ecobasa is a directory of sustainable communities, eco-villages and individuals looking for alternative ways of living. In this network you can communicate with existing communities or find the right people and resources to form a new communitiy. You can organize a stay in a community - for your help you get food, accommodation and amazing learning opportunities.
ecobasa offers the needed communication and collaboration technology for the free exchange of experiences, knowledge, skills, services and resources
All members offer their gifts without expectation of a direct return. Their wishes may be fulfilled by another member. Positive references build trust between the users of the network. Responsible relationships emerge where people begin to understand each others needs and qualities.
Now you can sign up and check out the public beta (give us feedback!)
We are a dedicated team working for the vision of a gift economy network that connects people and sustainable communities - A network that connects needs with available gifts, facilitating the exchange of knowledge, services and resources. ecobasa started in 2011. In 2014 we relaunched the platform and co-organized many Community-Tours and Communities-Convergences since then, all based on gift-economy. Our goal for the next year is to become self-sustainable and for this step we need your support! In 2016 we:
* trained Gift-Ambassadors to bring gift-economy into communities. Their role is to update the community profiles, hosting gift-circles in the community, to connect to each other and to coordinate gifts from other communities in this network.
* continued the development of the platform: Now there is a newsstream from communities, community-tours and the ecobasa network and a personal wishlist for every member of ecobasa.org
* received the exceptional start-green award for our new perspectives in our gift-economy business plan :)
* offered support for communities and pioneers to create accounts so they can find out about each other's offers and needs
* strengthened the collaboration with existing networks, like GEN, ic.org, NuMundo and existing Community-Tours
* grew the network by helping the organization of community-tours in south-america and communities convergences.
* shared the gift of giving in different events and workshops. Book us now!
Please support us to continue our work! Invest in a better future now with a small donation On Heroes & Friends you can see how to support us with your time and ressources and there you can support us by sharing posts on facebook!
Happy giving!
The community-tours empower an alternative economy based on trust and sharing. Start travelling between ecovillages and other sustainable communities across the planet and experience sustainable ways of living through volunteering. By bringing spare resources and experts from one community to the next place where they are needed, we grow the gift-economy network together! Most of us are volunteering, this is our gift to the network. Unfortunately we still have some bills to pay. This networks existence depends on contributions and small monetary gifts from you!We believe that the world can be different. For every problem, there is a solution. For every need, there is an offer. We just need to make the right connections. There are many communities and creative initiatives that offer sustainable solutions for the greatest challanges we face today and reshape our reality. They all generate wealth beyond money and create a system that is highly adaptable to our dynamic needs and resources. Imagine all these initiatives and people working together, sharing their knowledge and resources, creating a new, life-affirming economy! Valuing relationships, ressources and responsability a gift-economy is much more sustainable to grow independent communities. There is no debt, just surplus. The coordination of ressources, people and knowledge needs the appropriate technology to be effective and accesible.
We at ecobasa are working for this vision. By connecting people and sustainable communities in a global gift-economy network we facilitate the communication and exchange of experiences, knowledges, services and resources. ecobasa provides an online platform and other tools that activate the power of a network and brings together offers and needs on a gift-economy basis, to create sustainable win-win relationships. By participating in this network, our movement can grow into a true alternative to our current global exploiting capitalistic system!
We create opportunities where people can meet to share and experience the power of a gift economy:
ecobasa online platform: Members can list theirs skils and interests and communities have a wishlist on their profiles, so they can find matches for their needs.
Community-Tours: Traveling groups visit ecovillages and other sustainable communities worldwide, bring products, resources and experts to help them with their projects. The hosting communities offer food, accommodation and a great learning experience! ecobasa coordinates the flow of gifts and makes shure that the right people go to the right places in the right time. Here you can check out the recent tours
Communities-Convergences: Since last year we've been co-organising Communities Convergences: one week long networking events, entirely based on gift-economy that connect people and communities to create regional networks.
These convergences take place in communities for them to benefit: Every day there are two hours collective working time in the schedule where all participants build and work for the community - in one week, a lot can be done with 100 people!
Gift economy auctions: a fun and practical way to find answers to your wishes by activating the group's untapped resources.
With this platform, the gift caravans and convergences can be self-organized all around the world and the gift-economy network is beeing created.
* Find and visit communities
* Create and join Community-Tours
* Share your skills and learn new ones
* Exchange things and leave references
* Write Messages to other Pioneers, Communities and entire Community-Tours
* Project management tools - to organize your community, tour, and convergence
Blog
Route Planner
Calendar
Etherpads
ToDos
Internal News Streams
Discussions/Polls
and of course: to get support for your community and tour through your profile and the convergences!
