Boardmad

Yum ! This imagineering concept converges communications, data, UI and OS into one seamless and beautifully conceived platform…if only one thing comes of this pllleeeeeaaasssssse let it be the semantic, clustered file system?

Well TimeSwappers has been up and running for a couple of weeks now and we’ve had a number of posts in the East Lothian yahoogroups page for TimeSwappers and in parallel with this I’ve been getting the Organisation homepage updated and online too. Latest content is now a detailed breakdown of information required to go ahead and start a local TimeSwappers group for your own community and what some of the pre-requisites for managing it are.

Much as I despise ads on sites I visit I’ve decided to add in some very inocuous Amazon books to the TimeSwappers homepages in order to see if we can develop some click-through revenue and hopefully have the domain pay for itself sometime down the line. If you’re mortally offended by this then by all means use Firefox and the AdBlock extension - I really don’t mind !

In the meantime we’ve also had great coverage from local activity groups in the area and are already heading up our pages on Google and Yahoo. Not too shabby for a couple of weeks online activity !!

Well after little fast work with the old web tools and some graphics shenanigans TimeSwappers.org is now live and online. It’s currently pretty sparse but I’m intending to flesh out content on the barter economy, time-banking, community activism side of things…if you have any links or suggestions don’t be afraid to drop a comment on here.

In the meantime the inaugural East Lothian TimeSwappers group already has a member and I’m hoping grassroots word-of-mouth will help get the message around, after which here’s hoping it goes viral !

For some time now (2 years in July - wow !) I’ve been running and moderating the East Lothian chapter of the FreeCycle organisation. I was looking for a couple of stairgates for No. 1 daughter and managed to secure them from a very nice couple in Edinburgh. Not an issue for me as I worked in Edinburgh at the time, however given I lived fully a 40mile round trip from the collection point I thought there had to be a group in East Lothian…on checking I found there wasn’t and so I kicked it all off.

I think it’s fair to say it’s been a success and shows every sign of continuing on in a similar vein however today I’ve decided to kick off a new project .

Time Swappers will fill another void I’ve noticed is lacking in local communities. Very often I’ve had to reject posts or ask members to re-word their offers as they are offering items for the explicit benefit of others either by monetary gain or by barter, well I’ve decided there has got to be an outlet for this.

The premise is simple. You have a skill, ability or talent that you are willing to trade or barter against something you need or want doing around the home etc, eg you’re a champion cake-baker and you’re living-room needs redecorated. Post to that effect, meet a decorator in your local community with a sweet-tooth, come to an agreement on terms. Job done !!

Time on your hands…go on! Swap it !