tgl is presented in Spain. Interview with its creator.
This economic system does not work. Don't you think it's time to build an alternative together? This is the proposal of tgl, an international solidarity economy project that has begun to take its first steps in Spain. tgl is also the place where teaching, giving and learning generates a new banking and commerce system, founded on a social network.
Positive News is part of the promoter team of this initiative, for which we clearly bet as a way out of the crisis and build a new economy at the service of people and respectful of our environment. To present this project, we offer the following interview to Peter Forrest, head of the Theolistic Education Foundation, a creative organization of tgl in the United Kingdom.
Positive News: Your project is called tgl (teaching, giving, learning, in Spanish, learn, give and teach). But what can be learned, given and taught through tgl?
Peter Forrest: Software is simply a tool that allows people to search for products, services, knowledge, experience and knowledge, and offer the same to other partners. In this way, people can use their own search engine, created by and for them, to find out what their talents are, develop them and offer them to others. It includes a banking system that generates sums in our complementary debt-free and interest-free currency, the L - the L represents lifelong learning, local, liquidity, entertainment ( leisure ), etc. - when The partners decide to collaborate and be creative. Therefore, the possibilities of “teglear” are endless, since they are subject only to the limits of the imagination and are elaborated directly by the partners.
N +: What needs to be done to build a tgl community? And how can we join as partners to an existing community?
PF: We offer a free license to people who wish to collaborate with us. When a critical mass has been reached in a location or interest group - a minimum of partners -, the licensee will set up a local center or node that will assume the functions of moderation and administration of the community. To finance it, we will share with the licensee the income generated at their local center. The center will then be responsible for promoting the registration of new members.
N +: In a tgl community it is possible to offer all kinds of products and services, as well as to teach courses, launch projects and carry out community volunteer activities. And in addition, for any of these operations, we can receive remuneration in L, the electronic complementary currency of the project. How does this currency work?
PF: Partners can accept L, instead of traditional debt-based money, and thereby attract other customers. Instead of applying discounts in euros, which reduce revenue, merchants can improve prices by accepting L or reusing L in the form of incentives to purchase their products or services. In this sense, the social currency functions as loyalty points. The faster the L circulate, the greater its purchasing power. If a person has two bank accounts, one in which 50 euros per week and another in which L50 are entered weekly, common sense suggests that, before spending 50 euros in the supermarket or on eBay, that person will search for L -Offers announced by other tgl partners.
N +: According to you, the local currency L also allows the conventional currency, in this case the euro, to also circulate within the community and have an impact on it. How do you get this?
PF: The L inject additional purchasing power into the community and, therefore, the partners will look for local businesses that offer L-Offers. Large companies will not be able to become partners, so purchases in local stores will be encouraged.
N +: By rewarding with currency L any person who simply contributes what they know or can to the community, tgl changes the conventional concept of work and remuneration. Full employment seems a much more feasible option in a tgl community than in the conventional economy.
PF: Without a doubt. In fact, it is possible to develop an occupation full of satisfactions by typing. tgl attributes new values to the concept of “money”, because only with the creative and collaborative decisions of the partners are generated L. That is, the L is only created when the members of the community decide to collaborate through the teaching, learning, social entrepreneurship or volunteering in projects of community interest. And since everyone has the skills and knowledge to teach others, there are many possibilities to turn this creative potential into paid work. We are convinced that people can choose to be paid for having fun, understanding fun as the ability to offer, find out and develop your natural talents.
N +: What would you say to local businesses that are considering joining a tgl community to convince them?
PF: That you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It is easy to see that power resides in people, when it is able to reproduce systems and structures without accepting current control and debt mechanisms.
N +: And the freelancers and professionals?
PF: I would say the same. What better way to serve oneself, his family, friends and fellow citizens to enjoy, while one uses his talent to reform the system and, in the process, eliminate the insidious corruption?
N +: Another remarkable aspect of tgl is that not only do you earn L for teaching, but also for learning. Will it not be necessary to demonstrate in any way what has been learned to the teacher or to the community itself?
PF: There are several ways to prove the skills acquired in the courses. For example, through a practical demonstration, intervening as an apprentice.
N +: Those who want to offer products and services or learning courses in this community will have to pay a small fee in euros. What will this money received be used for?
PF: To house, manage and develop software and systems. A software system is a permanent job, which evolves according to technological innovations and cultural requirements. Also, euros are shared with the local tgl center. The percentage of income that the central tgl team needs will decrease as the number of partners grows, and that contributed by the local tgl community to finance its activities will increase proportionally.
N +: The rest of the activities of a tgl community are free for its members. What can we do for free in tgl?
PF: In tgl everything is free, except the sale of products or services. The rates will be much lower than those of eBay rivals. Among these free services, I would highlight the interactive community television. The idea is that tgl communities have their own interactive television. That is, that all the content of its eleven channels be developed by citizens and for citizens. Interactivity means that you simply click on the screen you are seeing and a list at the end of the multimedia content introduces you to stores, courses, projects, video blogs, blogs, vacations, everything! Everything you imagine in relation to the topic that interests you, enters the world of community, on the community TV, citizens can attract advertising revenue that today They are wasted on 300 channels that nobody sees and whose production and broadcast cost billions of euros.
