Cooperative Public Phone Booth Model
From P2P Foundation
Contents |
Introduction to the Cooperative Public Phone Booth Model
Public access to a phone is important to some communities. For many reasons public access telephones are disappearing. In ages past you might have found a public phone on corner in neighborhoods as well as commercial districts.
This model is being published to draw attention to the fact that people still use phones and not all people have mobile phones. If a community gets together and decides that public phones are important, this model can serve as a starter kit on how to collaboratively provide public phone services in the community. This model was inspired by recent news about citizens of Northlew, Devon, clubbing together to fund a public phone booth. [1]
Meeting a Need, Identifying the Commons
In this model, the following needs can be met:
- Public phone access for anonymous end users (ie. the "public") in a certain area
- A service solution that end users will find valuable; a solution that meets their expectations and needs.
- The group of owners for the Common Resource has zero threshold for membership. Everyone in the geographic community and all workers and users are owners through membership in the network.
The Commons that arise to serve these needs are:
- An agreement between individuals to explore the solution together.
- A membership agreement that defines the group. Members are community residents, workers, and 3rd party service providers. They can collaborate as members to deliver the services and each can member can participate in the governance of the service. See P2P Protocol.
- An agreement about what costs must be recovered from the enterprise, if any, that extends decision making powers into the arena of budgeting
- An agreement to "control" the use of a Common Resource like a phone booth or some other asset that will provide the service itself, as well as any other ancillary services needed for the asset to perform the service, like a phone line subscription from a telecommunications service provider.
Identifying the Network
The members of the network that controls the phone booth will have some qualities in common:
- The understanding of the need for the service provided by the Common Resource
- The willingness to participate in the provision of the solution
- The ability to agree to participate for a certain time period in a certain way, and to abide by or allow for the fact that some members may need rewards in order to perform as aspect of their service
- The certainty that some resources like cash money can be acquired and invested in order to fund the sequestering and initial operation of the Common Resource
- The desire to operate the preferably low maintenance operation of the Common Resource for an extended period
- The inner drive to explain the operation to enough people who share one or more of the previously listed qualities so that the operation can continue indefinitely under the current circumstances, effectively welcoming new leadership who can fill in for you should you desire to move on from active participation in the operation
Fulfilling the Network
If the project is going to succeed many of the qualities above must be part of the network before a boundary around the group, in the form of a membership agreement, is made. Fulfilling the qualities outlined above could be done through the following steps:
- At least one individual writes up a document describing the need and the solution in the form of a Common Resource and invites others to discuss and contribute
- The resulting group meets and grows until the qualities of the network are filled out and sufficiently dense to undertake the making of agreements with confidence
Making an Agreement
The following set of agreements could be created to fulfill the model:
- A membership agreement is formed around the operations and relations of the members forming a P2P Network[2]
- The network as a membership organization forms whatever agreement is necessary with the legal jurisdiction of the activity of the operation in order to allow the network to collaboratively control a Common Resource.
- The network as a legal entity forms an agreement with service providers to acquire control of the Common Resource
- The network as a legal entity drafts an agreement that the public enters into when using the Common Resource
Collaborating Through a Commons
Once the agreements are in place the following collaborations are happening in the context of a commons:
- End users are using a Common Resource to meet their needs, and can join the P2P Network for recourse
- Members of the P2P Network are self-organized to provide services to themselves and the public through the collaborative management of the Common Resource
- Additional networks can engage in collaboration through the extension of access to the Common Resource to a network of networks, expanding services to end users and opportunities for network members
About P2P Network Models
"The Category:P2P Network Models is a part of the P2P Collaboration Stack. The Articles within this category are generalized descriptions that use the P2P Collaboration Stack Architecture, an approach that assumes a Peer-to-Peer approach to problem solving and solutions. Networks described here re-use P2P Collaboration Systems and draw on support from articles in the P2P Concept Groups category." (see P2P Network Models)
More Information
References
- ↑ The Telegraph, Village clubs together to reconnect red phone box which charges 1p per minute, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7916691/Village-clubs-together-to-reconnect-red-phone-box-which-charges-1p-per-minute.html
- ↑ P2P Network
