An overview of ways that a new generation of EcoVillages can lead in the transition to post-work, sustainable, and convivial communities. (Presented to the August 11-12, 2017 Startup Societies Summit in San Francisco)

1. Ecovillages
and Land
Endowments
A path for seeding free and
sustainable communities
Mark Frazier
Startup Societies Summit, California
Openworld Villages
www.openworldvillages.org

2. First …What is your dream community?

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. Why Openworld Villages was created
2. The coming disruptions
3. How Ecovilages can flourish in a post-work
economy
4. Securing reforms and land endowments
5. Next steps

5. Why we formed Openworld Villages
Our aim: to help voluntary
communities awaken assets in
success-sharing ways
• Dave Vanderveer, White
Lotus Eco Spa Retreat
• Fred Oesch, cofounder, The
Quarries Ecovillage
• Mark Frazier, president of
Openworld

6. Inspirations for my startup community interests
Emotional – Epic stories Intellectual – Free market thinkers
Alvin Rabushka: “Free zones are a
way to pork barrel freedom. When
favor-giving by politicians is close to
ruining an economy, the last kind of
favor they can give is an exemption
from their predations.”
Actual– New Country projects

7. My free zone/startup community journey
1. Discovered new
country projects via
Reason (1969-1970)
2. Set up 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 Microvouchers to secure
land grants for market-based
schools (2001 – 2007)

8. 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 free market
reforms in limited areas
3. Attract labor intensive industries by
highlighting the wage gaps
This formula was fine for scarcity-driven eras

9. 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

10. Forecast: Two thirds of today’s jobs may disappear

11. Old kinds of work are being upended
3D Printed Houses (built in 24 hours)

12. As old jobs fade, people are turning to online free markets
30+ million reputation-
hungry freelancers are now
active in global markets

13. Self-reliant living is becoming more affordable
New tools for the
DIY/Do It Ourselves
Economy
• Affordable solar
• Automated
microfarming
• Desktop factories

14. 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.”

15. This torrent of change will disrupt old-style institutions
and industries (including those in traditional free zones)

16. What kinds of startup communities will thrive in the
coming era?
John Robb on the recipe for
decentralized “bot-enabled Edens”
1. Relocalize production
1. Virtualize everything else
Resilient communities offering radical abundance

17. 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

18. 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 fastest rise in the areas that offer
highest quality of life alternatives to a failing status
quo
• Offering frictionless business climates in these areas
will attract next generation investors and
entrepreneurs

19. 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

20. 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

21. Closeup – examples in the East Coast
Village of Wildflowers (NC)
Coral Sands Point Recreational Village (NC)

22. How to fund the new communities? AirBnb rentals

23. How to fund the new communities? Learning experiences

24. How to fund the new communities? Next Gen currencies
• Network Access Tokens/ICOs created by developers
of entrepreneurial communities (rights to visit or
stay for periods of time)
• Personal currencies issued by members (backed by
peer guarantee networks)

25. Example: an early personal currency with “flex conversion”

26. Future “flex conversion” personal currencies?
Blockchain recorded notes that can be redeemed for time-based services,
cryptocurrencies, or all-inclusive stays in high quality of life areas

27. 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 agreements –
will be able to secure prime sites, awaken their value,
and share benefits with all who participate.

28. Endowment Zones = Community Land Trusts with policy
reforms to boost land values
Endowment Zones are Community Land
Trusts + 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

29. 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

30. 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…

31. Over 3000 years ago, Phoenician traders used gifts to establish
the world’s first network of first economic zones

32. 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

33. 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

34. How civic groups can benefit from a Local Action toolkit
Each partnering civic group can choose freely among options in the Toolkit. For every progress milestone
that a group reaches (and documents via video clips uploaded to Youtube), its members will receive a
higher level of value in their Lead With a Gift bundle. Gifts can include free cell phone minutes, global
calling cards, Internet access coupons, gifts of frequent flier miles, or microvouchers for further
education and health care access.* Benefits also can be shared with friends and family.
3. Secure public
sector backing
2. Move up the Ladder
Land trusts and
Endowment Zones
generate revenues
for local groups as
barriers to
investment are
lifted on prime sites
Lead With a Gift
contests recognize
exceptional civic
groups
✔
1. Understand
Opportunities
An online
orientation
Art and music festivals
Cleanups/fix-ups, murals, and
neighborhood beautification
Pledges by members to arbitrate
disputes
Agreements among neighbors on valid
land ownership
Steps to improve neighborhood safety
Proposing idle public sites for future
land trusts/Endowment Zones
Other options – creating covenant-based homeowner
associations and proposing ways to cut local red tape
*Groups also automatically receive a share in future land trusts and Endowment Zones activated on public lands

35. Public sector toolkits for transparent governance – To help improve the
lives of citizens, civic groups, and businesses, we can offer free cell phone apps to propose ways of making
local services more efficient. These apps can include examples of possible eGovernment solutions for cutting
red tape and awakening the value of lands in new Endowment Zones that can fund projects chosen by
residents.*
Reducing
red tape
*Endowment Zones, in keeping with Singapore’s “flexiwage” (National Bonus) example, also can be a source of revenue for
increasing public sector pay as investment conditions improve.
All government forms on the web
Automatic approvals unless specifically denied within a preset
time period
Inventory of idle public lands available for possible development
as Community Land Trusts and Endowment Zones
Green lane for online processing of licenses and permits
Recording of neighborhood agreements on arbitration and on
land boundaries

36. 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

37. A global “Lead with a Gift” consortium can hold
competitions to give special help to the best projects

38. In sum, a new market for startup communities is at hand
• Entrepreneurial communities will vie to offer high quality of
life experiences and havens for exponential technologies
• Many of the new areas will enable their members to
sojourn to affiliated startup communities around the world
• Such areas will flourish as people exit from political and
fiscal strains wracking today’s societies

39. Let’s go there!
www.openworldvillages.org
mark@openworldvillages.org
202.257.2574
A New Hanseatic League
Openworld Villages