The idea for this project was born four years ago. Since 1 year we are a dedicated team of people now who meet regularly in Berlin. We have a lot of creative ideas about how to grow the network online and offline, locally and internationally. We invest our time, knowledge and energy on a voluntary basis and we see this as our gift, our contribution to the world. (But gifts are welcome back of course :)
Our goal for next year is to become self-sustainable through the members of the platform.
Develop the online platform until we have a beta version DONE!
Offer support for communities and pioneers to create accounts so people can find out about each other's offers and needs
Strengthen the collaboration with existing networks, like GEN, ic.org, NuMundo and caravans like Comun-Tierra
Grow the network by helping the organization of Community-Tours and Communities-Convergences.
Host a hackathon for programmers as a first step towards making an open-source community
Share the gift of giving in different events
Only together we can take our work to the next level!
If you see the value in our work, this is your chance to be part of it.
Join the gift economy movement!
Hopefully more and more people realize that the way the privileged western mainstream society is living, is creating pollution, poverty, artificial dependency and fear. We live in a stable global eco-system. We are dependent on this system as it supplies us with air, water, land and food. Not yet fully understanding this complex system, we act like we would own it in stupid, unsustainable ways, that damage its current state and therefor ourselves within it. As the nature of complex systems is always looking for stability there are mechanisms sustaining it. As we as human race are mainly acting like parasites we should be able to see the effects of that behaviour soon.
There are millions of people around the world who are actively searching for alternatives, likeminded people and knowledge how to live an eco-sustainable life. More and more feel that its time to change their own life towards an environment caring way. The awareness spreads and the knowledge is already there. What lacks this movement, is the right tools for accessing knowledge, connect with other people to join forces and organize the eco-revolution. Facebook will just not let you do that, as well as any product of exploit-capitalistic structures. What we need is a system that is structured differently from its core - that is ecobasa.org
In our research we found that self sustaining micro-economies like ecovillages would be a good alternative against globalized consumerism. Living in sustainable communities converts our footprints into something creative that make the world a better place.
As this lifestyle also spreads the awareness of where the stuff that we eat and heat comes from and what it actually needs to produce what we consume, it should naturally lead to a humble way of simple living. Living close to nature, perceiving its rhythms and learning to respect and understand our surrounding is essential to live in harmony with the local/global eco-system. Also living close to each other with a sense of community is not just good for mental health, but also offers support for the individual when in need and enables greater resilience. If we manage to life naturaly like a tree in a forrest, there is no waste, everything is useful for somebody else. The only problem is, that we life seperated, like stones in a desert. In our culture there is no inspiration and guidance, even no hope on how to do it different.
What has been missing was an intelligent interactive directory of sustainable communities and ecovillages, already established or under construction, that can accomodate, teach, and employ people looking for these opportunities to create win-win opportunities between communities and individuals interested in alternative ways of living.
The ecobasa network supplies the resources for communication, cooperation and organizing resources for eco-sustainable villages, communities, projects, organizations and events working towards sustainability. It offers a portal where people can have a look inside sustainable projects, how it feels to live there and how this way of life actually works.
It is actually not the planet that is waiting to be saved, as it will maintain its own stability. It is our very own "world", existing only inside of our own minds, that needs to be saved, before we extinct our species! There are people who are quite close to living in peace with nature, each other and themselves. For them ecobasa can help to further enhance their living standard. For those who don't feel exactly happy about their way of living it provides the chance to see and live alternatives. The only remaining problem still is: YOU NEED TO DO IT. So join our network, use it and get away from the computer again quickly ;)
Sincerely yours, the gift-network
Remember: Communication is the most important key to freedom, peace and happiness
StartGreen Award
Communities Convergence, ecobasa.org and the Community-Tours joined forces for a common vision of a global Gift Economy Network for communities, organizations and people interested in the topic of eco-social sustainability.
We are striving for a healthy and sustainble society that can be a realistic alternative to the mainstream. We think that open communities that are interconnected in a larger network, can be this alternative. These communities form an ecosystem that provides plenty of solutions and resources. In this way the network serves a broad spectrum of human, social and environmental needs. We believe in the sustainability of gift-economy, because it creates supportive relationships, responsability, and a culture of trust and support. This culture alone would make the world a better place.
We pioneer cultural transformation towards a healthy and sustainable human society by providing open-source blueprints for:
An online platform for collaboration and gift-economy exchange aroun sustainable ways of living (ecobasa.org)
Community-Tours (Community gift-exchange routes)
Communities Convergences (Regional networking meetings)
Community Design Blueprints, so they can become open network hubs that benefit from the network as much as possible
By doing this we are creating a global gift economy network that is decentralized, grass-roots, sharing openly and transparently solutions and resources, and is based on supportive relationships between people and projects locally. We develop scripts for interaction that enable gift-economy relationships to emerge. We wish to be both stewards and beneficiaries of this network and to empower people and projects to reach their full potential by co-creating it together.
Empower Event participants and members of our platform and network to develope themselves further. We wish to cultivate personal autonomy and self-reliance as well as collaboration and community spirit.
