Evolver Card Thought Experiment

<< back to group Building the Evolver Social Movement
Ken Jordan
March 5, 2010

Personally, I'm not crazy about plastic cards. I have a pocket full of them, I tote them around as a necessary chore, but I'd much prefer to leave them in a drawer at home.

But what would it mean if I had a plastic card with the Evolver logo on it? If I could do things with that card that contributed in a meaningful way to societal change,would I want to tote it around, maybe even show it off to friends?

This is a thought experiment worth considering.

The entire Evolver operation is a deliberate attempt to transmute conventional societal forms (like a company, a group blog, etc.) into agents for transformation. From day one, we decided that Evolver shouldn't be a not-for-profit, because of all the restrictions and drawbacks that come with non-profit status, and instead should be a corporation, and use the legal power of a corporate entity to serve the light. There's a passivity to not-for-profit culture that we wanted to avoid, while we recognized that the dynamism of corporations is capable of "changing the game" quickly and with remarkable efficiency. Given the global crisis we're in, things need to change, and fast.

At the same time, of course, we approached Evolver as a mission-driven venture, always evaluating our success by social measures alongside financial ones.

At its heart, Evolver is a network platform, and it draws its strength by bringing its community together in various ways. Why not bring socially responsible merchants into the mix -- folks who are pursuing sustainable practices, whose values are aligned with our communities? Stores and businesses that are struggling to establish the transformational paradigm. What if we could help those businesses thrive by linking them into the RS/Evolver mix?

This would offer evolvers another way to take concrete actions toward meaningful change in their daily lives.

What if the card meant that you could use an Evolver complimentary currency to pay for an organic green juice, rather than U.S. dollars?

Are there ways we could use plastic card technology to further our goals for transformation?

6 Comments
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posted in: Building the Evolver Social Movement

Comments

Corn based plastic seems a

Edutainment — Mar 06, 2010

Corn based plastic seems a must. I think they actually rot too!

A membership card with benefits such as lowering the price of otherwise expensive products like raw-organics is a great method to boost incentives for consumer minded participants. Seeing as you've accessed the majority of the 'anti(name your adversary)' market already, opening yourselves to these demographics is key to the growth of this enterprise.

It's likely you'll encounter resistance from all sorts of angles, particularly the folks working for free right now (this includes all your bloggers and news gatherers), and will be incredibly difficult for the team you've got at this point to handle things like public relations when there is special access and the like to content, even in meat space, which they will not have access to. So the credit system of 'Evolver bucks' would be a great move to curb this backlash. Credits per blog/news post/5 groks and the like would potentially spur and encourage the existing base to continue doing what they have been free of payment and in support of your website... Where would you be without them?

I don't really see the harm in a membership so long as it's well thought out and carefully implemented. This is something I'm confident the evolver staff is capable of, I've seen it time and again. Mindful action.

Quickly, basing a payment for contribution system on a system like the Terra could help encourage isolated folks to engage in their communities outside of cyberspace. Seeing your 'currency' fade if it's not used might encourage actions otherwise undreamed.

Anyhow, as sincere as I usually am not, I am feeling an urgency to bolster my genuine expressiveness. Best of luck to you all.

Unedited, sorry if I stumble

Membership trinket

Glue — Mar 06, 2010

I have a couple thoughts to offer.

First, I think that if a membership card can help facilitate meaningful relationships, it should be done. And hopefully in the process of building relationships with local businesses the community will continue to grow and be redirected back to the online evolver community and to reality sandwich.

Businesses that were interested in participating in the community could offer discounts and such for members, and in return they gain free advertising and local support. It seems like that aspect of the arrangement could be left pretty open ended, leaving it up to the individual business what it was they wanted to offer and to what extent they wanted to participate.

