Six Capitals

Dear Rory,
You cannot resist turning the handle of the jargon grinder and the putting all this down on spaghetti diagrams. Economy of terms and plain language is an ideal, though sometimes difficult when trying to convey ideas and practices beyond accepted norms.
Saying this my hunch if that
multi -holder coops have potential, if they can be worked into viable forms.

I
Re IT stuff, though disruptive I sometimes think that some forget the conventional background economy, engineering, agriculture, building and so on.
From what I understand you have thought about coop patent trusts , founders, members and so on. How commons can be held within boundaries and cared by a stewardship culture and practice, all V interesting.

best wishes

aw

The development of FairShares is now on different levels. I had a meeting with one of the model's ardent supporters a talented entrepreneur who is setting up not one but hundreds of FairShares new businesses. Listening to the way he sold FairShares to another business person, no mention of changing society or challenging inequality. It was all about the business strengths of the model. Anyway he has agreed to be interviewed and I shall be publishing the video soon

Cliff - I'd love to hear any summary of this you're able to offer soon. I'm facing some (reasonable) challenges to our adoption of a coop structure and, while not all FairShares enterprises are coops, I'm sure that the arguments made by this individual would be helpful as I try to make a case that our structure will increase our ability to execute and succeed in the long-term.

Thanks!

Álvaro Solache

[email protected]
@asolache
00 34 629 86 77 15

The discussion of capitals (however many there are) is necessary for practitioners in FairShares Labs. We ask them to consider the wealth they are depleting and creating as part of the enterprise development process, and to do so in terms of these six capitals. It will evolve - but as a starting point - getting anyone creating a FairShares enterprise to think about wealth in a new way is important. These six capitals are the ones chosen by the Integrated Reporting Group (the group most likely to influence triple-bottom-line accounting in the future). So, it is not our jargon - it is our response. I do, however, think it is a good development to respond positively to developments in 'Integrated Accounting' so we can have meaningful debates about:

"What is wealth?"

"How can we create it?"

without it descending into a discussion about money.

I actually think this makes a great addition to the social audit process - asking workers, investors, customers - what wealth do they is being created? How is it being shared etc...

Cliff

Cliff Southcombe

Great!

You can ask them face to face, or remotely using the Advanced Wealth Audit (www.fairshares.coop/advanced-wealth-audit/ ( http://www.fairshares.coop/advanced-wealth-audit/ )).

Best
Rory

Find out more about Rory at http://www.roryridleyduff.info

Find out more about the FairShares Model at: http://www.fairshares.coop

Rory Ridley-Duff

+44(0)7450 948800

[email protected]
@roryridleyduff

I shall get For Good Causes to try it out

Cliff

Cliff Southcombe

My expertise is in the emerging field of Legal Design - based on decades of experience of practical insolvency, corporate, financial services, market regulation & development and forensice accounting. Post the 2008 financial crisis at the request of Lord Reid (then Minister of Defence) I've been researching the institutions & instruments necessary for a resilient economy & society as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategy, Resilience & Security of University College London.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isrs/about/fellows/ChrisCook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl8_tCa7AtA

I've been following the interesting & impressive work of Fairshares for some time.
My particular interest at the moment is not so much the institutions (Companies, States, Partnerships, Banks, EU, UN, WTO etc) which are analogous to the Rules of the Game, but the instruments (eg equity, debt and so on) which are analogous to the bats & balls.

It seems to me that we in the community/social enterprise sector are currently attempting to play soccer with a rugby ball with the erratic results to be expected.

However, I have observed that the new breed of (intrinsically worthless) Coins & the fundamentally flawed Blockchain protocol which together comprise Fintech 1.0 has introduced a new and disruptive element to the financial sector.

My former colleagues in the Belly of the Beast (ie the City) have been shocked to see
how massive amounts of risk capital could be raised not dissimilarly to the DotCom bubble but outside the conventional City debt/shares paradigm. Naturally they have jumped on the bandwagon and collapse of the Fintech bubble is just a matter of time. However, it seems that as with the Dot Com bubble, the innovation of the Fintech 1.0 first wave will enable a Fintech 2.0 as a second 'adjacent possible' wave which actually works in the real world.

Now, a Coin is an instrument which is complementary to conventional capital.
In the social enterprise sector while HullCoin is an interesting - indeed admirable -experiment I do not believe that it is viable based on BlockChain and Coins-as-Proofs in the same way that Transition Pounds (backed 100% by £ sterling), LETS schemes or even Time Banks can be viable without subsidy in one form or another.

However, I believe that if Coins represent promises/credits returnable in payment for future utility (eg land use, energy use IP use) then within the correct multi-stakeholder protocol (probably an unlimited Company without share capital) it will be possible to mobilise underutilised community resources simply & effectively.

I'm working on a few proofs of concept, of which an example of the unique UK institution of the Public House is one.

If anyone is interested in meeting to discuss collaboration on a proof of concept Coin 2.0 initiative then I think the Zeitgeist is still positive.

Chris Cook
[email protected]

(44) 7770 843 087

This article of mine on Fintech 2.0 gives some background for anyone interested

https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/fintech-2-0/2016/10/06

Thoughtful! @graham2 @grahamboyd @christophersorensh Want to engage? The FairShares option for an unlimited company without share capital is:

https://sites.google.com/view/fairsharesrules/associations

Hope you get traction.