Building a culture of trust and support with gift-economy

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!

How is ecobasa working for this vision? 

We create opportunities where people can meet to share and experience the power of a gift economy:

  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. 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!
  4. 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.


You can use the platform to

  • 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!

ecobasa team

The idea for this project was born in 2011. Since then we are a fluctuating, but dedicated team of people who work on- and offline for the project. 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 the next years is to become self-sustainable through the members of the platform. 

This is what we already did: 

  • Develop the online platform
  • 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 and introduce the idea of networking through gift-economy
  • 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
  • Continue to organize, host and join gift-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 by:

  • Contacting us, to become part of the team and volunteer for us.
  • Join this website's network to interact with other members and facilitate gift-economy exchanges.
  • Support our work and the development of this platform with a donation.
  • Spread the link and invite existing communities and regional networks to join.
     

Why do we need ecobasa?

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.

How do we save the world?

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

Awards

StartGreen Award