[sudoroom] Bylaws: Venture communist management of collective assets

[Anthony Di Franco]

We're in the bylaws discussion at an advanced stage of considering
budgeting where the way to keep the rent paid and the lights on and so on
seems satisfactorily settled but whether and how to fund andor support the
interests of subgroups and their subprojects is unclear. This portion of
the Telekommunisten Manifesto presents the best thinking I've seen so far
on how that might work and why it might be important to do, and it seems to
me to fit well into the framework we have established so far.

http://p2pfoundation.net/Telekommunisten_Manifesto

"The function of the Venture Commune is to acquire property and allocate it
to its members. The commune acquires property when requested to do so. The
members interested in having this property offer a rental agreement giving
the terms they wish to have for possession of this property, the Commune
issues a series of Bonds which are backed with the demanded property-itself
as collateral and the offered rental agreement as guarantee. This series of
Bonds are sold with a public auction setting the interest rate. If the Bond
sale clears, the property is acquired and the rental agreement is executed.
The property returns to the commune whenever those renting it no longer
want to or are unable to meet the agreed terms, at which point the Commune
offers it, once again at auction, to its members, who bid on new rental
terms. If there is no more demand for the asset, it is liquidated. After
the Bonds that where issued to acquire an asset are fully redeemed it
becomes fully owned by the Commune. The remaining rental income the
property earns is from then on divided up equally among all members of the
commune and paid out to them, proceeds from liquidated property is likewise
divided. In this way, members using exactly their per-capita share of the
commune’s fully owned property neither pay nor receive any payment, since
what the pay in rent for that property will equal what the receive as their
share of this income. Member’s using more than their per-capita share will
pay more, and presumably be choosing to pay because they are employing the
property as a productive asset, and thus earning enough to pay. Conversely,
member’s using less than their per-capita share receive more in payment
then they pay in rent, thus being rewarded for not hording property. The
main activities of the Venture Commune, managing bond s and rental
agreements do not impose a high level of co-ordination and, just like the
computer networks that manage the allocation of immaterial goods, are
activities that are well suited for computerized automation. Many Venture
Communes could be exist and as they become interrelated, merge together
forming larger, and more stable and sustainable, communities of
commons-based producers."
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