matslats.net

In 2004, I joined a local LETS scheme, believing this to be an excellent mechanism for building up local economies, reducing dependence on global markets, and meeting some 'real world' people. This resource listing gives a good impression of the energy and diversity these people have.

The scheme was run entirely on paper, with a three page web site and a spreadsheet file on someone's computer at home. Transactions were recorded using checks which were then posted to the accounts manager for entry on the spreadsheet. Every four months the accounts manager did a large print run and mailed everyone the fresh offers directory and fresh contacts directory.

All the other software systems available seemed as interesting and user friendly as a spreadsheet. What was needed is currency exchange as a component of social networking. Unfortunately these projects attract very little government funding as they are seen as undermining both national currencies and globalisation.

The committee had been batting around the idea of building a web system for some time, but there was no software available, they didn't know how to get it made, and they didn't consider that every other LETS scheme had the same problem. I went away and built them some an online trading system, but the software was never deployed.

LETSlink UK was much more receptive. It introduced me to many people with similar concerns.

LETSlink UK wanted to use my software, but there were a few more requirements, before the system could be truly deployable. I set about confirming transactions, adding multiple currencies, pending balances, gift currencies, account limits, before leaving the country for a full time job. They found another programmer who took over where I left off, adding detailed user profiles and elaborating on permissions. After two years of involvement we had done a lot of thinking and programming and a site was launched to serve areas of London without extant trading schemes. This was London-wide green LETS. However the burden of coding and maintaining this application was too much for their resources, and after another year, LETSlink UK deployed another package called LocalExchange for Norwich.

Drupal

By this time I was in Switzerland writing requirements for a Drupal site, and it had become clear that that matsLETS need not have been coded from scratch, but naturally belonged on the Drupal platform. In summer 2008 and build a module for Drupal to do this properly. This can be found at at http://drupal.org/project/marketplace, and the demonstration is at http://marketplace.matslats.net

I am now in looking for communities who want to trial this software, and I hope to make it more widely avaialble, easily configurable and quick to set up in the future.