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PlaNet: The Open Co-op's dream communications system


Components of PlaNet

  • An easy to use Geographical Information System (GIS) style interface


  • A friendship network based on trust and reputation.


  • Start pages for any individual, group or organisation that displays their chosen news, events and other feeds.


  • An online accounts and payment system featuring conventional and community currencies and a ‘time bank’ for community service. Users have the facility to rate and give feedback to product/service providers.


  • Guides to products and services, showing ratings and reviews (as in Alonovo) of both companies and products.


  • An online 'Skills Exchange’ to find work and workers, which acts as the employment hub of PlaNet. It offers a wide range of skills and offers payment in conventional or local currency, acting as a source of part time jobs and low-cost services for businesses. Ratings and reviews on peoples service maintain confidence, as on eBay.


  • Management software specificaly designed to provide stability and optimisation for all types of businesses and other organisations. Quality is maintained by feedback and peer inspection, not fear of loss of customers.


  • An online Swap Shop (like Freecycle) which lists items that members no longer want and are prepared to barter, some things are even given away and collected from Swap Shop by charity.This encourages the efficient circulation of children's clothes, books, videos, old TVs and all sorts of other products which used to be dumped in landfills. The Swap Shop employs a team to repair faulty and broken goods, It saves people money and helps them consume far fewer precious resources.


Other things we'd like to see included as part of PlaNet

  • Decision making tools
  • Organisational support for the Collaborative Groups
  • Planning and workflow (Project Management) tools
  • Sign-up sheets for rotas (allocation of tasks)
  • Discussion zones (e.g. IRC channels) for instant communication
  • Forums for online help and support.

To comment on this page please join!

Created by: garyalex1876 points  last modification: 10 Mar 07 [21:48:45] by qopi3364 points 

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author message

Anonymous
When will it be finished?
by Anonymous on 05 Jan 05 [20:03:03] (Score:0.59) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
I want it now =)

author message

Anonymous
This looks brilliant!
by Anonymous on 03 Jan 05 [18:20:57] (Score:0.59) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
Hi there, this looks brilliant, as a project itself (PlaNet) and due to the improivements to Tiki (PlaNet is somehow an improved Tiki?)
I'd like to be informed about the evolution of the PlaNet project.
Xavi (UserPagexavidp at tikiwiki.org), and (xavi at moviments.net)

author message
Hey!
by lfagundes on 14 Oct 04 [01:52:42] (Score:0.59) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
That's my picture at orkut :-)
I didn't know this project until now, it rocks!!!
[]s
Luis (batawata at #tikiwiki)




    author message

    olisb2596 points 
    		Re: Hey!
    by olisb on 14 Oct 04 [21:15:18] (Score:0.60) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
    Welcome Luis :) glad u found us! A nice grin will get you anywhere :)


author message

qopi3364 points 
Ethical Company Organisation
by qopi on 04 Oct 04 [13:23:50] (Score:0.59) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
We should defo be linking up with the Ethical Shopping Organisation.

They've recently launched http://www.gooshing.co.uk/ and having been working on an accredation scheme for a while - http://www.thegoodshoppingguide.co.uk/accred.htm

Not to mention their excellent publication, the Good Shopping Guide.

author message

aaronc25 points 
Software Design
by aaronc on 04 Aug 05 [16:56:40] (Score:0.59) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
Hi,

I have been thinking along these lines for some time now and I glad to see how the same ideas pop up all over the place I would very much like to collaborate on such a project. I have a few comments regarding the software design. Please bear in mind that I only have a few screenshots to go on, so I apologize if I am rehashing issues that have already been discussed by the software team.

While it is fine and dandy to develop such a system as a proprietary application, I believe it will be far more beneficial to focus on standards based development. In order to create a sustainable economic network, we are going to need to focus on networking. The PlaNet application and the principles that underly it look great, but it seems like we are trying to develop aan application like Microsoft Word to tackle a problem that demands a solution as robust and flexible as the Internet itself. What has allowed the Internet flourish so extensively is Open Source standards - not Open Source applications. I think that this point is very important here, because it could save us a lot of work in the long run. What I am suggesting is that we a set of Open Source protocols for communication between different local websites. This way an application such as PlaNet can collate the information from different local economies without constraining to use one particular software tool. As second layer, I suggest a set of Open Source libraries for handling the basic replicable tasks of managing such data. These libraries would function just like any programming language extension and could be implemented for many different languages. The third layer would then be implementations of these protocols and libraries such as PlaNet. This way, no particular website/local economy is constrained to using one interface, design of new local economies will be simplified due to the implementation-independent libraries, and an application such as PlaNet can search across all such local economies because they are running a common protocol. The key point here is to isolate the most generalizable tasks.

