Ludwig Schuster
= German Open Money advocate, with particular interest in Monetary Regionalisation and energy-backed currencies
Bio
Personal narrative bio:
"I am an architect by profession, just like Margrit Kennedy (and by the way many of the solution oriented "money critics").
The initial reason for my engagement in currency design was a competition on "shrinking cities" where I participated together with some colleagues and a professor for "sociology of globalisation" from my university. Our proposal was to stop the downward spiral in shrinking regions (drain of people, knowledge and capital following the money drain) by creating a secondary economic mesh for the region - not unsimilar to what others might call "plugging the leaks".
In 2005 we founded the REGIOprojekt agency for endogenous regional development, and tried to implement the idea in Weimar, Germany, and failed for a series of reasons. In Sept/Oct 2006 we managed the first International Scientific Conference on "Monetary Regionalisation" [1] followed by the 4th german Regiogeld-Kongress [2]
However, during that time we developed a first idea of an energy backed currency and worked it out to a large extent; see http://livingcity.de/regioprojekt/Energie/index_energie.htm (in german)
We got in contact with the Australian political scientist Shann Turnbull who works on energy backed currencies since 1975 - til today!
(See his latest abstract on "Renewable Energy Dollars" at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1344262)
and invited him to germany and austria [3]
I'm sure you have read about his "Ownership Transfer Corporation" and "Stakeholder Corporations".
We organized workshops on the subject in different contexts (in german)
- http://www.regiogeldkongress.de/index.php?id=13,24,0,0,1,0
- http://www.regiogeldkongress.de/index.php?id=14,38,0,0,1,0 ,
We got invited to conferences (for example to the first World Renewable Energy Assembly in Bonn), and published a series of articles (in german).
My Colleague Kay Vosshenrich has later tried to implement an elecricity backed currency in Lebensgarten Steyerberg, where Margrit lives:
- http://www.sonnen-scheine.de/eine-seite/ (also in german...)
I personally am currently working on an "energy savings currency" or "NEGAWATT loyalty program", that awaits implementation.
Apart from that I am continuously researching on the topics of energy backed currencies, applications for financing renewable energies, and currency design in general."
Bio:
"Ludwig Schuster is an architect by profession whose engagement in currency design began with a competition on "shrinking cities". His proposal was to stop the downward spiral of shrinking regions (drain of people, knowledge and capital following the money drain) by creating a secondary economic mesh for the region.
In 2005 he founded the REGIOprojekt agency for endogenous regional development, and tried to implement the idea in Weimar, Germany. In Sept/Oct 2006 he was one of the initiators of the first International Scientific Conference on "Monetary Regionalisation" [4], followed by the 4th german Regiogeld-Kongress [5]
During this time he began to develop the idea of an energy backed currency and organized workshops on this subject in different contexts. [6] ; [7]
He is currently working on an "energy savings currency" or "NEGAWATT loyalty program" for one of the largest cities in Germany as well as continuing his research in energybacked currencies, applications for financing renewable energies, and currency design in general.
More Information
His lecture at a FEASTA Conference in Dublin can be seen on online: http://vimeo.com/5699636