An Exchange Story

This is a short story of how I see the Exchange functioning in the hands of a full time facilitator. It's fiction (even in the context of the game, so it's fictional fiction? A play within a play?), but I think we could make this work. I'm hoping that this will be a bit more inspiring than a rote description of how it works.


Sarah's comm woke her up at 7:00 as usual. The alarm was quiet because she didn't want to disturb whoever she was staying with, but she'd trained herself to wake up to it regardless of how easy it was to ignore. She rolled off the couch and searched for her glasses.

"News, Exchange"

Her comm always had the exchange running, but usually as a background process unless she brought it up. As she put on the glasses, which she found under her pants, the display showed her dashboard for the exchange and a window to the local news sources. Finding her input gloves, she quickly marked her request for a place to stay as met. 1 Karma point was added to Quiltmaker57's reputation score, and Sarah scanned the news while packing.

One news story caught her attention. Apparently a group of squatters were involved in a siege with private security forces. The old mental hospital downtown had been converted into condos a decade ago, right before the houseing crash. The units never sold well, between the crashed economy and rumors the place was haunted. It had been empty for 6 years until last month when a mixed group of locals and refugees moved in. Now the property owner was trying to evict them, by force.

"Well, that looks like something to work on." Sarah yawned. She needed coffee.

Quickly she posted her first request for the day to the exchange. This was a common one, so she had a macro made already and it only took a few hand motions to post.
couch-surf-champion: Need breakfast, vegitarian, including coffee, preferably fair trade.
Almost as quickly, the reply came.
dbarber: Sarah, we do this most mornings. You know you can just come over to the Panera.
couch-surf-champion: Maybe, but how else are you going to keep your karma score up?
dbarber: Good point. See you in a moment.

The tough part about using the exchange to find a place to stay for an evening was that co-habiation, even for an evening, implies a certain intimacy. Which Sarah liked, because it allowed her to get to know a lot of people. But there was always the next morning difficulty, of how to leave most politely. Fortunately, she'd stayed with Quiltmaker57 before, and she knew a kindly worded thank you email would be sufficient, and that he tended to sleep until noon on most days if he could help it. She wrote the message, finished packing her worldly possessions into her pack, and went to collect her breakfast.

So how was she going to effect this situation? Well, obviously it was for the best if people had homes. Perhaps the area had a neighborhood association or the like that would see things similarly? A quick search showed that the area had it's own exchange, so there had to be some level of community. Of course that exchange was invitation only. She'd need an in.

The lines at the Panera were long, as usual for this time of morning, but she had her own ritual here. Her coffee and bagel were already sitting on the counter for pickup, and she walked up to get it. Daniel made her breakfast on the sly, and to keep suspicion down they never interacted while he was working. Hmm, today he gave her sun-dried tomato. That sounded good.

Sitting down, she went back to work scanning the exchange. Most people belonged to more than one exchange, so she needed to see who in the community exchange was also in an exchange she belonged to. Sure enough, one TabulaRasa belonged to the general st. louis exchange and had an outstanding favor needed. He wants a solar hot water heater installed. Of course, Sarah had no idea how to do that herself, but she had several installers in her contact list. She chose Andrew Jensen: unlike the others he didn't have a day job and was usually free. She dragged Andrew's profile over to the request window and let the macros she'd set up send the typical facilitation email.

Breakfast was done, and the coffee had woken her up fully. The sun was bright and it seemed like a good day to spend at the riverfront. She hadn't yet secured a new metropass since the latest price increase, so she needed a ride.

couch-surf-champion: Anyone going from University City to DownTown? I could use a lift.
Warhamster40k: I am.
couch-surf-champion: Can you meet me outside the Panera on Delmar?
Warhamster40k: I'm already there, actually. Program say's your close, I'll wave my hands.

Sarah looked up to see a portly fellow waving an arm over his head without looking up from his laptop screen. OK, That'd do. She went over and introduced herself. He was a lawyer who made a lot of trips to see clients, and so the company paid for his car and his ethanol. A few moments later and she was on her way downtown.

The squatters were on the usual refugee and anarchist exchanges. It made it easy to find them and what they were looking for. They needed the usual for new homsteaders: Seeds, tools, 55 gallon drums and the like. She had her usual sources for those things, a guy at the brewery for the drums, several food coops for the farming stuff. It took less than 5 minutes to facilitate every request they had posted. They'd still have to get through the seige, but She had a bit of an idea on that front too.

