A 'new' currency

In an imploding global economy, we are being challenged to imagine different ways of being and 'new' structures and means of exchange, in order to meet our essential human needs within society. If you are struggling to imagine how things could be different, take a breath, sit back, relax and allow the messages in this video about a working gift economy, wash over you and give you a vision for what could be (thanks for the link Darren).

And if you prefer to hear about these ideas from a man in a suit, here's Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine.

Chris Anderson is one of the most knowledgeable, insightful and articulate voices at the center of the new economy. He consistently understands before anyone else the new directions the economy is taking and then names the central phenomenon, giving us handles for the business opportunities they represent.

With his New York Times bestseller The Long Tail, he named the rise of the niche as a powerful new force in our economy—why the future of business is selling small quantities of more things to the few people who want those things; how all of these small communities together make up a vast market potential, and how the efficiencies of digital and web technology make it all possible. Now Chris has published Free: Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, first as an article in Wired magazine, soon to be a book—available for free! As the marginal cost of digital information approaches zero, practically everything on the Web heads toward ‘free’. How do you thrive when free has emerged as a full-fledged economy?

Chris Anderson worked at The Economist for seven years in various positions and served as an editor at the two premier science journals, Science and Nature. Education background in physics, including research at Los Alamos.