We cultivate collaboration between working groups and teams through tools of social interaction, organization, online collaboration and team building. In this way people can realize more than they could do on their own – effectively, healthy and easily.
We support communities with holistic worldviews to be more sustainable and to be integrated into our network, to be supported.
Provide the innitial dynamics, infrastructure and tools for Bio-regional networks to be self-organized by local communities and organizations.
Embedding them in an international network and online community, so they can exchange and support each other on regional and global levels. With online tools we want to empower them to make collective decision making, collaboration and organization on more complex issues that also affect people that can not talk to each other directly.
We not only want to create this on our own within our growing network, but we are also looking for potential partners and partner organizations that follow the same aims, to collaborate and join forces.
We are are achieving our aims by growing structures and tools in feedback loops.
We build up an umbrella organization based on a sociocracy and fractal organizational design. This empowers local initiative for:
Support the creation of open collaboration hubs for a network of networks.
These intentional communities are more than closed ecovillages – they are confederations or community clusters supporting a central space, or ‘hub’, that offers travellers, active groups, forming groups, networks and professionals a space to live, work, research, host events, heal, interconnect and co-create. For that we are creating open-source blueprints and guidelines that help them to hold this role.
Empowering and establishing ‘gift economy ambassadors’ as a role within communities and organizations to handle the communication, update the informations and manage the exchanges with a gift-economy network.
Supporting the emergence of a network of travelling groups and caravans that enable the real inteconnectedness of the movement through mobility, cross-pollination, resource exchange, knowledge transfer and building of personal relationships.
Communities Convergences for bioregional and thematic network building. They are collectively designed to promote collaboration and mutual support. They match needs with available offers.
Collecting and integrating knowledge, experience and tools for internal and external collaboration for communities, organizations and networks based on the values of eco-sustainability. Such as:
Community building, communication, collective design, sociocracy and organizational design, project design and management, personal development
To co-create a network with potential partner projects, organizations and networks that are collaborating for common goals and values.
Every person agrees to be solely responsable for defining the amount of energy and time he or she brings in as well as deciding on the roles and tasks he or she undertakes. He or she is responsable for his or her own personal development, energy level and for fulfilling whatever commitments were given. Any commitment to take a task or role should be communicated transparently to those whose tasks and roles are significantly connected. If a commitment can not be carried out in the form or at the time agreed with others this should also be communicated in good time. If there are obstacles the responsable person will tell others about it and ask for help. Furthermore everyone is responsable for the people around them and the place where they are. Each person shall be supportive of others on personal and work issues to the extent of self responsible capacity. Feedback should be constructive and supportive and objections reasonable. Non-violence in communication and action as well as respect and empathy for self and others are an agreed collective practice. We all are also responsable for the environment and Nature
Any co-creator should have access to all information about the project and how to use the organizational structure and archive about the activity of any circle and about activity that afects his own. Co-werkers Co-workers are responsable for making this possible and effective. Transparency can be of needs, budget, feelings, information etc.
A willingness to be approachable and to listen objectively: To consider alternatives and to try to include all healthy interests involved. It also refers to receiving and giving feedback: Open for change, for new people, spontaneous impulses and critique.
We practice awareness and fair use of different types of power such as levels of skills, abilities, influence, status, roles, as well as sex, age, personal experience, tolerance to stress, energy levels and others.
Collaboration is the art of many working together as One. It differs from cooperation. Cooperation is a voluntary arrangement in which you engage with others in a mutually beneficial exchange. Collaboration entails removing the personal self from the equation and allowing the Spirit to flow through you so that the Spirit guides the group’s activities.
The Gift-Economy-Network is a fractal organization.
This means that semi-autonomous groups/circles are collaborating by creating additional circles for types of work that they all need in order to save resources and energy and to get better results by exchanging experience and combining capacity. Every circle can freely form sub-circles.
The ‘operating system’ used to animate the fractal organizational structure is Sociocracy 3.0/Dynamic Governance.
The project groups are: ecobasa, Community-Tours, Communities-Convergence, (Tour Groups + Convergence Groups)
General Work-groups: Fundraising, Outreach, Membership and Hearts and Souls
Overall Coordination is possible through the Strategy and Operation circle which is formed by Operations coordinators and preferably also elected representatives from all circles.
Other communities and organizations can plug into the Gift Economy Network by designated Gift Economy Ambassadors that may join circles of the fractal organization and represent their home-group in the Convergences, Community-Tours and the online platform ecobasa.
Contact us to find out more.
Eurotopia Book, Directory of Intentional Communities and Ecovillages in Europe
http://www.heroesandfriends.com/
https://www.beagift.net/ Volunteering
http://www.appropedia.org/ - Appropedia is the largest wiki for collaborative solutions in sustainability, appropriate technology, poverty reduction, and permaculture.
http://solution.ecovillage.org/ - Solutions from the ecovillage network
Find a volunteering opportunity that fits your interests and skills. Learn new skills and collect heart-opening experiences. Collect good references as recommendations for your next visit or new home.
