I've worked on the idea of creative currencies since 1990, when I first started work a shareware based "publishing points" for multimedia and book publishing system in medical education.
Other projects include The Film School (2001), the Festival TimeBank (2002), the Flower Currency (2006), The Book of Money (2001), and GameRaid (2007). I'll have to check the dates, but it's roughly right.
The ÔøΩCreative CurrenciesÔøΩ project is a work-in-progress platform which unfolds as an action research agenda connected both to the production of audiovisual content and the development of social currency software.The initiative dates back to 2003 when I led an experimental project supported by the Presidency of Brazil. At that time, we issued paper currency in a small, touristic village in the Northeast Region which stimulated local cultural projects. But it was only in 2009 that the Central Bank of Brazil acknowledged ÔøΩsocial currenciesÔøΩ as a legitimate economic agenda, calling for more debate at the I Financial Inclusion Forum.
This year, the monetary authorities organized a second forum that also opened the room to discussions on mobile payment systems and new perspectives on poverty alleviation via State subsidies.
The Ministry of Culture funded the ÔøΩCreative CurrenciesÔøΩ project in 2009-2010 and our next stage in this discovery process is to be supported by the National Social and Economic Development Bank (BNDES). In short, there is genuine interest among public officials in different areas and public funding for social currencies is on the rise in Brazil.