If one looks at the Internet, one can see that this is how it has grown - first there is a protocol for transferring information across the network (TCP/IP), then there are protocols for more specific types of information (HTTP, SMTP, FTP, etc.), then there are protocols to describe the data (HTML, XML, etc.) and languages to manipulate it and store it (PHP, Perl MySQL, etc.). These pieces of software (which the end user hardly ever sees directly) are the most fundamental and widespread building block of the Internet. While it will be necessary to work on an implementation (such as PlaNet), let's make sure that the fundamentals are taken care of. As a direction to start from - I suggest that we dovetail onto the already widespread XML movement. What about a set of XML datatypes (schemas) for describing the information in a local economy?

Please let me know how I can participate in this project.

Aaron

    author message

    jethro_swan25 points 
    		Re: Software Design
    by jethro_swan on 21 Aug 07 [21:25:56] (Score:0.62) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
    > What has allowed the Internet flourish so extensively is Open Source
    > standards - not Open Source applications. I think that this point is very
    > important here, because it could save us a lot of work in the long run.
    > What I am suggesting is that we a set of Open Source protocols for
    > communication between different local websites. This way an application
    > such as PlaNet can collate the information from different local economies
    > without constraining to use one particular software tool.

    This points overlap considerably with some I was making (in particular earlier this year on the MRS-DEV and Cyfranogi mailing lists).

    With regard to the complementary currency aspects in particular, there's a lot of potentially resuable code already developed - but mostly by individuals or very small, time-constrained teams - so progress is slow, There's some PHP, some Java and some Perl. There even some C. A lot of skill and enthusiasm and good will have gone into these, but they (mostly, anyway) seem to have their demise built in: they can't inter-communicate (easily), and they're not (generally) easily extended or adapted.

    To mobilize the vast pool of available skill and good will, we (imho) need a flexible framework to allow developers to use languages with which they feel comfortable - and which are best suited for a particular purpose. (W.r.t. the latter: while PHP, Python and Ruby may be preferable as hyptertext pre-processors, for statistical processing R or Octave may be preferable). Open standards (protocols, interfaces, structural models, etc.) are far more important than a particular application.

    To me, PlaNet looks like an interesting reference model/prototype for part of a system rather than the core of extensible application.

    > As second layer, I suggest a set of Open Source libraries for handling
    > the basic replicable tasks of managing such data. These libraries would
    > function just like any programming language extension and could be
    > implemented for many different languages.

    I'm glad I'm not the only one arguing for this.

    > The third layer would then be implementations of these protocols and
    > libraries such as PlaNet. This way, no particular website/local economy is
    > constrained to using one interface, design of new local economies will be
    > simplified due to the implementation-independent libraries, and an
    > application such as PlaNet can search across all such local economies
    > because they are running a common protocol. The key point here is to
    > isolate the most generalizable tasks.

    Yes!

    > While it will be necessary to work on an implementation (such as PlaNet),
    > let's make sure that the fundamentals are taken care of. As a direction
    > to start from - I suggest that we dovetail onto the already widespread
    > XML movement. What about a set of XML datatypes (schemas) for
    > describing the information in a local economy?

    Some of the prototypes XML descriptors may already exist.

    There's a lot to learnt from (and interfaced to?) Cyclos, I believe.

    Bye

    John :)


      author message

      aaronc25 points 
      		Re: Re: Software Design
      by aaronc on 17 Dec 07 [21:38:11] (Score:0.60) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
      Hi John,

      Just saw your post. Interesting to see a reply almost 2 yrs later. Well, anyway, if you see this, I'd like to chat. You can send me an email at aaronc542 - at - practivist - dot - org.