Communities can exchange gifts with your help: if you visit more than one community in a row, you can take things along and connect them. You can find many ways to support the communities you want to visit on their profiles, surprise them with a nice gift!
Meet amazing people, share your skills with your tour mates and become an amazing team that can create gift-economy miracles together like building houses, gardens or produce a great documentary!
The community-tours empower an alternative economy based on trust and sharing. Travelling between ecovillages and other sustainable communities across Europe we connect them in a global gift-economy network. Doing this, we bring products, experts and spare ressources from one community to the next place where they are needed. Like this, the Community-Tours work like the logistic system, transporting all the needs between the communities! And the best thing: they are driving anyway because they want to visit communties - no extra fuels! Join us, create a tour or join one. Like this you can grow and co-create the network with us!
You can use this website to organize a tour yourself, find people to take with you, that match your skills and interests and those of the places you want to visit. You can also find people that have buses to join your tour! You can already see the communities that want to be visited, see what they need and find something to offer for your stay. You will get food and accommodation and a good learning experience! On their profiles you can see what they need. It is always good to ask for more, as they for shure need more and their profile is out of date ;)
Then you can use our powerful search for everything to find experts, places, ressources, caravans, events and everything the community needs! Then you can contact the related people and places and visit them on your journey to finally fulfill the whishes of the communities. Like this we create the sustainable gift-network!
You can ask more people and communities to join our network, so we can find the right people and things, when we need them!
This is how you can take part in the Community-Tours as a pioneer of gift-economy, growing the network with us:
First you need to sign-up and fill out some information. That is your first and most important input in the gift-economy network. Only then we can see what you want and need and what you have to offer. Without this information we can not make the magic happen :) Just think about what you have to offer to a community or other people that they could find useful. Of course this could be gardening or natural building, but also filmmaking and graphic design are needed!
If you have a bus available to take on the tour, please add it to your profile! If you don't have a bus, you can check the buses and their owners, to see if you would like to join one of them, because you have matching interests, or they have some skills that you would like to learn or they just seem like a nice company!
Register a Community-Tour or join an existing Tour
Have a look on the map to look for communities and projects that registered already and are waiting for visitors.
We are growing this network alltogether, so we need to contact communities outside of this website and ask them if they want to try some gift-economy and be visited by you or someone else in the future!
If you already have a community or an eco-sustainable social project in mind that you would like to visit and that could be interested to try out a little gift-economy, please contact them on your own and ask if they want to take part in this project and sign-up here.
If you need inspiration what communities you could visit, that are not on this website yet, check out the eurotopia book or have a look here:
http://gen-europe.org/ecovillages/europe-map/index.htm
http://www.ic.org/directory/search/
http://helpx.net/
If you ask a community if you can visit them on your tour, come with an offer right away what you would bring if you visit them. Speak about whatever you are good at or what you think might be useful to them. If you can't directly meet some need that they have on their profile, use the search in the website and ask around the other members of the tours.
The community should nominate a gift-economy ambassador that is responsible for the coordination and communication with our project.
Then you should call the ambassador ideally by telephone to check if they filled out all the information on their profile, so we know everything that we need to make the best out of your visit.
There will be lots of questions as this requires a new form of thinking. We will collect the best questions and answers and good practices here. The idea is to ask what they need and wish for and what they usually need money for or great things that could be done with qualified volunteers.
If the gift-economy ambassadors fill out the registration for their community and keep their profile updated, then we all know what they need and what they have to offer, so we can plan teams and routes on the convergence that bring lots of good stuff and help for them!
Here you can see all the places that have been contacted by others and that want to be visited by you.
Visit places and do your gift-economy magic :)
Let us know about your experiences by writing a reference to the community and blog articles (public notes in the caravan group) - Please try to write articles and make pictures, even filming if you can, to inspire other people with your ideas and experiences, so the take part in the co-creation of the network.
Organize a Communities-Convergence to meet and exchange with other travelers from the community-tours!
Share your ideas about how to make the website better with us.
We recommend that the travelling groups preferably visit at least 2 communities during a Tour, to connect them with gifts and transport some knowledge. It needs time to get into the structures of the community, people and tasks. At first it will be more work for the community, from the second week on, they can benefit from your help. So please stay at least for 2 weeks in a community.
If you and the community can manage, you can be a larger group of 10 people, and if you are experienced you can build a house in a few weeks! But group processes take time and energy, so as a smaller group of 3-5 people you can integrate better into a larger community without being stuck with internal processes.
