3. Let’s explore how we can create places that are –
• Free
• Inspiring
• Convivial
• Healthy
• Secure
• Sustainable
4. Overview of what we’ll cover
1. Experiences of free zones and startup
communities
2. The coming disruptions
3. How new communities can flourish in a post-work
economy
4. Securing reforms and land endowments
5. Next steps
5. My free zone/startup community journey
1. Discovered new
country projects via
Reason (1969-1970)
2. Set up a global competition to
create a freeport for commercial
space launches (1976-79)
3. Advised first free zones for
information industries (1984-
2000)
4. Designed free zone
reforms and concession
agreements (1990-2004)
5. Spread microscholarships to
lever land grants for market-based
learning (2001 – 2007)
6. The early recipe for free zone and startup city projects
1. Introduce public and private sector
leaders to opportunities for rapid growth
2. Get agreement to pilot deep reforms in
limited areas
3. Attract labor intensive industries by
highlighting the wage gaps
This formula was fine for scarcity-driven eras
7. Why change a recipe that has worked?
We’re at the cusp of
exponential innovation
Marginal costs are trending
towards zero
Demand for massive
workforces is dropping
As careers fade, people are
seeking quality of life
9. Old kinds of work are being upended
3D Printed Houses (built in 24 hours)
10. As old jobs fade, people are turning to freelance markets
40+ million reputation-
hungry freelancers have
joined in global markets
11. Self-reliant living is becoming more affordable
New tools for the
DIY/Do It Ourselves
Economy
• Affordable solar
• Automated
microfarming
• Desktop factories
12. Peter Diamandis and Steve Kotler – we’re heading into
a market-created “Technological Socialism”
Across industries, goods and services are moving to become:
• Demonetized
• Dematerizalized
• Democratized
“…technology – not the government or the state – will
begin to take care of us. Technology will provide our
healthcare for free. The best education in the world – for
free.”
13. This torrent of change will disrupt old-style institutions
and industries
14. What kinds of startup communities will thrive in the
coming era?
John Robb on the recipe for
decentralized “bot-enabled Edens”
1. Relocalize production
2. Virtualize everything else
Resilient communities offering radical abundance
15. What next generation startup communities will offer
• Free and near-free amenities for residents
• Opportunities to do what members intrinsically
value
• A focus on wellness and harmony with nature
• Conviviality attuned to the whole person
• An “experience economy” of opportunities for
learning and work-as-play
16. Why EcoVillages and other intentional communities?
• As jobs go away, and physical needs are met,
people will have more time for intrinsically fulfilling
pastimes
• Land values will rise in areas that offer the best
quality alternatives to a failing status quo
• Offering congenial environments in these areas will
attract next generation investors and entrepreneurs
17. EcoVillages in the US are growing
What are EcoVillages?
• Intentional Communities
formed for sustainable living
• Typically, 30 – 300 full time
residents
• Emphasize alternative
energy, conservation,
community gardens, sharing
of tools/equipment
18. Tiny house communities are also spreading
What are tiny houses?
• Capable of four season
living
• Typically, 200 to 400
square feet
• Can be built permanently
on site, or kept on wheels
19. Closeup – examples in the East Coast
Village of Wildflowers (NC)
Coral Sands Point Recreational Village (NC)
20. How to fund the new communities? AirBnb rentals
21. How to fund the new communities? Learning experiences
22. Another funding option – personally-issued currencies?
Recipient can receive either
a time-based service, or
another form of value
Cincinnati Time Store, 1844
23. New options for personal currencies?
Via cell phones, members of startup communities can issue and transfer blockchain-
recorded gift certificates with “flex conversion” features. The notes could be redeemed
for service hours, cryptocurrencies, or rights to visit or reside in high quality of life areas.
24. When the next financial crash comes,
there will be an opportunity for a “land
grab” by ecovillages and startup
communities
A new generation of Community Land Trusts and
Endowment Zones – based on blockchain or holochain
agreements – will be able to secure prime sites, awaken
their value, and share benefits with all who participate.
