Humanize the Earth!

Encouraging flow

June 1, 2006 at 1:39 am | In currencies |

In a comment on my post about the Michiana Community Currency Initiative, Doug asked me to write more about “encouraging flow.”

I’m swamped at the moment and so point to come conversations at omidyar.net that are relevant here:

• Facilitating Flow
• More than Software: Social Contracts, Operations and Governance
  

The idea is that incentive systems encourage flows of time, talent and treasure, depending on how they’re designed.  Incentive systems depending large degree on how we count up the points, be they dollars, frequent flyer points, college degrees, karate belts, etc.  Some points are tradeable, others not.  All have their own rules.  We can create whatever rules we want when creating a new point system.  It’s a good idea to think about the kinds of flows we want to encourage and how to create them.  Does a volunteer recognition breakfast encourage more volunteering?  If so, then it’s an effective incentive to encourage the flow we want.