Lets

Since a few years local groups of people exchange services and secondhand goods using an administration of points, the so-called LETS method. The Strohalm (“straw”) foundation was looking for a solution to the ever growing administrative burden that comes with such exchange systems. An online system was needed that enables participants to the exchange system to keep up the administration by themselves, making a central administration superfluous. Such a system did not exist, so Strohalm decided to develop one according to the open source formula, and did so successfully.

Final Products

The Cyclos exchange system that Strohalm developed was fully available as open source software under a General Public License (GPL). Therefore everybody could download and use the software for free, and everybody can make adjustments to it if necessary. On the website one could submit requests for new functions, and one could find the technical specifications and manuals of Cyclos. Cyclos is no longer online.

Impact

Because of Cyclos the administrative burden for an exchange system that was being used by the Amsterdam based exchange circle Noppes (“Nothing”) decreased dramatically. Now this exchange circle can move ahead with regained confidence. At this moment more than 20 Dutch and foreign exchange circles showed interest in Cyclos. Usually a lot of internal discussions are necessary before these circles change from an offline or even paper database to an internet based system. Now there are plans to make Cyclos available as a mobile service for, for instance, GSM’s. As it happens, in developing countries mobile networks are usually more reliable and better installed than the internet.

This project was executed between March 2003 and January 2005.

Contactgegevens

Stichting Strohalm
Rinke Hoekstra
www.strohalm.nl
www.noppes.nl