N +: In fact, tgl also wants to have its own community media network. That is why he is already training community reporters in England. What will their work be?
PF: Community reporters will act as researchers and content producers, and will also be ambassadors who will contribute to creating a support network for ideas, projects and events, and for numerous development opportunities, between communities and experts. It is likely that many of these reporters decide to specialize in topics such as sports, health, news, entertainment, art, music, ecology, etc. In fact, the 11 tgl channels have been designed for that purpose.
N +: The Holistic Education Foundation is already reaching agreements with other entities in the United Kingdom for the implementation of tgl. What agreements are for you the most prominent?
PF: The video we have elaborated explains how the project is being developed in Wallasey. We are currently in talks with other municipalities in the United Kingdom and with other countries, including Spain, where we are already taking our first steps. Fundamentally, our business plan only works if we give away tgl licenses and create an international trust network, made up of like-minded communities that ooze fun. In a nutshell, we reverse the current business model based on the accumulation of "wealth" and, instead, we intend to allow those who opt for true wealth to be free, based on authentic values for life and life. coexistence, such as compassion, inclusion and respect; all of them, aspects of love after all.
The objective of tgl Spain is to support the creation of local nodes that develop this project in neighborhoods and municipalities. To this end, its driving group is open to explain this initiative in greater depth, and even to organize meetings, with people interested in creating a TGL community in their environment. Those who want to know more about tgl should explore the website http://www.tgl.tv , register and create their partner profile. You can also write to the contact email . Other ways of contact are your Facebook and your Twitter
tgl, a citizen project to create employment and stimulate the economy
tgl, a citizen project to create employment and stimulate the economy This economic system does not work. Don't you think it's time to build an alternative together? This is the proposal of tgl, an international solidarity economy project that has begun to take its first steps in Spain.
tgl (teaching, giving, learning; in Spanish: teaching, giving, learning) is an online tool that facilitates the development of local economies through a virtual town format. tgl is also the place where teaching, giving entrepreneurship and learning generate a new banking and commerce system, founded on a social network.
In our town you have powerful tools that allow you to offer products, services and exchanges, as well as create an online store or business. Another important way of self-employment that promotes tgl is education. We know that capitalism discards the knowledge and knowledge of many people who do not count for this productive system, despite how much they can contribute to society. In tgl we bet, however, for the development of all the talents and abilities of the citizenship. If you have something to teach, we help you to organize courses and you can also obtain an economic performance of this teaching work. And if you want to learn, you will also be rewarded for it.
The social entrepreneur who seeks to create wealth in the territory finds in our town training, volunteers and seed capital to facilitate their entrepreneurship. Employment, product supply and the common good grow from the effort and creation of citizens who decide to undertake with tgl.
To boost all these economic transactions, as well as the organization of courses, we have our own bank, controlled not by the markets, but by the people, by the members of the tgl community. We issue a local currency, called L, free of debt and without interest, whose value is one euro equal to one L. It is the first complementary currency in the world that is only created when people teach or learn skills and knowledge, when they participate in Volunteer projects equally useful for the community or when creating social entrepreneurship that generates employment and local wealth.
Merchants, freelancers and micro businesses that agree to participate in tgl must be forcibly local businesses, never large multinational companies. These businesses accept a part of the payment for their products and services in this complementary currency, which allows money, both L and euros, to circulate within the local sphere, preventing their escape to distant tax havens. It is about stimulating the local economy and the exchange of products and services within a town or neighborhood.
We also have a resource area, where we can post our own news and videos, or launch ideas to improve the community. And we also have a social network, in which members can post their personal profiles and that of the companies and organizations in which they participate.
The goal of tgl is to support the creation of nodes locally. Groups that work in towns or neighborhoods of big cities. For this reason, tgl Spain offers to organize meetings with local groups that are interested in setting up a tgl community in their environment.
Tgl Spain drivers
The tgl project was founded by The Holistic Education Foundation near Liverpool, England. The tgl community now has about a thousand members in the United Kingdom and, in the initial trials carried out in 2011, more than twenty local businesses accepted the L currency. Currently, the project is expanding its areas of interest with development of audiovisual content of local production, referring to sporting events and other informal learning activities generated by L. In the international arena, tgl is taking its first steps in Spain, Brazil and Australia, and is very interested in expanding to other countries.
The driving group of tgl Spain is composed of the Positive News team, an alternative information portal awarded this year with the BioCultura Prize in the category of digital media; the social entrepreneur Raúl Contreras, co-founder of the Nittúa platform and collaborator of the Ashoka international network, and private individuals, many of them linked to citizen movements and assemblies of 15M.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Website: http://www.tgl.tv
blog: http://tgles.wordpress.com
Social networks:
http://www.facebook.com/tglespana
Tweets by tgl_es
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