25. Endowment Zones: policy reforms boost land values,
with all community residents sharing in lease revenues
Endowment Zones are Community Land
Trusts benefiting from comprehensive
reforms to attract inflows of entrepreneurs,
investors, and residents
With world class reforms, 10x – 50x rises in
property values are possible
Lease revenues can be shared as “Growth
Dividends” directly to residents on Hong
Kong, Singapore, and Macau precedents
26. What kind of asset-awakening reforms?
• All governance systems on the blockchain
• Removal of barriers to person-to-person
exchange (Airbnb, Uber/Lyft, etc)
• Tax relief for entrepreneurs and self-providing
neighborhood associations (next generation
HOAs)
• Removal of zoning and building code barriers for
new communities
• Green light for innovations in transport,
construction, health care, on-demand learning
• Freedom for next generation R&D ventures
27. The challenge – How do we obtain land endowments
and asset awakening reforms?
We can “lead with a gift” – offering digital catalysts to
improve life in areas where people are struggling…
28. Over 3000 years ago, Phoenician traders used gifts to establish
the world’s first network of free economic zones
29. Lead With
a Gift
Toolkits
Today, we can offer digital “gifts on a beach” – toolkits & resources
to spread startup communities
Civic Action
Kit
Personal
Action Kit
Public Sector
Action Kit
For residents – microvouchers to
explore and access new learning,
job, and stakeholding opportunities
For civic groups – steps
to awaken the value of
idle lands (and share in
these gains)
For governmental bodies –
examples of how to prosper by
simplifying the investment climate
30. Actions that expand resource flows for local residents
“Lead With a Gift” Support for Startup Communities
Individuals
Success-Sharing Startup Areas
Entrepreneurial
Schools
Neighborhood Self-help
Agreement on Reform Pilots
1. EcoVillage
2. Endowment Zone
3. Full-scale World City
5x
2x
Learning
Circles
10x
30x 100x
Digital resources can help individuals break out of poverty via new access to online markets and success-sharing free zones. The Lead With a
Gift Initiative will begin by offering microvouchers for students and jobseekers to improve skills. Those who do well will be offered starter project
opportunities in online freelance markets, vouchers for free telemedicine resources, and help in crowdfunding drives for projects to improve their
community. Local moves to map and remove barriers to investment will unlock further Lead With a Gift resources. As barriers fall, all who live in a Lead
With a Gift partnering community are automatically vested with shares in land trust revenues from a prime site developed as a special economic zone.
individual in an economically challenged area affirms an interest in exploring opportunities
Learning circles are created with friends to map ideas for business startups or self-help ventures
Entrepreneurial schools and telecenters help learners gain skills via local and online courses,
and do reputation-building projects in freelance markets such as Freelancer.com or Fiverr.com
Public officials acknowledge and support neighborhood self-help
actions, and agree to lift barriers to investment at a pilot EcoVillage site
Investors develop new site in phases
(residents, schools, and a local voucher
system hold shares in land trust revenue)
Residents form or join neighborhood self-help groups, and record arbitration pledges,
agreements on land boundaries, and/or steps to improve safety and appearance of the area
Resource
multipliers
Microvouchers
and other
resources will
grow in step
with uploads of
Youtube clips on
local progress
31. A “Lead with a Gift” package also can include virtual help
for aligned localities, keyed to their progress in preparing
conditions for startup communities
Crowdfunding
support for self-
help projects
32. A global “Lead with a Gift” consortium can hold
competitions to give special help to the best projects
33. In sum, a new era for startup communities is at hand
• New entrepreneurial communities will vie to offer high quality of life
experiences and havens for exponential technologies
• These areas can provide free and near-free services as “club goods” for all
members
• These areas will likely federate in new ways, enabling members to sojourn to
affiliated startup communities around the world
• Such areas will flourish as people exit from political and fiscal strains fracturing
today’s societies