Open city
23 Jul 2010

For the last couple of years I have been interested in the phenomena of open source software. Not just the thing that you get free software without pirating. More the idea that you share information and knowledge with others, and make it easier for these people to continue on your own work. Lately after reading on Montys (The mysql guy) blog and his new companies web page. I have started to think about the idea about an open company. A company where everything is shared with the public, all from the bookkeeping to all company secrets. It would also be a company which the employees own together, with the principle of Montys new company. Would a company like this work? It would definitively work on some things, but when sharing secrets, the company might dig it’s own grave.

Today I also started to think about the idea of an open city or an open community. Ok it has been in my mind before. Thoughts like this always comes up when I’m on vacation. And starts to wounder what would it take to live in a city with these attributes. Like currently I’m in Kiwik in the southern part of Sweden. We are staying at a youth hostel just 50 meters from the ocean, sitting on a balcony in the shadow resting my eyes on the blue water and writing this on my laptop. Couldn’t it always be like this?

The goals I have about this Open Community is the following.

Everybody owns the community together.

Just like a condominium. This so everybody takes a common responsibility for the place in which they live. So I guess the community can’t be to large.

Everybody gets their own apartment in the community.

Everybody has right to a minimum apartment for free. All electricity, insurance, heath, water, phone, tv, internet etc. is free. If somebody like a bigger or fancier home they have to pay a certain amount of community points.

Everybody gets all food for free.

The community grow most of the food within the community. To get healthy, ecological food.

Everybody can through a webpage be a part of all decisions in the community.

It will be a true democracy, where everybody can be a part of all decisions about the community. All decisions and meetings about the community will be published on the webpage.

Everybody has to help with the community work.

Either people are spending time or money on the community to get everything that is free from the community.

Summary

The main idea is a community where people get all their basic needs like home and food for free. To get this they need to spend a certain amount of time on community services, to keep everything running. This time should be kept to a minimum so that all other time the people have, can be spend on themselves and things they like.