Posts filed under 'examples'
Marc Hedlund and the Wesabe team have begun to flex the muscles of community finance. By tagging abusive bank fees, Wesabians are exposing and beginning to change a reprehensible practice.
I’m hoping to see a “worst offenders” report sometime soon!
(from Marc’s original post)
When we first launched Wesabe last November, we were not surprised to see that our #1 top merchant at that point was Amazon, and #2 was Netflix. That matched well with the stereotype of “early adopters.” What was surprising, though, was the merchant #20 was Overdraft Fee. If you think overdraft fees just hit people who are “bad with money,” they don’t — they hit a huge percentage of the population, and as Wesabe has grown, we’ve seen that more and more. Currently, our users have been charged roughly $200,000.00 in overdraft charges in just the past few months — an average of one overdraft charge for each and every person tracking their money on Wesabe.
See the original thread, and Marc’s post about it.
Update: you should also read this analysis by of NetBanker!
April 30th, 2007
Allegra and I met yesterday with Joe Edelman of RipplePay which looks really cool. I really like the ability to create loans of time… “I owe you 1 hour of work”.
“Ripple is a monetary system based on trust that already exists between people in real-world social networks. By cutting out the institutional middlemen, Ripple is both more community-oriented and more efficient as a means of exchange.
National monetary systems rely on trust in large financial institutions. A bank account balance, stored as electronic bits in a computer, represents a promise by the bank to pay the account holder. That promise is only meaningful if the bank is trustworthy. Banks, in turn, leverage those deposits to issue new money by making loans to trustworthy individuals as determined by an often labour-intensive screening process.
Ripple cuts the banks right out of the picture by allowing anyone to act as a bank and grant credit within the Ripple system to anyone they know. The system keeps track of the source of all IOUs, so that debts that are not repaid are automatically borne by the issuer.”
April 22nd, 2007
Credit Unions seem to be really slow in adopting Open Source Software to reduce expenses & empower their members. To help address this, I’ve started putting together an “Open Source Technologies for Credit Unions: Best Practices” wiki. In the mean time, here’s something that Credit Unions should be using *NOW*:
AsteriskNOW™ is a Software Appliance; a customized Linux distribution that includes Asterisk®, the Asterisk GUI, and all other software needed for an Asterisk® system. The most popular open source IP PBX software, Asterisk®, can now be easily configured with a graphical interface. AsteriskNOW™ includes all the Linux components necessary to run, debug and build Asterisk®, and only those components, so installation is easy. You no longer have to worry about kernel versions and package dependencies. Unlike other Linux distributions used to deploy Asterisk, no unnecessary components that might compromise security or performance are included.
Asterisk® is a powerful open source telephone system for organizations. It’s been around for a while, is extremely stable and well supported, and is a great example of technology that empowers communities.
What other technologies should Credit Unions start adopting *now*?
February 23rd, 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
We will be writing our charter as part of an Open Space Technology (OST) conference and forum, and so I thought I’d begin explaining what OST is all about. Here is a little background… enjoy!
-Jesse
This is the front page of the Business Section of the San Jose Mercury News for July 13, 2006 it features the Principles of Open Space and asks - How can you plan anything in Silicon Valley using these rules?
“Open Space Technology is a simple way to run productive meetings, for five to 2000+ people, and a powerful way to lead any kind of organization, in everyday practice and ongoing change…”
Harrison Owen describes OST as:
“At the very least, Open Space is a fast, cheap, and simple way to better, more productive meetings. At a deeper level, it enables people to experience a very different quality of organization in which self-managed work groups are the norm, leadership a constantly shared phenomenon, diversity becomes a resource to be used instead of a problem to be overcome, and personal empowerment a shared experience. It is also fun. In a word, the conditions are set for fundamental organizational change, indeed that change may already have occurred. By the end, groups face an interesting choice. They can do it again, they can do it better, or they can go back to their prior mode of behavior.
Open Space is appropriate in situations where a major issue must be resolved, characterized by high levels of complexity, high levels of diversity (in terms of the people involved), the presence of potential or actual conflict, and with a decision time of yesterday.
Open Space runs on two fundamentals: passion and responsibility. Passion engages the people in the room. Responsibility ensures things get done. A focusing theme or question provides the framework for the event. The art of the question lies in saying just enough to evoke attention, while leaving sufficient open space for the imagination to run wild.”
Update 1/14/07: Ted Earnst blogged about us on OpenSpaceWorld’s blog.
January 13th, 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
What was Jesse talking about at Ignite Seattle?
Credit Unions have $0.06 backing every $1.00 they loan out… which means they can loan $1,600,000 for every $100,000 deposited by members.
If you loan out $1,600,000 at a 7% APR rate you take in about $112,000 in interest on $100,000 in principal. After deducting operating expenses and paying the members interest on their accounts, credit unions use the remainder to offer better services to their members.
Black Rock Federal will offer the same great services any other Credit Union does, and we will use our resources to change the world.
(edited on 12/11/06)
I was mistaken when I gave this presentation. I said that Credit Unions were able to loan out $16 for every $1 in member deposits, because they have a 6% capitalization requirement. I confused Credit Union capitalization ratios with banking Cash Reserve Ratios, and didn’t find out until I spoke with a gentleman from the NCUA today.
Please see this blog entry for a detailed correction.
December 9th, 2006
