We are delighted to let you know that the Deep Time Walk is now a Gift Economy App – meaning it can be downloaded from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store without charge and with no expectation of any immediate or future reward. This decision has been taken to ensure that the award-winning app for iOS and Android has the widest possible audience and price is no barrier to experiencing a new story of the living Earth.
In doing so, we also maintain our principles that the Deep Time Walk App has no advertising, usage is not tracked, and there is no requirement to register. As such, the Deep Time Walk App is a gift to the world. It is our team’s small contribution to the Great Work – the urgent changes needed to shift our economic and political systems to have at their heart a policy of a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship.
In making this move to a gift economy model, we have taken a different course from nearly all the apps available on mobile app stores which have a business model of upfront payments, recurring subscriptions, display advertising or selling usage data to third party companies. Instead, we have adopted the model inspired by traditional gift cultures and the current work of Charles Eisenstein, contrasting it to today’s dominant market-economy.
At present, we are not aware of any other app that has specifically taken this gift economy approach. As a result, we are creating a Gift Economy App manifesto to encourage other digital apps to join us in a movement. The logo we have designed is the first step in this process.
Director of Deep Time Walk C.I.C. Robert Woodford states: “With the support of many people, our experienced team has created a ground-breaking, embodied walking experience that has the ability to both inform people’s minds about our rich ancestral heritage as well as reach people’s hearts to put into perspective the destructive impact our species is having in the blink of a geological eye. Making the app available on a gift economy basis means it is truely a gift to the world and ensures we fulfil our central objective to make the Deep Time Walk available to anyone with a smartphone, anywhere in the world.”
The team behind the app are grateful to all the people who have contributed to the project to date by purchasing the app, as well as the many people who supported the two crowdfunding campaigns which provided the bulk of the original app development costs.
Looking forward, there are many additional enhancements that we would like to bring to the app, for example, extending the reach to new audiences with the support of additional languages and connecting it will different cultural traditions. With this in mind, some form of on-going financial income is of course essential in developing these new features. Therefore, if you are financially able, please consider donating anything you feel appropriate to help support our not-for-profit social enterprise.
For those that download the app you can do so without any charge. However, if you are able, please consider giving back to us to help support the project. You may wish to choose an amount that you may normally pay for an audiobook or alternatively give nothing if this respects your financial situation. Alternatively, telling your friends and posting about the project on social media is also a form of gift exchange to the project! Whatever the case, we trust you do what is suitable for your financial situation. Any contribution will ultimately aid our mission to help people gain a better understanding of humanity’s rich interconnection with the living Earth and encourage positive action and active hope in the midst of the collective challenges we face.
To make a donation, please visit www.deeptimewalk.org/donate