You know, young padavan, if you offer your lifetime and creative energy to this noble endevour, the universe will assist to create coincidences to make your whishes come into reality! Just trust and be careful what you whish for ;) Good energies to everyone on the road, enjoy the trip!
We want to help you to live a life in the gift and use less money or live even moneyless. If you are traveling between communities, sometimes you have to find accomodation, or something to eat :) Here we collect tricks and ressources you can use to travel in a sustainable and almost moneyless way to the next community, or for the times when you are not volunteering in sustainable communities :) Please add your ideas and changes that we can add to this list here.
It's definitely the best way to go from one place to another: you can read some tricks on the internet, but it's basically an art you learn with experience, and after a while you won't need any informatical trick anymore; even though sometimes it's still useful to check Hitchwiki to find good spots, most of all when you have to get out from big cities.
Check http://www.warmshowers.org/, an hospitality website for cyclists, and http://www.ecotopiabiketour.net/home/, a cycling Community-Tour. If you can not join them, you can get inspired to start your own cycling-tour! Public Transport
Using public transportation just without paying a ticket is obviously not recommendable, but you can ask the driver of a bus or the people in service of a train if they would take you without ticket. They can do that and you would be their personal guest and legally not abusing the service. Just tell them about your pioneering mission of spreading gift-economy or that you dont want to use money, maybe you get a smile, or at least the next one might take you in :) Sometimes they are happy about an apple or a cookie aswell :)
You can go to the piers and ask around, you may find some free place or someone looking for crew if you are patient or lucky ;) You can choose where you want to go, OR when you want to go… but rarely both. So there are basically two ways to find a boat: Online, or in person. Most people do both.
Check http://hitchwiki.org/en/Hitchhiking_a_boat You can find boats looking for people at: https://www.handgegenkoje.de/ (german) findacrew.net crewbay.com crewseekers.net are sites for people searching crew or crew searching a ship. It is possible to find unpaid/unpaying positions, but it helps to have some qualifications or experience.
Weed out the dodgy ‘seeking relationship’ skippers. It’s not hard, just read their profile well, and check the signs. If they are looking for a ‘female’ between the ages of ’18 and 35’ for a ‘friendship/relationship’ you’ll probably get the idea. There are good people on these websites, you just got to find them! Also remember, it can take a lot of time for captains to plan journeys/crew, so the more time you have up your sleeve, the better. Start looking months before you want to head off. On the other hand, some will need crew right away, so be ready to go when they are!
Starting Points
The following locations will be the easiest and best places to make contact with yacht skippers who might be considering taking crew aboard North Pacific Ocean
Southern Californian ports from Santa Barbara to San Diego in October. Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, Mexico, at Christmas. Hawaiian Islands
Hilo (Radio Bay), Hawaii and Lahina, Mauii from May to September in all directions. Ala Wai, Honolulu in August/September for returning TransPac racers to the USA Philippines
Liloan, Cebu Island in August/September. Hong Kong from December to April for deliveries of yachts built in Taiwan going north to the USA or south to Europe. South Pacific Ocean
Tahiti, French Polynesia from April to September/October, Fiji in September. New Zealand, North Island at Bay of Islands in March. Indian Ocean
Australia at Darwin in July. South Africa at Durban in December. Sri Lanka, Galle in December. South Atlantic Ocean
South Africa at Cape Town in January/February. North Atlantic Ocean
British and North European Ports – Lisbon/Vilamoura. (Yachts should have crossed Bay of Biscay by the end of August.) Bermuda in November and April to August. The Canary Islands, Las Palmas and Madeira, Funchal in November. Fort Lauderdale, Florida in November. Mediterranean
Gibraltar, Palma, Malta and many other ports from April to November. Note: Apart from some diving charters in the Red Sea area, there is very little cruising traffic to rely on from the Mediterranean into the Indian Ocean. An inconvenient passage combined with a difficult political area reduces the flow of yachts going south. In the opposite direction, more yachts go via the Suez Canal as a convenient short cut back to Europe from the Indian Ocean – despite the inconveniences – if they do not wish to go around Africa. Caribbean
St Thomas, Virgin Islands in November. Barbados/Grenada in November/December. Panama Canal – Panama Canal Yacht Club, Cristobal, and Balboa Yacht Club in March/April.
* The best way to find a boat in person is to network network network. Hang out at the local bars (they’re sailors!), stay close by, hitchhike around, and try to meet as many people as you can. The word of mouth is huge in the yachty world, it’s all about someone who knows someone who knows someone. If you have time, get down to the cruising area just before the season begins, and stay a while (like a month or more!). Often they are great places to hangout anyway (British Virgin Islands, Majorca, Sicily…) and small communities, so you’ll be in with the crowd in no time. Be social!
