on the community to get everything that is free from the community.
Summary
The main idea is a community where people get all their basic needs like home and food for free. To get this they need to spend a certain amount of time on community services, to keep everything running. This time should be kept to a minimum so that all other time the people have can be spent on themselves and things they like.