Sally's Stories - Co-Labs & Portals
Welcome to Sally's Stories, a series of posts where we follow Sally's life and see how she's using value blocks, and other key components of the New Game.
Cooperation could be SO much easier. And cooperation should be and CAN be so much more fun!
For most people, cooperation is something that happens within three pretty defined areas: your family, your job, your community (whatever that means to you). Of course, there are other forms available, but if you asked someone where they feel they're cooperating most, it probably falls into one of those three areas.
And yet, there are so many more ways that we could be cooperating that are not taking place simply because we lack the right perspectives and the right frameworks to support it!
Sadly, many people don't even feel a sense of cooperation or collaboration at their jobs. Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, they suffer from burnout due to a 'hyper-collaborative' workplace that requires a ton of active communication and accountability, but still leaves them feeling undervalued or unfulfilled.
To clarify: I'll be using the terms 'cooperation' and 'collaboration' interchangeably throughout this post even though there are some nuanced differences. The main one being that cooperation is often seen as individual contributions to a shared objective, but may not entail shared responsibility of the outcome to the same extent as collaboration does. I personally think that we should see all forms of working together as having some shared responsibility for the outcome - even if that outcome is seemingly vast like the wellbeing of all living things.
Our lack of creativity and supporting structures for cooperation is something that needs to change if we're going to succeed in creating a better future together. We need to innovate new ways of working together if we're going to create real systems change and the benefits that come with it.
So, let's see what Sally's story can show us about how using Value Blocks, Co-labs and Portals can make cooperating easier and more fun!
If you need a recap on Value Blocks, start with Sally's first story.
In this story, we've introduced the concept of a Co-lab. Co-labs are cooperative laboratories or places for experimenting with new creations that make the world a better place. You can think of a Co-lab as a digital space for working together where everyone's contributions are recorded.
We don't need physical space like offices to work together anymore, and as we've expanded our work models beyond traditional full-time employment for a single entity, we've lacked the ability to cooperate on different projects and at different levels. That's what a Co-lab solves! Anyone you want can contribute value blocks to a co-lab and everyone can be rewarded for their contributions.
How are they rewarded? Portals make it possible! A portal is simply a digital interface for giving money (Bitcoin) that allows the value blocks that are in that co-lab to be 'filled' with rewards.
The way the blocks are rewarded can be based on pre-set conditions by the creator of the co-lab or determined by the giver. For example, in Sally's story, the givers gave to the "Changemakers Co-lab" which means that since there were only 4 value blocks from Sally to be filled so far, there's a surplus that can be used for future value blocks from Sally and other contributors!
It would also be possible for a giver to browse the value blocks of the co-lab and to give directly to any specific block or group of blocks they wanted to support. A tangible example of this might be a group of blocks by 3 people who produced an amazing short film for the Changemakers Co-lab. If a giver was really inspired by that film and wanted to directly reward the creation of it (as opposed to the Changemakers project in general) then they could give to that set of value blocks only.
This design unlocks a new level of transparency and specificity of rewards that has not been possible before! Sally's story is just one simple example, but the scenarios are endless. Whether it's a local beach cleanup event or a multi-year global effort to regenerate a plot of land, a co-lab can open up new reasons for people to give, and new ways for people to contribute value to important work.
What kinds of ideas or projects do you have that could benefit from a Co-lab? Let us know!
