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Here is a note I sent to another list, the topic has come up here as well and I am interested in your views and comments.
Cheers.
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Subject: The revolution is calling. From:Dmytri Kleiner <dk at telekommunisten.net> Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 03:07:41 +0200 To: IDC list <idc at bbs.thing.net>
Hello, there has been some talk on this list (and elsewhere) recently about Mobile phones, I have mentioned Telekommunisten and what we are doing in brief, but as I have been swamped working on the new product, Dialstation, my comments have been brief.
It has already been noted that the mobile phone is quickly becoming the world's communication device.
- Far more people in the world have access to a mobile phone then to computers or even regular phones.
- Telephone credits, calling cards, and vouchers have become a sort of currency in remote places, being used as a payment currency in lieu of cash, which is often hard to transmit where bank accounts and Internet is scarce.
The Telekommunisten are a small Berlin-based worker-owned company founded by two Canadians with a history of political activism. We have developed a product that we think is consistent with our principals and our understanding of the political situation we find ourselves in.
Why a calling product:
- Communication is important for trans-local communities and the growth of the informal economy. Two emerging trends we believe have the potential to shift power away from transnational corporations and nation states.
- The historic unbundling of the international telephone system along with it's convergence with IP networks allows new calling products to be developed with highly skilled labour and relatively little capital.
Other criteria for Dialstation that make it suitable to the periphery:
- Dialstation can be used with a normal telephone and requires no special software, and perhaps no Internet access.
- Money held in Dialstation accounts can be transfered between accounts using the create voucher feature available to all users, this opens up the possibility for Dialstation to be used where bank accounts and credit cards are scarce to enable both market opportunities and gift economies.
Next steps:
- Test Dialstation under actual international usage and fine-tune origination and termination issues. (and fix bugs of course)
- Extend the voucher system to a full-blown mobile-enabled distributed community currency system in partnership with the Ripplepay project.
- Encourage and support entrepreneurship in making Dialstation vouchers available where paypal and bank transfer are not used.
- Promote usage of Dialstation generally.
If anybody has any questions, please contact us. And please try Dialstation.
Regards, Dmytri Kleiner
Telekommunisten c/o bootlab, Berlin
http://www.telekommunisten.net