Posts filed under 'credit unions'
If you are passionate about innovation in finance, we invite you to participate in BarCampBankSeattle.
When & Where
Dates: July 21st - 22nd, 2007
Location: 
MiKiJio Arts
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch will be provided on-site, along with beverages and snacks.
Costs: We invite sponsorship from interested organizations, and will ask for participants to contribute $35.
- People and organizations interested in in sponsoring this event should contact Jesse Robbins.
What is a BarCamp & BarCampBank?
BarCamps are part of an international network of “unconferences“. They are open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. Many focus on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols. The name is a playful allusion to its origins, with reference to the hacker slang term “Foo Bar“. The BarCamp movement arose as a spin-off from Foo Camp, an annual invitation-only unconference hosted by open source publishing leader, Tim O’Reilly.
BarCampBank events are organized internationally to foster innovation in banking, credit unions, and finance. BarCampBankSeattle will be sixth BarCampBank event and the first held in the United States.
For more information on this event, please go to the BarCampBankSeattle wiki page or email Jesse Robbins at jesse.robbins@openaid.org!
July 2nd, 2007
I’ve just finished four exciting days at the OECD World Forum in Turkey, and wanted to make sure I had posted before I got on the plane to return. (Also, there have been some intermittent problems with accessing the blog which appear to have been caused by our hosting provider.)
BarCamps are part of an international network of “unconferences“. They are open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. Many focus on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols. The name is a playful allusion to its origins, with reference to the hacker slang term “Foo Bar“. The BarCamp movement arose as a spin-off from Foo Camp, an annual invitation-only unconference hosted by open source publishing leader, Tim O’Reilly.
BarCampBank events are organized internationally to foster innovation in banking, credit unions, and finance. BarCampBankSeattle will be sixth BarCampBank event and the first held in the United States.
What to expect
In Open Space, a facilitator explains the process and then participants are invited to co-create the agenda and host their own discussion groups. Discussions are held in designated areas or separate rooms known as ‘breakout spaces’ and participants are free to move amongst the discussion groups. Each group records the conversations in a form which can be used to distribute or broadcast the proceedings of the meeting (in hard copy, blog, podcast, video, etc). Each morning participants have the opportunity to announce new discussion topics / late-breaking sessions. At the end of the day the full group reconvenes for comments and reflection. This helps participants to re-engage in the full group over the duration of the meeting.
While the mechanics of Open Space provide a simple means to self-organize, it is the underlying principles that make it effective. The Law of Two Feet expresses the core idea of taking responsibility for what you love. In practical terms, the law says that if you’re neither contributing nor getting value where you are, use your two feet (or available form of mobility) and go somewhere where you can. It is also a reminder to stand up for your passion. From the law, flow four simple principles:
- Whoever comes are the right people
- Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
- Whenever it starts is the right time
- When it’s over, it’s over
What will happen
We never know exactly what will happen when we open the space for people to do their most important work, but we can guarantee these results when any group gets into Open Space:
- All of the issues that are MOST important to the participants will be raised.
- All of the issues raised will be addressed by those participants most qualified and capable of getting something done on each of them.
- All of the most important ideas, discussion, data, recommendations, conclusions, questions for further study, and plans for immediate action will be documented in one comprehensive report — finished, printed and in the hands of participants when they leave.
- The total contents of this report document can be focused and prioritized in a matter of a few hours.
- After the event, all of these results will be made publicly available, so the conversation can invite every stakeholder into discussion and implantation — right now.
When & Where
- Dates: July 21st - 22nd, 2007
- Location: Still being decided
- Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner on both days will be available, along with beverages and snacks.
- Costs: We invite sponsorship from interested organizations, and will ask for participants to contribute $35.
- People and organizations interested in in sponsoring this event should contact Jesse Robbins.
How to sign-up & get involved
- Add your name to the participant list on this page
- Write and Blog about this event, and forward it on to people you think would be interested.
Confused? Need Help or an explanation?
Please email Jesse Robbins or call +1.206.755.3739. I’m here to help you participate!
