Hi to you,

I first heard of LETSystems about 30 years ago, in the UK, Canada & Australia. Most were called "LETS Schemes", were run by hard working and dedicated core groups, and had less than a few hundred users. For their users they might be very valuable, particularly for "local social connection", "mutual aid" and "skills and services exchanges".

But, they had very little relevance economically.

In 1994 I first heard Michael Linton speak, and met Sandra Bruce and several of the then users of the Stround LETS. http://stroudlets.bravepages.com/

And a little while before that, I had begun to discuss the social, economic and environmental implications of the "Ostberger Projects" with the author, now dead. www.ostberger.org/

I've always been a "natural systems thinker" and I "feel" them too - and so, I was one of the few who understood LETSystems to be "systems of agreements and accounts" between "any specific individuals, businesses or organisations" set within "a specific group of users who shared a common agreement"; in this case "an agreement to consider using LETSystems for some of their social and economic interactions".

VERY ABSTRACT, but it works for me. And did for just a few others, some of whom went to Manchester, UK in 1994 to participate in LETS Go Manchester. www.gmlets.u-net.com/

More people gathered, and we worked hard, created a lot of new material, learned a lot, had several small, medium and multi-national businesses and a few national charities very interested - and then ran out of money. It happens, and not just to us.

I could not afford to return to my old business in the South of the Uk, which I had begun after leaving the University of Sussex, near Brighton, UK, www.sussex.ac.uk/ with a degree in the dynamic interactions and internal dynamics of Science, Technology and Societies, with Fundamental Physics as a minor subject. 17 years before I had joined with others in a "work collective", and taught myself, with the aid of others, to re-furbish ANY aspect of an old Sussex home, be it only a few years old, or several hundred years old. I lived in the country near Lewes, Sussex, www.lewes.co.uk/ www.lewesonline.com/ There I worked, and explored Permaculture www.permaculture.org.uk/ www.permaculture.org.au/ www.permaculture.org/ www.permacultureinternational.org/ with excellent magazines from www.permaculture.co.uk/ and www.permacultureactivist.net/

The local environment of the chalk based South Downs is beautiful and has much to be enjoyed. Now it has at least one LETSystem too, using the "Lewes Pound" www.thelewespound.org/

During those 17 years, I had gained a lot of satisfaction, and it was time to move on.

Andy Blunt also could not afford to return home, in his case to London.

So we stayed to "keep the project on ice" while others had to return to their previous lives, in some cases, in other countries.

In December 1994 Andy and I created "Virtual Manchester" www.manchester.com/ the first "Virtual City" in the world.

We saw the Internet as having potential LOCALLY and REGIONALLY, as well as NATIONALLY and GLOBALLY; and so Virtual Manchester "seemed very natural and normal" to us. Others were astonished, having forgotten the local while so excited by the global. We allowed a friend of mine access into the "back end" of Virtual Manchester, for him to copy all our work - and within a few weeks "Virtual Brighton" www.brighton.org/ had joined us. And then lots of places started to appear a "Virtual This and That" town or city, even village on a few occasions.

So the linking of the Global Internet with Local Reality was begun.

We conceived of, and used, Virtual Manchester as BOTH a RESOURCE for local individuals, businesses, organisations and community groups of many kinds; AND as a MARKETING and SALES TOOL for our little new business of two hard working and still very poor, partners.

When we stayed on in Manchester at the end of LETS Go, Cae, a Mancunian through and through committed to keep some kind of roof over our heads if we committed to trying to keep the project alive, even if "in coma". He kept his word and we never slept on the street, but sometimes the only accommodation was rough, and even unsafe, but it was dry.

By 1997, we began to expect an income most weeks, and had, after many miss-adventures, found homes for ourselves that we could afford. Cae, Andy and I all ended up living in separate apartments on the Humberstone Estate, several long low blocks of "social housing for poor people", left over at that time from re-development, only 20 minutes walk from the center of the city of Manchester. The locals called it "The Redbricks", because it was made out of red bricks; while nearby there was more social housing, a Housing Co-operative this time, called "Yellow Bricks", because it was made out of yellow bricks. It made sense at the time to the locals!

Out of the circumstances of that time, I initiated, and we co-created "Redbricks Online" www.redbricks.org.uk/ which I registered on 5 January, 1998; and we immediately went "live online"!

At that time, we re-structured our existing business partnership, XTML; and created two businesses from it, with the addition of some new founding Directors for XTML Ltd, a new company limited by share; while Andy chose to continue creating web sites for paying and non-paying customers, and to manage Virtual Manchester. Unfortunately Andy died soon after this change.

XTML Ltd, however, grew rapidly, and I became "Director who does what we are not yet big enough to employ someone experienced to do" - so I did all sorts of things, including telephone sales of our new product "high capacity, always-on, with a "contention ration of 1:1", i.e. "your own private express way across the Internet". The product was excellent, but the market was not really ready for it. So we kept on developing new product offerings and soon became established in central Manchester.

I wondered, in my apartment if all the "good things" I was then telling businesses about, might apply to people living in blocks of apartments. And I felt that they did; but didn't know.

So I connected a 64k leased line in my spare bedroom, put a gateway and some servers in there too, and started, very much with the help of Cae for the cabling, to pass Cat5 Ethernet cable out of my bedroom window, to connect other apartments on the estate of 300 apartments in 6 blocks.

I calculated that about £3.00 per week should cover all costs if could get about 20 people connected, and over about a year, repay all my investment in equipment, which totalled about £3,000 in all.

Within a few weeks we had 100 apartments connected together at 100Mbps, all sharing use of the servers in my spare bedroom, and connecting together to the global Internet using a link that had a "service level guarantee" associated with it. That is one third penetration within a few weeks.

Many "whole new things" began to happen as he communications amongst neighbours improved dramatically, using what is technically, simply an "intranet"; which is very common in an office environment today. And still very uncommon within residential accommodation. Sometimes something very similar is known as "Fibre to the Home".

And with the "physical network" we had many developing "social networks", while I was rapidly devising several "recording and charging networks" so that users were well informed, and could easily pay a price that they could see was fair. And, with the addition of some reporting systems, our users could see how they, and their neighbours, were using these networks.

And as "Rusholme", with it's "Curry Mile" www.restaurantsofmanchester.com/rusholme.htm was just down the road. And one name for a type of Indian bread, "the staff of life" is "NAN", it seemed a good idea at the time, to me, to coin a new "TLA - Three Letter Acronym", the "NAN".

The "Neighbourhood Area Network", or "NAN" was born! All internally funded, designed, developed, paid for and managed, and it's still running, all the time, without a break, with no external funding or other input, since the beginning of 1998, as "Redbricks Online" www.redbricks.org.uk. The western worlds first, and I think, still only, self-funded, self-created, and self-managed high speed community of neighbours intranet, with Internet connection.

XTML Ltd grew rapidly and was sold into the trade at the end of 2000, when I moved to Brussels, where I still live.

We began to integrate the LETSystems into Redbricks, but didn't have the server software I want.

And I still do not have the Multi-LETSystems Internet Server software that I want.

But we do have some software that is very good, and is now live and USEFUL, and that is HERE and NOW.

There is no better time or place!

So, explore, and begin to benefit; yourselves, each other, and the Planet.

And ENJOY ! ! !

All the best to all,

Nigel