* What experience do you need? Obviously, any time at sea, courses etc… is going to help, but don’t worry if you don’t have this. I started with nothing but a love of water. A lot of sailors will want to teach you THEIR way anyway, so having a clean slate might even help. Be prepared to offer whatever you have. Think of how your skills could be useful. Medical, cooking, and engineering, all very handy! Even a good musician can be a welcome addition to a crew. Be fit, be handy, be positive. Light hearted and fun, but sensible and with lots of common sense, that’s what most skippers will be looking for.
* Ask about money. What is it going to cost you? The most common is that you pay for your food, and they pay the rest, but keep in mind this might be more than you would normally spend on food while on the road, so make sure you ask. Some skippers will ask you to pay a few boat costs too, mooring fees or fuel. You might be able to organize a ‘work exchange’ deal, if they need varnishing or maintenance done to the boat. Maybe they are getting hauled out, put on the hard for a week, and could really use a spare pair of hands. If you’re REALLY lucky, they will pay all the costs… and once you start getting some serious sea miles, you’ll even get PAID to go sailing!
* Finally, have a good think about if this is really for you. The idea of sailing off into the sunset might sound awesome, but try to imagine being at sea in rough weather, heeled over, raining and cold. Everything falling all over the place and never being still. Most watch schedules will mean 3-4 hours alone at night sailing the boat (after you have experience of course) and sleeping patterns are always erratic. You’ll be in a small space with several people (depending on the size of the boat, usually 3 or 4 crew on board) and not always in the best situations. You’ll need to keep your head together and be switched on almost 24hrs a day. Also, remember than more than HALF of your time on the boat will be spent anchored, moored, or docked somewhere. Usually this means working at putting the boat back together, installing new gadgets or waiting for the weather to change, and as crew you’re expected to help with this. It won’t all be high energy stuff. On a brighter not e – it IS everything you imagined… dolphins, sunsets, sustainable transport and using your hands to carry you along… if you’re up for it, it’s magical!
If you're not a turist interested in monuments and museums, but a traveller who wants to discover more about this world and the people who live on it, it's definitely worth to look for projects to spend some time in; squats, communities, project-houses, organic farms... of course, every community has different rules about visitors, some are very easy about it and some others not so much; some ask for money and some don't. Here some networks that could help you finding a place that could be good for you:
HelpX Wwoofing (Costs a little fee) Ecovillages Rainbow Gatherings (for raw food rainbows, check http://rawrainbow.webnode.com/) Nomad bases Trustroots BeWelcome Couchsurfing
If it's summer and you have a tent, no problem! Just find a place a bit out of the way (remember, humans are more dangerous than animals!) and you're done. A good trick is to ask the people you meet, if you can put your tent in their garden. But if it's too cold or you don't have a tent, try one of the following options:
On Couchsurfing you can often find nice hosts, and if you check some profiles before sending couchrequests you have even more. Couchsurfing once was very nice, but it became a corporation.
BeWelcome and Trustroots are community build platforms. They respect more your privacy and usually people who join them are on average more into alternative lifestyles than Couchsurfing members.
It is propably easier to find people there, that you could get along well with. The only thing you have to remember is that sometimes, when you're travelling without many plans, Couchsurfing is not as flexible as you would like it to be, and so you should rely on something else. However, in many big cities there are last-minute groups, if you manage to find an internet connection you can post a message with your phone number even few hours earlier, and hopefully somebody will call you!
Squats: often in occupied places you can find a very welcoming and open-minded atmosphere. The only problem is that an eviction can occur when you're there
(or, even worse, when you're outside and you left all your stuff there); in these cases you can just say goodbye to all your belongings because usually police destroys everything. When you arrive try to ask to the people who live there if an eviction is likely to happen, usually most of them are predictable and they should know about it. Here a good website, with a lot of squats listed: http://en.squat.net/. Remember: squats are not alternative hostels for tourists: go there just if you share their values (having a contact helps a lot) and if you're interested to collaborate with them.
Drivers: when you're hitchhiking try to understand if your driver (if you trust him/her) could be able to host you; usually they're very nice and if they can
they do it, but try to make it as spontaneous as possible (“Since I'm going to spend the night in your city, could you suggest me any place where to sleep for free?”) and NEVER force them, since they could feel in danger and this is really not nice.
Petrol stations: if you're hitchhiking on the highway and you don't want to go out from it for sleeping, try 24h open petrol stations; you won't sleep very well
(lights are of course turned on for the whole night, and often there are movies or music as well), but it's still better than sleeping outside, most of all during the winter.
Churches: if you're in a small village and you're really desperate, try to ask for the priest; you have a few chances that he's one of those few priests who still believes in the real christian message.
(for Spain) Alberge: this are public dorms where you can be hosted for a limited number of days without paying anything, and quite often there are some also in smaller cities; usually people who stay there are immigrants who arrived in the city for the first time and stay there until they find another place where to go, but nobody should object if you ask to stay there for the night (if you wanna stay for longer maybe try to find another accomodation).
