HOUSES OF BENEFIT

HOUSES OF BENEFIT is developing a set of contracts to define and manage amenities of hospitality and survival in the cultural realm.

The first article in production, the Per Noctem Agreement, is an accommodation contract between a Practioner (artist or other cultural traveller to be lodged) and a Commissioner (in possession of a accommodation budget for this purpose). The contract is designed to credit a broad array of shelter options, including the private economy of social relations held and cultivated by the traveller, with equal value to the facilities of a conventional hotel.

As with a Per Diem, the point of the Per Noctem is to be readily acceptable to accounting systems and their managers. The intention is to enable the movement of accommodation funds outside the commercial sector, to a range of wild or offmarket options which the traveller might prefer.

Further applications in development by Houses of Benefit include the Host Guest Treaty, a baseline contract for the prevention of conflict whilst staying with friends.

These applications have been developed within the context of the UK cultural industries but are released as open source under the GNU/GPL for transfer to other locations/situations.