Statutes of the
developmental
Robinsonian Cooperative
Corporation "Oceanbase"
dRCC-Oceanbase
Draft 4.12.2003
Ueli Scheuermeier
Originally uploaded to Oceanbase eGroup
Copyright is under General Public Licence: May be used freely, provided
that whatever is developed out of this must also be under General
Public Licence, ie. be used freely.
1. Definition / Objective
The dRCC Oceanbase develops an operational base in international waters
on the oceans, from where orbital access shall be made available.
Access shall be available for "normal" people from anywhere on the
planet, irrespective of their wealth and level of education,
if they wish to contribute to the effort with their own work and
resources.
The Oceanbase shall also generate the financial resources for the
effort. For this purpose energy from the oceans shall be converted into
hydrogen and oxygen, reconstituted just offshore of coastal cities, and
sold as electricity and sweet water.
The dRCC Oceanbase researches, develops and tests all components and
systems required for this effort. This includes technical, biological,
organizational, financial, legal, political, and social aspects.
The dRCC Oceanbase invests in other RCCs in the form of expertise for
operating the systems it developed.
2. Doctrines
All knowledge generated by the dRCC Oceanbase is freely
accessible worldwide - under one condition: Whatever knowledge is
further developed out of knowledge of dRCC Oceanbase must again be made
accessible with the same condition.
No political party or powergroup or religious group anywhere on the
planet will be allowed to use dRCC Oceanbase in any way, except where
an endorsement or engagement directly promotes the objectives of dRCC
Oceanbase. Individual members of course are free to associate
themselves in whichever way they wish.
dRCC Oceanbase remains independent of any multinational economic group,
company, or financial source. Should any attempt be made by outside
groups to gain control of dRCC Oceanbase all members are immediately
entitled and instructed to split the assets and scatter, for later
regrouping.
dRCC Oceanbase settles internal disputes out of court. External
litigation is avoided wherever possible.
dRCC Oceanbase will not use physical force of any kind, except in the
defense of its physical assets.
3. Policies
Knowledge
An adapted form of the General Public Licence applies for innovations
developed by dRCC Oceanbase
Investments
dRCC Oceanbase invests its expertise in other RCCs. A member of dRCC
can become member of another RCC. This member can use the knowledge
generated in dRCC for his work in another RCC. However in this case,
half his hours in the other RCC are attributed by the other RCC to his
name, and half are attributed to the dRCC. The dRCC then attributes its
half on the name of the member.
Sales
dRCC Oceanbase will not sell expertise to the outside. It is only
individual members or groups of members who will sell their expertise
to the normal economy at whatever commercial rates may apply. Of course
it is expected that they thereby do not hamper the objectives of the
dRCC Oceanbase. They may invest part of the proceeds into the dRCC
Oceanbase if they so wish.
Shares
Shares are "validated hours" (see below). They are only used to
calculate the percentage of the total proceeds that can be claimed by
each member. Each member has one vote regardless of the number of
shares s/he owns, provided the owned shares are more than 1% of total.
Capital investments are transferred into money-hours at a rate fixed
unanimously by all members.
Capital investments into dRCC Oceanbase
Capital investment shall be staggered to match the actual work going
on. Therefore money-hours shall not exceed 49 % of all shares at any
time. Each money investment also requires an unanimous okay by all
members.
Size
When membersd according to following procedure:
a) Nancy keeps track of the hours she uses to generate a verifiable
result.
b) The verifiable result is clearly described. The means are also
described by which any other member of dRCC Oceanbase can check whether
this result is acutally achieved
c) The result is published and the hours for achieving it attributed to
it. Say Nancy worked 100 hours for achieving a defined result.
d) Ousmane, another member of dRCC Oceanbase, offers to trade 10
of his with Nancy. Nancy looks up Ousmanes result, finds that it is a
good and needed result, and agrees. Traded hours are then provisionally
valid for both members: 10 for Ousmane, 10 for Nancy, who has only 90
left to trade.
e) Nancy then trades another 10 with Olaf, 5 with Sanjay, 20 with
Salifa, 3 with Peter, 10 with Liu, and two each with Bert, Don,
Brigitte, Mahmud, Joao, Kwame, Christina, Sanjivi, Chickappa, Roberto,
Tomoo, Machiko, Gustavo, Solveig, Tony, Cory and Ueli. So she has 92
hours provisionally validated. By the end of the year she's left with 8
- well, bad luck, or maybe she didn't really work all those 100 hours?
