---
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.