[sudo-discuss] [Big Changes] Access Crisis 2013

[Daniel Finlay]

door.sudoroom.org looks great, but what's the password?

The answer certainly relates directly to the "who is a member?" question, as well as what special privileges membership entails.

I know I've not been a very active participant in these discussions, so forgive me if I am treading on a well-worn path, but it seems like we need some brainstorming on this issue, so here's my first knee-jerk concept.

First of all, coming from an access perspective let me just lay out:

Membership benefits (minimum):
	1.  The knowledge of the door code.
	2.  A vote when revoking membership status.

The next obvious question is how membership is granted.  I feel the current Articles of Association are slightly ambiguous here, because they do not specify whether BOTH criteria are required (paying dues and good standing), or EITHER:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Articles_of_Association#Section_2.1_Qualifications_for_Membership

This is a touchy subject, especially because there is a good deal of "what is money?" and "alternative currencies!" enthusiasm around the space, while we still pay our rent in USD.  I will now lay out a doubtlessly controversial, half devil's-advocate, probably flawed, but I hope at least novel system for distributing membership beyond fiscal donation alone.

Here is "SudoCredit Proposal 0.0.1":

A system of Sudo-Room Credit.  Sudo Credit is initially tied directly to dollars donated to Sudo Room, ie, a member who has paid $60 a month for 10 months has some factor of 600 sudo credits.

In addition to buying sudo credits from sudo room, a person can earn sudo credits by hosting workshops, donating goods, basically anything that gets people with sudo credits to award some of their credits to that person.

People with large contributions to sudoroom (ie lots of sudo credit) would have the option of being deified with pictures proportional to their credit on a donors page of the sudo site, linking to their member page.

Since this leads to an inflationary economy, we may want some kind of sudo-credit re-uptake.  Maybe pay credits to open the door, or something else.

I know we have some currency geeks in here, I'm curious what people would think of having an alternative currency to help distribute membership opportunity, while clarifying membership requirements.

Just some thoughts, since access & membership seem like muddy concepts that need clarification.   I know there will be some resistance simply because it's so tightly tied to financial donation, but at the very least I hope those people will admit it's more egalitarian than a purely fiscally derived membership system.

-Dan
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