Or maybe all the members didn't think the result was really fully worth
the 100 hours. Or maybe they put their priorities elsewhere.
f) Before making these 100 hours fully valid a final check will reveal,
whether more than half of all dRCC Oceanbase members actually traded
hours with Nancy. This amounts to a "vote" on whether her result was
really worth having. There are 49 voting members on the dRCC
Oceanbase - oops, she only traded with 24. This gets all the
others who traded with her also into some trouble, because their
provisionally traded hours won't be made definite either. So they go
search for other members who might want to trade with Nancy. Salifa
traded 20 with Nancy, and they both approach Jason and ask him whether
he had really checked out Nancy's work. Jason does that and comes back
"sure I'll trade five, but not on the remaining 8". So Salifa agrees to
downgrade her trade from 20 to 15 because she is not in such a tight
spot as Nancy. So Jason gets 5, the 92 remain, and the number of
members who traded with Nancy are 25, which is more than half of all
members. Therefore all the hours are definitely validated as shares to
be added to the shares account of each member.
Capital investments are validated as follows:
a) Capital investments can either be cash or the worth of material
b) The money is converted into hours according to the unanimously
agreed exchange rate.
c) These "money hours" are then checked: If they are added, will the
total of "money hours" exceed the "working hours" amongst all the
shares accumulated so far? If so, the investment must be reduced, and a
further installment made next year.
d) The membership is also checked: Will this result in a new member who
only represents money? If so, will the number of money members exceed
the number or working members? If so the investment is refused.
e) All voting members must then agree, that the investment is then
validated as money-hours.
Note: A working member of dRCC Oceanbase may also invest own capital in
the effort (or own materials, etc). In this case the working member may
also hold money-hours. But s/he still only has one vote.
Accumulation
Shares are progressively accumulated. This in effect means, that once
somebody has invested hours or money, the percentage of their share on
the total gradually decreases. So in order to maintain their percentage
on the total shares they need to regularly invest money or trade hours.
Benefits
Exchanges of services within the dRCC Oceanbase are usually made
through trading of hours. The proceeds are what is then split amongst
the members according to their shares. The procedure is as follows:
a) The cash coming from outside the dRCC Oceanbase is used for paying
all the external costs required to provide those services. The rest is
the cash-flow at the disposal of the dRCC Oceanbase.
b) The cashflow is then split according to the accumulated shares of
each member.
c) The members decide in a majority vote the percentage of the
cash-flow that must be reinvested as working capital in the operations
of dRCC Oceanbase for the next year.
d) Each member then must contribute this percentage of his share of the
cashflow to the working capital of dRCC Oceanbase. The rest is paid out
in cash to the members.
e) The reinvested money of each member is calculated as hours, and
added to his accumulated shares. These hours are regarded as working
hours, not money hours.
Note: This means dRCC Oceanbase does not own capital beyond working
capital for operations. All proceeds are always split amongst members,
not accumulated as own company assets. This allows full flexibility of
members, full flexibility for evading outside control, avoidance of
managers holding the members hostage, etc. The real assets of dRCC
Oceanbase lie in the know-how and skills (ie. competence) residing in
the network of its members, in its trackrecord for useful results, and
in its potential for generating more useful results. These are the only
collaterals that the dRCC Oceanbase can and will provide for any
outside funders.
Liabilities
It might be that the dRCC Oceanbase will never exist as a legal entity,
and therefore cannot be held accountable. It is the mutal agreements
between the members that make the members accountable and liable to
each other, though disputes are not taken to court. As such it may be
looked upon as a "club".
In case it turns out that the members need to act jointly to the
outside as a legal entity, dRCC Oceanbase will probably be a
cooperative with limited liabilities, probably registered "off-shore".
Transfer of membership
Transfer of membership is not directly possible. In case of swapping of
shares with somebody new to dRCC Oceanbase or sale of shares to
somebody new, the right to vote is suspended for one year, as with any
new member. The new member must trade own hours in order to gain the
right to vote. In case of transfer of money-membership, the new holder
enters the same process as with a new money-member.
Ownership in other RCCs.
dRCC Oceanbase invests in other RCCs in the form of expertise provided
by its members. This results in ownership of shares in the other RCC as
a collective member. Details see above.