      Peace!
      Aaron



author message
sureshb
by sureshb on 26 Jan 05 [18:58:48] (Score:0.59) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
Hi,

PlaNet looks great. It can be evolved into a network of communities
that can break Globalization. Few things I wanted to know :
(1) Under what licesne is this being developed ?
- Can this be published on Home page ?
(2) One suggestion for purchasing - Please try to match an item
that is nearest to the place from where it is being purchased.
We can even add kg-km dimension to all the purchases
made by a person. Our life style should keep this to
a minimum. The next step would be to mention this in
a finished product.

(3) As for the picture of the planet can this be made
transparent ? The front can be where the sun is
currectly. The dark side of planet can under shade.

Best regards,
Suresh.

author message
site/ data mapping display
by LeranSc on 29 Jan 06 [00:02:55] (Score:0.59) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
found this interesting site/data mapping ,
i think this can be usefull for collaborative
user interface as an intuitive process map,
check it out:
http://www.texone.org/tree/tree.php

best,
Leran

author message
Empowering the rural poor for poverty alleviation
by krisdev on 19 Jun 07 [04:28:20] (Score:0.60) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
The site data mapping can be very effectively used for the following rural development initiative:

The Indian Express Tuesday June 12, 2007

Front Page Story

Bihar shows smart card way to cleaner rural job scheme

Jaya Menon
Posted online: Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 0000 hrs

Villagers working under NREG scheme get tamper-proof identity cards through biometric authentication

CHENNAI, JUNE 11: Devanti Devi, Dilip Shaw and Bisuandayal Manjhi of the Gonpura panchayat in Bihar will soon be sporting smart job cards that also double up as ATM/debit cards. They are workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme (NREG) and are among 170 men and women in two villages who would be the first to be registered as NREG members through a foolproof biometric verification device.

For three days from last Tuesday, after the initial hostility and scepticism, villagers in Kurkuri and Dhuparchak Mushahari in Phulwarisharif block of Patna district, gathered at the Panchayat office to place their fingers (all 10) on a Korean-made biometric device. Each finger was registered twice for getting the best value of minutiae counts (the whorls and ridges on a finger).

Then the villagers were photographed and all their personal data was registered on their NREG Card. With the photograph and details scanned and attached to their names, the state created a permanent database on the workers.

After the registration process was completed, the verification was done immediately by entering the NREG ID number, and the beneficiary was asked to place any finger on the biometric device, a small machine that is easily portable to the worksite. The individual's photograph instantly popped up from the database on the computer monitor.

"The technology has been proven through a transparent system. Now we have to link it to our NREG process which will give every member a job card or a smart card and cover entire Bihar," Anup Mukherji, Commissioner of the Rural Development Department, told The Indian Express.

All that a panchayat would need for implementing a fool-proof registration and verification process is a biometric device costing about Rs. 20,000, a laptop computer of about Rs. 25,000, a webcam or a digital camera and a personnel for operating the devices.

With Nitish Kumar keen on making the poverty alleviation programme a success in his state, his government had initially hit on the idea of fingerprinting each of the NREG workers at the time of registration and during payment of their wages. But this was hardly effective since verification of the fingerprints was a mind-boggling process and required a forensic expert to certify each of them.

It was around this time that an article in The Indian Express on January 28 this year on a biometric tracking concept devised by Kris Dev, a Chennai-based e-governance consultant, caught the attention of the Bihar administration. Mukherji got in touch with Kris Dev and asked him to prove to the state government that the technology worked at the ground level. "If your solution does all that the article describes, it would be ideal for Bihar where people find ways to beat all systems," Mukherji told Kris Dev.

Dev went to Patna in February to make a presentation to the Bihar State Electronics Corporation and later at two villages. On June 7, Nitish Kumar watched the demo in the two villages that Kris Dev presented and gave a spot clearance for the concept to be implemented throughout Bihar.

"It is surprising that Bihar should become the first state in India to introduce biometric tracking for NREG," said Dev today.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/33365.html


Forwarded by:

Kris Dev, ICT & e-Gov Consultant, Manthan Awardee 2006 for Creating India's best e-Content in the category 'e-Inclusion & Livelihood' creation. http://ll2b.blogspot.com. +91 98 408 52132.

author message

jason0 points 
still active?
by jason on 20 Aug 09 [14:06:51] (Score:0.60) Vote: 1 2 3 4 5
hi, can anyone let me know what the status is with this project? Id be interested in learning more.

I have written about the development of a cooperative web portal, the idea being to strengthen the cooperative movement with the future aim of developing non-market form of allocation:

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22021


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