Conference: [14]The LETS Room
From: [15]Landsman C.S. Ltd / Michael
Linton [16](lcs@mars.ark.com)
Topic: John Turmel's Ideas and Actions
(1/1)
Date: 08 March 1997 06:17 AM
Dear Sabine,
You write, again, that John Turmel
"..donated $22,000 to Michael Linton for
the development of LETS
software in 1984," but you wrong,
again.
John invested $20,000 in 1984, and $2,000
later, in broadly ranging
development projects of Landsman Community
Services. Probably only
about $3,000 - $4,000 in cash funds has
ever been applied to directly
to software development, and that has
been spread around something
like 8 or 9 different programmers, in
Canada, the UK, Australia and
even the US.
JCT: That is
correct. It was never a donation because I always
Global LETS would eventually reimburse
its initial development costs
someday soon. We were both engineers who
had tasted hard times and
were doing something about it. I don't
know how much of the
development work was paid for with cash
or Green but I never worried
if it was used to board and shelter the
project's Chief engineer. The
support was unqualified. The money was
to be used as he saw fit with
no repayment date.
As for thoughts
that Michael has not given sufficient credit for
my part in LETS, the reputation the media
had tagged me with could
have hinder LETS development. We agreed
on keeping my political
promotion and his LETS grass-roots development
at a distance and
communicated rarely more than once a year.
ML: All material we have ever distributed
has been placed in public
domain, and made freely available to all
who want it, you will notice.
JCT: LETS was
intended to be freeware from the start which is one
reason I never worried about getting my
money back before Global or
National LETS had been established.
ML: You and under a dozen others contributed
$100 (some more) - and we
thank you kindly for your support - as
a registration and
acknowledgement to Landsman of past, present
and most likely future
productions - which will of course be
just as freely available,
JCT: It's too
bad that software which applies to the poor doesn't
find many users with much spare cash.
But Michael has always been
profuse in his acknowlegment of my contribution
to his cause and I
hope others who have contributed to his
efforts in registering their
freeware with financial support take time
to reflect on how much
Michael has done with so little and how
that little will certainly be
remembered in his books. Trust me, the
odd supporter who sent along a
few bucks added a rare spring to his step
that day.
I'm not even
aware of what adventures Michael Linton has had as
he spread LETS seeds around the world
but I'd bet any journals he may
have kept will be of great interest someday.
I hope that our
financial relationship in this has been made
clear. The Papa Engineer provided the
support with no strings attached
and the Mama Engineer raised the brood
of baby LETSystems and someday,
when they link up, I expect them to take
care of our Statements of
Accounts. Maybe that's why I'm in such
a rush for Global LETS?