Table of Contents
Resource-based economy
A resource-based economy, proposed by The Venus Project, or a post-scarcity economy as proposed by The Zeitgeist Movement, and others, is a very similar idea to an open access economy, so it's worth mentioning here and outlining similarities and differences in the theories.
Similarities
A resource-based economy also advocates a world beyond a market system, without money or borders.
Architectural-systems approach
The focus of a resource-based economy is to take an architectural-systems approach towards people, their behaviour, and resource management, with architectural engineering and circular city designs with local access centers, and surveys of available planetary resources to determine what can be built.
Community networking approach
An open access economy focuses more on leveraging social systems and culture already in place, such as community initiatives, sharing and volunteering while promoting a primary value shift and behavioural adjustment, whilst we are still participating in the current monetary systems of the world today. When brought to scale and used together with available technology, it is believed these core value shifts at an individual level will create new patterns of behaviour that can render explicit trade systems obsolete.
Its aim to achieve this is to take a more internet-managed data-centric approach with transaction records and reputation metrics stored and displayed in accounts across cloud-powered networks (See Sharebay and Prototyping) to bring more understanding of people, their behavior, and resource management.
Prioritising transparency, the open access approach aims to provide access to information to increase trust, and to better understand humans, our capabilities, our world, and available resources.
Systems approach
Advocates for an RBE petition for the use of science and applying a systems approach to creating a better living and social environment. By making the operation of society significantly easier through science and technology, alongside exposure to new architecture and city design, it is thought a transgression beyond money and markets will naturally occur. The systems approach to design as in the image example above for a concept for a center for resource management comprises of five areas (or 'belts'):
1. Tourism comprising of social, restaurant and entertainment 2. Amenities belt comprising of access centers for food, medical care and shopping 3. Living premises comprising of different architectural types where people live 4. Energy sector comprising of electrical (solar) and thermal (heat) providing energy 5. Agricultural belt comprising of food growing facilities for the population
Differences
Both economies prioritise access to available knowledge and resources, but the resource-based economy approach demands that new architecture be built such as new buildings, roads, and city designs in a circular format with localised access centers to prioritise speed of access to available resources, whereas the open access economy prioritises open sourcing access to knowledge and resources already in existence by making them available at no or zero cost, with existing networking, town and city infrastructure we can readily build upon.
Conclusion
It is not out of the question that through granting open access to more knowledge and resources with a focus on learning to understand the human condition and how our planet and environment work and affect us, a resource-based economy with new architecture and cities may be born and come into existence out of access to this new knowledge for the betterment of humanity. Whether that be in how to build such architecture or where to find the resources to build such architecture.