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+---
+title: Tick Tock
+subtitle: Voluntary interests and hours
+author:
+ - Gustav Eek
+ - Albin Söderqvist
+ - Leif-Jöran Olsson
+ - Lola Möller
+date: Oct 26, 2019 (Dec 27--30)
+track: Ethics, Society & Politics
+abstract: >
+ Is there a point in making in-kind contributions explicit and
+ transparent? We introduce a model that serves the purpose of exploring
+ the concepts of participation on a voluntary basis and voluntary labour.
+State: rejected
+...
+
+At 35C3 we listened to Guy Standing. He presented universal basic income
+(UBI) as the solution to a broad range of issues. UBI is still popular
+as a general solution, but the problem is often indistinctly formulated.
+In this talk, the speakers aim to present a more adequate formulation of
+the problem and present a model for how to deal with the question of
+work and compensation.
+
+The model reflects (a) varying needs, (b) the multitude of incentives
+for community participation, and (c) solidarity in relation to diversity
+in leanings toward effort and sacrifice.
+
+Many participants of 36C3 are familiar with the complex of problems,
+since they actively take part in free software projects or technology in
+general with societal impact.
+
+In the various movements important values risk getting lost:
+
+ * Ideology, the value of being idea-driven
+ * The ideals of popular education (*Bildung von unten*)
+ * Participation on equal terms
+ * Passion, engagement and interest
+ * Freedom and liberation
+ * Autonomy
+ * Self organisation
+
+The economic rationalism of New Public Management, performance targets
+like SMART, measurements, evaluation, statistics, undermine classical
+values present in grass-root movements.
+
+In the European Union, organisations are encouraged to engage in
+benchmarking. Also in-kind contributions are valued to every miniscule
+detail in hours and euros. To give an example, the Nordic Council of
+Ministry, in the context of financing, stands completely at loss before
+the concept of the volunteer. The point is that the translation is
+mutually weak between, on the one hand, the Scandinavian "ideell
+förening" (ideeller Verein) and Anglo-Saxon "not-for-profit", on the
+other.
+
+Nevertheless, there are positive aspects of transparency with regards to
+utilisation, in-kind and other contributions, and what values are
+materialized.
+
+In this talk, the speakers share insights from many years of experience
+of voluntary and "not-for-profit" involvement in:
+
+**Fripost**, an association for democratic electronic communication,
+active in Gothenburg since 2010, originating from free software
+community and formed as a reaction to the enclosure of commons;
+
+**JAK** (land -- labour -- capital), a democratically controlled ethical
+bank, the biggest member bank in the Nordic countries, founded in the
+1960s and now counting 40.000 members. The initiative was successful
+during 40 years, combining ideology with practice. JAK experienced a
+drop in membership numbers, however, after the fact that voluntary
+contributions were devaluated compared to reimbursed labour.
+
+**FSCONS**, a participation-organised conference in the Nordic
+countries, promoting free software, free culture and a free society,
+since 2007. A fundamental idea of the organisation is that it is based
+on voluntary efforts.
+
+**The Nordic Summer University**, international academic study circles
+and a nomadic university, celebrating 70th anniversary 2020. The
+circumstances around financing of the organisation has shifted
+immensely: The primary financier, the Nordic Council of Ministry, is
+moving from operations based to project based financing. The university
+is now facing a heavy increase in administrative burden.
+
+**SAC**, an anarcho-syndicalist nation-wide trade union federation. The
+organisation has a broad member base distributed over a large number of
+self-organised local divisions. In parallel there is an industrial
+division. SAC and its direct-action methods are directly and actively
+opposed by legislation and other trade union organisations. The workers'
+movement is particularly hurt by the individual success project.
+
+Those example organisations have certain circumstances in common:
+
+ * Driven by "not-for-profit" interests
+ * On a voluntary basis
+ * By voluntary efforts and funding
+ * With sprinkles of fully employed resources
+ * Variation in competence, experience, and resources
+ * Differing stakes and levels of motivation
+
+Our model is simple to apply for projects and associations. We introduce
+and explore the concepts of participation on a voluntary basis and
+voluntary labour. We will give explicit examples of how to account for
+values within the two. The model is a wink to the society of metrics*,*
+affirming some of its concepts, but constitutes an immanent critique of
+the system.
+
+