We Commune

= Software collaboration platform designed specifically for communes

URL = http://www.wecommune.com/

Description

"The platform's services will allow groups of three or more people to self-organize a "commune" defined by a shared interest or shared zip code, and will provide tools for communicating, organizing and managing projects, and sharing resources.

WeCommune is a networking platform, outfitted with commune-specific project management applications that make it much different from a social networking tool. The software enables common and practical actions – for example, a group of members can organize a buying club, set up a rideshare system, or barter goods and services. And like everything on the web, WeCommune gives users the option to extend their reach: by networking to other communes, groups can make certain assets like bartering and goods-sharing pools more robust.

WeCommune offers the basic platform free to anyone who wants to use it, and even the more complex services are available for a monthly subscription under $2. Smith hopes that by making it affordable she'll enable communes of all sorts – from those who are already sharing, like condo associations and college dorms, to neighborhoods and interest groups." (http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009975.html)

Background

"Smith found herself in China in 1996, a turbulent time characterized by extreme real estate speculation and the burst of a housing bubble. She focused her research on one intriguing social pattern: as groups of rural villagers moved to the cities in droves, they would often move collectively into one concrete apartment building, and re-create the community structure. Smith found the process fascinating. In her words, "They would take these global pieces of architecture as their own, and make them very local again." (Her thesis, To Get Rich is Glorious, is published in the collection Great Leap Forward.)

The community solution, Smith says, "allowed these people not only to be housed, but to be housed in these tight communities where they could flourish…it gave me hope that, in fact, local cultures would be able to fight globalization and stay intact." Now, she says, in the face of the global economic meltdown, she still sees hope for community-based solutions. Ultimately, she thinks, a worldwide trend toward resource-sharing could be just the medicine the economy needs.

It certainly seems like the right platform could touch off a communing revolution." (http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009975.html)