In order to sleep there you have to give your personal datas to the employee, of course, so you have to have a document; and if you don't manage to find the Alberge, ask the police and they will tell you (and sometimes drive you as well!). I have personally experienced this just in Spain, but probably in other countries there will be something similar, try to ask!
Foodsharing: A legal framework for fetching left over or expired food from markets, shops, institutions and events. You have to sign up, get qualified and then you can see where you can pick up food and contract new places!
Shop-diving: You can ask for things that (organic) supermarkets or shops will throw away, because they have too much, or they are expired. You usually get food that's still good and you reduce the waste of the system. You have to look for the shops that sell food: restaurants, bakeries, bars, small supermarkets... go there around closing time (We know, it's not easy when you're travelling) and ask if there's some food left that they are going to throw away. You can say that you are travelling without money, in order to make them understand that, in any case, you wouldn't buy anything. There's one thing to say: quite often they answer that they don't have nothing, but that they can offer you something. It's up to you to accept or refuse, just remember that this way you're not reducing waste, but increasing consumption, since after giving a sandwich to you they will have to buy one more for their clients.
Market-diving: If you manage to find a market it's great, at the end of it there will probably be a lot of fruit and veggies left. Sometimes they just leave it in boxes on the ground and you can take it, sometimes you have to ask; in any case it should be quite easy...
Table-diving: In restaurants and bars there's always a lot of food left after customers leave; gently try to ask if you can have some, or just take it before waiters come, if you're sure that nobody can see you...
Dumpster-diving: very often in the garbage you can find very good stuff; check most of all in front of supermarkets and restaurants... Here is a link for good dumpsterdiving spots and technique tricks: http://trashwiki.org/en/Main_Page
Hosts: even though you cannot count on it, many couchsurfers or people who host you will actually invite you dinner.
Drivers: very often if you establish a good contact with them they will invite you for lunch or, more probably, if they're carrying food in their car, they will share it with you.
If you travel this way you shouldn't actually need much money, but if you need some you can try the following options:
Busking: if you know how to play an instrument or to juggle/breakdance/be a clown you can easily raise some money; you have to find a place with many tourists and be careful about police, in many cities it's illegal and you risk a fine. The same if you want to to draw portraits, to write improvised poetries, to play a monologue, to read the future or something else. Use your phantasy!
Handicraft: if you know how to carve wood, how to build dreamcatchers or necklaces you can try to sell them to the people you meet; be careful of police, don't put a stand in the middle of Piccadilly Square!
Drivers: sometimes drivers offer you money, it's up to you to accept or refuse it.
Small jobs: ask to shop owners if they need some help; sometimes you can work for them for a few hours – but it's quite difficult, and you cannot really rely on it.
Also check out The Ultimate Guide to Traveling Without Money from shareable.net
If you know other tricks please let us now!
To converge is an ancient custom; it means to reunite, to reconnect, to share, to celebrate, to cooperate, to learn, to support, to dream and act as a single community that speaks with the same voice and loves as one heart! What is the greatest joy in life if not to share its miracles with others?
Meet amazing people and discover yours and their gifts and superpowers in nice exercises. We will build trust and learn how we can support each other.
Communities-Convergences can be hosted by sustainable communities from our network. Organizers and hosts can connect and coordinate on this platform. Every day we dedicate 2 hours of collective working time with 40+ people to the hosting community. We can build houses, fix and plant things and move mountains if we coordinate! Good for starting communities: We can build the infrastructure we need ourselves: Compost Toilets, Solar Showers, Outdoor kitchen
Representatives from other communities of the bioregion converge to map out projects for collaboration and support. During and especially after the convergence the participants and communities will support each other on a gift-economy basis.
We are an umbrella organization meant to support local groups to form collaboration networks by using convergences.
A bioregional or thematic gathering, where individuals, communities and organizations form networks of collaboration and undergo a community building process together.
These are opportunities for connection, exchange, learning, inspiration, networking and sharing.
The participants are invited to co-create the program in advance and also take long term ownership of the convergences and networks that serve them.
During a CC you can experience a wide variety of happenings, from lightning presentations and workshops provided by the participants themselves to group dynamics and a gift economy market. According to the needs and the interest of the participants and the organizations they represent, thematic work groups are formed. They will continue the work on solutions after the event.
We believe that grassroots collective action is the emerging solution for today’s great environmental and social challenges.
If the existing projects, networks and movements that are working to make the world a better for everyone can succeed then we all succeed. This is how we measure the effectiveness of Communities Convergence.
For us community is a form of human co-existence where we value and support each other, practice respect for all people, care for the Earth and appreciate the miracle of Life.
Communities may have many different forms and practices and all hold a piece of the truth. Some examples are: ecovillages, networks, permaculture projects, transition initiatives, social etreprises, co-housing projects or any organization or association that holds a vision that values human potential and the inherent worth of Nature. We welcome all pioneers of change to converge!