June 30th, 2007
Jesse did some banking at an ATM owned by a bank this afternoon. I went to the credit union to deposit money, to cash a check, to save, to manage my finances. In short, “to bank”. But I didn’t want “to bank” at the credit union, I wanted to um, “credit unionize”? No, “to unify.” Hmmm…this sounds ridiculous.
Our current linguistic limitations do not allow for the full expression of our interactions with credit unions. Going a little further, I would argue that our current use of language actually limits our thinking about the possibilities for credit union relationships and actions. Imagine a sailor, going onto a boat “to boat”. Now imagine that same sailor going onto a boat “to sail.” The specificity lends itself to more powerful statement. If a sailor couldn’t “sail,” but could only “boat,” she would be floundering in a sea of barges, tugboats, waterskiiers, and canoes. We wouldn’t know what kind of craft she was using. It would be very powerful to know what kind of craft a credit union is (because its certainly not just a bank).
Challenge: Create the verb.
Requirements: 1) sounds good. 2) does not include the term “bank.”
For skeptics out there: relevant examples and analysis of why linguistics matters can be found on The Name Inspector (a detailed and lovely blog).
May 8th, 2007
Credit Unions have a mandate to “encourage thrift among their members”. As Denise Wymore pointed out on OSCU, the industry currently sucks at this.
So… If ‘Thrift’ means the quality of using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully, and to encourage is to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope…
Why does Thrift take Courage?
May 3rd, 2007
I recently found the BarCampBank, which describes itself as a “community of people interested in disruptive innovations in the world of banking and finance”. It is part of the BarCamp movement, which wikipedia describes as:
“BarCamp is an international network of unconferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols.”
I know we will be participating in this community, and I hope leaders such as OpenSourceCU, Trabian, the Filene Research Institute, and Wesabe will be doing so too.
March 11th, 2007
Trabian (the people behind OSCU) just announced that they are releasing their Credit Union focused Content Management System (CMS) as Open Source.
This is extraordinary news, and represents the first major step toward an open source Credit Union technology platform.
March 8th, 2007
I just received really helpful response from the NCUA about our earlier request for approval of our Field of Membership.
They asked us for more information about our potential member organizations, as the NCUA “cannot charter a credit union around a group simply on the basis that an association exists.”
Here’s a little more on this requirement:
“To qualify as an associational group for field of membership purposes, the group must have common interests defined as individuals participating in activities developing common loyalties, mutual benefits, and mutual interests. To show that there are common interests, each grup must demonstrate that it:
- holds meetings open to all members at least once a year
- sponsors activities which clearly demonstrate that the members meet and interact regularly to accomplish the association’s objectives
- has an authoritative definition of who is eligible for membership (usually, this will be the associations charter and bylaws).”
So… What does this mean?
It means that we will probably begin with Burning Man Regional Groups like Ignition Northwest and wait to include more informal groups groups like the Theme Camps until we’re up and running.
I’ll post more a bit later… right now I’m going to head to Ignite Seattle!!!
February 13th, 2007
Allegra and I were brainstorming this morning and came up with what seems like a simple way for members to control their returns.
What do you think of being able to select “More Impact vs. More Yield” directly?
How would you set the slider?
-Jesse
Updated example image
January 14th, 2007
Go see the rest of the videos at BankerSpank.com!!!. This appears to be sponsored by the Credit Union National Association who have been fighting hard against a banking industry attempt to unfairly tax Credit Unions.Note: The sponsoring organization isn’t clear from the website and really needs to be. I’m trying to get in touch with the creator.
December 31st, 2006
The great folks at blip.tv posted the video from my talk at Ignite Seattle I and of course I have a few updates, corrections, retractions, and denials from the event.
- I was, in fact, drunk when I wrote and presented this talk. I feel the need to state for the record that this event was held in a bar which didn’t have food and I’m I lightweight because I don’t drink that often. So… moving on…
- I was wrong about Credit Union capitalization.
- The Open Space Technology (OST) conference where we will write our charter and figure out how we will implement it is currently scheduled for April 7th, 2007. More details will be posted soon!
- My talk mentions Jonah Burke’s presentation on the Darfur Wall project. Donate!
- The OpenSourceCU folks aren’t creating technology yet, but their sponsor Trabien is a technology company serving credit unions.
December 19th, 2006
