I’ve been interested in the concept of alternative forms of currency, barter and exchange with regards to independent film production and distribution for a little while. Back in November I blogged about a Doug Rushkoff speech on video in which he discussed some of the new start-ups exploring these ideas.

I wrote:

With two-and-a-half minutes to go, Rushkoff reaches the reason I decided to watch the video: a discussion of alternate forms of currency to facilitate creative value exchange. Of course, the idea of local currency or script, actually being practiced in some communities, has surfaced recently in discussions about local solutions to the current economic crisis, and the idea of peer-to-peer value exchange led in the past to the creation of sites ranging from Craig’s List to Swaptree.

I’d recommend skipping to the end to catch this section, in which Rushkoff talks about “real competition to a Google universe and their economy of ‘faux open-ness” and new sites like Time Dollars, Itex, and, particularly, Super Fluid. He concludes: “If web cubed leads to aggregators and indexes, then genuine peer-to-peer will lead to bottom-up value creation. I don’t think this next era in the internet is about scaling up anymore. I think it is about figuring out how to exchange value rather than extract value.”

The question, then: what other forms of currency would provide value to filmmakers and what types of communities would need to form in order to make these alternative currencies viable?

I just checked out Superfluid’s site and watched their brief introductory video, below. Is anyone out there using one of these new alternative exchange companies with regards to their independent film production, distribution or marketing? If so, what can you tell us?

How superfluid works from Nathan Solomon on Vimeo.