New message : TabulaRasa re: thanks for the link.

Ah, good.
couch-surf-champion: Actually, I have a favor to ask of you too, if you can.
TabulaRasa: What can I do for you?
couch-surf-champion: I was hoping you could extend an invitation for me to join the Southside community exchange.
TabulaRasa: If You are moving here, you'll get one when the association comes by to say hi.
couch-surf-champion: I know, but I don't live in the area.
TabulaRasa: Then why do you want an invite?
couch-surf-champion: I'm a facilitator, and I think it would be a good connection to add to my network.
TabulaRasa: That's pretty big, it's against the spirit of our exchange to have outside members.
ouch-surf-champion: I tell you what, I'll drop some extra Karma on it. You'll get 3 points if you help me.
TabulaRasa: All right. Here you go.

The invitation showed up shortly, and she joined. Things were going to be harder here, because she hadn't built up the same large rep she had on most of her other exchanges. But she had the connections, and it wouldn't be long. In fact, someone from the group was right ahead, stranded by the side of the road.

"Hey, we need to pick up that guy over there. He's stranded."

The driver, who's name she hadn't gotten, responded, "I'm not seeing it on my exchange"

"You aren't in his exchange, but I am. I'll make it a favor from me. He's just needs to get to a metro station, there's one by your office so it's not out of the way."

"Aight, fine."

He brought the car to a stop and picked up the guy by the side of the road. Sarah arranged for someone to tow the car to a mechanic (costing her a few Karma, but she had a lot banked on the general exchagne). She now had a captive audience, too, and she spent the rest the ride talking about the seige and what was happening in that area.

After seeing both gentlemen off, it was time to work on the other side of the equation. Private security evicting squatters was legal, but setting up a seige situation like this was a grey area. Often times it was overlooked because police were streched thin all over, but technically the riot police were supposed to handle situations like this. She logged into the .gov exchange and put in a line to the mayor, suggesting that in this instance she not overlook it and send in the police. She had a bit of pull here because she'd helped in the past with city-squatter relations, and because the mayor knew that if she didn't help, Sarah could organize large scale resposes through her networks. So shortly, the riot police would go to releive the private security. This was a good move because the police had mroe oversight, and were a neutral party. Sure, they hated squatters, but they also hated private sec forces and the property owners who used them as private police forces. And the police had their own exchange, which she had negotiated her way into a year ago and on which she had a good rep score.

Meanwhile, it was now lunch time, and she needed food. She was about to post to the exchange when she noticed that someone on the st. louis general exchange had just posted asking for company for lunch. Well, that was convienent.
Betty turned out to be a journalist visting st. louis to work with the local news stations. The squatter's story intrigued her, and she said that maybe she could help, by covering the story from a perspective sympathetic to the squatters. Sarah provided her with all the info she could. Sometimes, you didn't need to use the exchange to do get people's help.

The rest of the afternoon she spent facilitating favors on the general st. louis exchange. Not only had she spent Karma on a few favors, but some of her older Karma had decayed. She hated seeing a net negative change for any day. Most people who could help others were too busy actually doing things to constantly scan the community board, and so it was facilitators like her that made the exchange function. She made the connections between people so that they didn;'t have to themselves. It was a valuable service, which is why the exchange had been programmed to reward making such connections. After several hours her karma posting for the day was postive again, and she looked back in on how her project was coming along.

Betty had been true to her promise, several news stories protraying the squatters as recalimers of abandoned buildings and better neighbors than empty houses. The neighborhood association had also decided to support the squatters. The cops had taken over for the security, which took the situation's tempo out of the hands of the property owner and in the hands of the city, which was more succeptable to community opinion. And the stuff the squatters needed got in successfully, through a few cops who were willing to look the other way for a few Karma. The Mayor had come out saying that the cuty would host negotiations between the squatters and the property owner.

Not totally resolved, but about the best she could hope for with a single day's work. Tommorrow she would try to align more public support behind the squatters. Now she just needed somewhere to stay tonight. She posted her usual request, and sorted through the usual perverts and weirdos who always responded. Ah, a farm co-op in north city was having a pot luck and she was welcome to dinner and the couch. That would be perfect.

Now she just needed a ride.