We charge no event fees but we decided not to pay in advance for the food and accommodations of those attending as it is a big effort for our team but rather to engage participants to assume co-responsibility for this gift. We would love to support any and all participants who want to take part actively in the convergences to be able to join without being blocked by money.
If this is to be possible and sustainable we must be able to support those who are devoted and working for this project and to make solidarity funds to support participants who can not pay for basic food and acomodations. We are friend-funding so please support our work and especially if you want to come: buy the only ticket you can buy for a CC – the Gift ticket!
We build trust and learn about eachother’s skills, experience and projects, so that we can map out our needs and potential for collaboration.
The 6 days of a Convergence are used wisely because we research and design the structure or ‘frame’ of the gathering together with interested participants and experts in the field. In this way we are pioneering emergent design through crowdsourcing.
The content of the convergence comes from participants, their projects, the workshops they offer, work groups they wish to form etc.
community building tools and dynamics best suited for large scale and limited time
speed-networking, cooperation and decision making methods and systems
We will be using: Open Space Technology, World Cafe, Lightning Talks, Flash Forums, Fish-bowl Forums, Constellation Dynamics, Networking Dynamics, Deep Ecology, Dragon Dreaming, Sociocracy, spaces for Spontaneous Self-Organization and a Free-economy market as well as many other tools for organizing meetings and work groups.
These are all innovative participatory methods that allow a diverse group to easily sort out topics according to interest and work on them creatively and efficiently but also in a fun and fulfilling way.
This allows fluid participation and gives everyone an overview of different sessions and outcomes. They will help us to cluster around common passions and needs and practice the skills of communication and collaboration.
If you feel inspired and wish to co-create the frame of a convergence together with us please contact us!
Open Space Technology: Open Space provides the opportunity for participants of a meeting, conference or other event to propose topics they would like to discuss or host sessions of their choice. It creates a flexible framework for sharing ideas, discussion, spontaneous workshops and brainstorms. Learn more about Open Space technology here: http://www.openspaceworld.org/cgi/wiki.cgi?AboutOpenSpace, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology or http://www.openspaceworld.org/
World Café: World Café is a method to host large group dialogue about a certain question or topic. It is based on the recognition that “the best talks happen in the coffee breaks” therefore a cozy café atmosphere is created where participants can discuss the proposed questions around a small table with a cup of tea or coffee by hand. Learn more: http://www.theworldcafe.com/method.html
Dragon Dreaming: “What this project has to be like for you to be the best project of your life?” This is the starting question of the Dragon Dreaming participatory project design method, which aims to transform dreams into reality. Dragon Dreaming is a way to create sustainable projects which support individual growth, community building and are in service to the Earth.
Learn more about Dragon Dreaming here: http://dragondreaming.org/en/dragon-dreaming/
The Work That Reconnects – Deep Ecology: “Drawing from deep ecology, systems theory and spiritual traditions, the Work That Reconnects (WTR) builds motivation, creativity, courage and solidarity for the transition to a sustainable human culture. First emerging in 1978, this pioneering, open-source body of work has its roots in the teachings and experiential methods of Joanna Macy.” Learn more: http://workthatreconnects.org/the-work-that-reconnects/
Sociocracy: “Sociocracy is a method of structuring and governing organizations. The method is elegant, effective, and simple. The organizations are balanced, energetic, resilient, responsive, strong, and synchronized.” Learn more: http://www.sociocracy.info/what-is-sociocrac/
The Way of Council: “Council supports both personal expression and authenticity, provides effective tools for sustainable development, conscious communication, community-building and non-hierachical forms of leadership in relationships community and organisations.” Learn more: http://www.heart-source.com/council/way_of_council.html, http://www.ancienthealingways.co.uk/way-of-council/
Fishbowl: The Fishbowl is based on a small circle of people having a discussion surrounded by a larger circle. Since one place is always left in the small circle, the larger circle can always be involved in the conversation not only as observers but as “jump-in participants”. This way the members of the small circle are always rotating and keeping the discussion fresh, lively and providing the space to discover multiply perspectives. Learn more: http://www.kstoolkit.org/Fish+Bowl
Communities Convergence aim is to bring people of all nationalities and walks of life together in making a real change in the way we interact with each other and our environment; to network, maximize resources and to avoid reinventing the wheel. We believe in community, active participation and responsibility. Those attending and benefiting from Convergences shall be empowered to bring in the knowledge and energy needed for creating them.
Collective intelligence can emerge in groups where trust, responsibility and solidarity are cultivated. We use an organizational model inspired by Sociocracy/Dynamic Governance that empowers the teams working on different convergences while creating an umbrella structure that upholds the different events and makes it easy for partners and volunteers to join and contribute.
We wish to see participants and other beneficiaries being part of the creation of the convergences and the network!