Timebank Amsterdam

Timebank.cc opened a temporary consultancy desk at Fablab Amsterdam in 2013.

Timebank.cc is a platform where knowledge and skills are exchanged by using 'time'. Open and non-commercial, Timebank provides the possibility to share and develop skills and knowledge. Users offering or requesting services contact each other online through the website, or offline at Live Sessions held every month.

They pay each other in 'Hournotes': every 'Hournote'  denotes one hour of work. Timebank supplies a tool by which professionals in the creative sector can request and offer services, extend their network, and deepen and improve their competences. In this way Timebank support professionals in realising their projects and ideas, and it enhances their independence from clients and subsidies. For this reason Timebank matched the mission of FabLab, and bolstered users of the FabLab in carrying out their projects.

History
The use of 'time'  as a basis for a currency isn't novel. There have been multiple timebanks since the Industrial Revolution. The artists Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda were inspired by these banks when they initiated Timebank (then called: Time/Bank). The Dutch branch of Time/Bank was opened in May 2011 at Stroom The Hague. Users can now be found all over the country and the world, and services range from acting classes to text editing, and from bike maintenance to web design.