Through the website you could start building directories of local businesses that participate with the community. Similar to the way the regional spores are organized on the site now. You could click on your location and that would pull up a listing of local businesses that were participating. In addition to the businesses you could allow regional directories of relevant blogs, groups and organizations. I really think you could position yourselves as the main hub of information for this community, and for the larger community of like minded people that are currently unaware of evolver. You can maintain your own agenda and content on the site, while building an extended network of groups not directly tied to evolver. Some groups could be linked to, just like a telephone directory, and others could join the site and maintain their page like a regional spore and offer schedules and events. Maybe groups that kept event schedules and such could be required to offer benefits to members, or even pay advertising fees, maybe comparable to what a local newspaper would charge. Hopefully this would create a two-way flow from the site to these outside groups, and then from the groups back to the site. I think if you provided this service you could in a way, by default, subsume other local groups, bringing them into the reality sandwich/evolver community.

It also makes sense to me that you would want to offer two tiers of membership to the site.

One tier would offer only the membership card. It would be the less expensive membership. Maybe it could cover the costs of the physical membership card and shipping. Nothing more than say, $5. And a one time payment. I think it should be as inclusive as possible. It would allow people who wanted to enjoy the perks of the membership to do so, but without them having to make a commitment to the community. Hopefully they would become more involved through this initial introduction.

Then, on top of that, you could offer a more expensive membership with added benefits. Sort of like the backstage pass.

Concerning the membership card itself... Pieces of paper and plastic aren't really that exciting to me. I think it would be pretty novel, and functional, to have a membership trinket. I'm envisioning something more like a coin, made of metal, about the size of a nickel, with a good sized hole through it, so it could be put on a key chain or a lanyard, or a dread. I'm thinking a bright metallic color, like the color scheme for the Reality Sandwich page. Maybe offer a couple, you could pick a magenta, blue, orange, or green one. Then you could just flash your trinket as needed, at the register or group meetings or wherever. It'd be a pretty cool conversation piece, and something I think people wouldn't mind purchasing, a little more tangible than a card. And it wouldn't be plastic.

...why cards?

Rob Meade — Mar 08, 2010

I'm not an expert here, but it seems as if there are probably easier ways to go about doing this. Why even have a card? I think if you could accomplish something similar, with less moving parts and all digital, you might have more initial success. It costs money to make cards, distribute, cater to all of the problems involved when things inevitably go wrong... and as you still have financial difficulties... I am not convinced it will solve more problems than it might create for you guys.

(...not only that but you can count on an everlasting fountain of evolver blogs whining about it being a symbol of consumerism, evil plastic (is it biodegradable?), membership classing out the poor, etc.)

If I were you I would look into some ways of making this work entirely digitally. Specifically, as a button, app or widget that could easily be attached to a blog or website, or through paypal.

I would also hold onto my horses and think as long and hard as you can about an open-source, plug and play, no moving parts, solution. No playtime credit cards involved. Just an internet connection and a paypal account if there is to be money transfer.

Here on my lap, I am reading the latest edition of Wired: "Money Wants to be Free". I suggest you read it you haven't already and are thinking about doing this. Please please please, put in the extra time and energy to make this thing smart. If you guys need some time, then by all means take a sabbatical for a few weeks so you can think properly. It does not take more money to do more advanced things. More advanced things cost less money.

A complimentary currency is the idea that by using a card, or in other words showing customer loyalty to a market, that you get certain rewards. It is the same shit as my plastic Starbucks card. Personally, I like this to some extent but it is the lowest rung on the ladder as far as possibilities are concerned.

I also think that before places like grocery stores become involved in this, you will most likely see small internet businesses become involved first and foremost. Anyone who sells on ebay is an internet business and can be jacked into this. Anyone who has their own blog can be jacked into this. Many give most of their content for free but can be cultivated as 'affiliates'. Just a few ideas there.

Besides that, all my support goes out to you guys on the work that you are doing on this! I am ready and willing to add something of my own to your system when you build it, plastic or digital.

Cheers,

Meade

What about something like a

Meg Rivers — Mar 23, 2010

What about something like a pendant? Or a jump drive? Just a thought.

“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”-Victor Hugo

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