Tucked into a space no bigger than a computer monitor is a cyber community of individuals willing to do favors for others - more than 11,000 people in all, living in 133 countries. They are members of a group called Friendly Favors and they are on tap to help out a friend or a friend-of-a-friend - even a friend six times removed - no matter where on the globe they reside.

In this group, age and earning power are less important than a generous spirit.

One business owner donated 100 percent of the proceeds from product sales at St. Helena's Harvest Fair to a local environmental stewardship group. A youngster donated his time to help with an event given by a local non-profit. A sought-after interior designer spruced up a community center for half her usual fee.

At least one-third of the members live in the Bay Area, a reflection of the fact that the core participants in Friendly Favors are friends and associates of Sergio Lub, who splits his time between Oakville, Walnut Creek and his jewelry business in Martinez.

Called a "cosmic networker" by those who know him best, Lub is an artist, architect and entrepreneur with a wide range of interests and a humanistic bent.
"What we are trying to do is see how can we do more favors for people who are not in our immediate community," Lub said as he and his family settled in for an Easter weekend in the Napa Valley. "You can meet someone who is normally very generous with family and friends but is callous when someone on the street needs a place to stay ... If we are all a little more caring, then we will have enough room for everybody to be taken care of."

An explanation of how Friendly Favors works can be both perplexing and simple.

Members post the equivalent of a business card, including information about services or skills, on the Friendly Favors website and indicate how large a discount they'd be willing to give another member - anywhere from 10 percent to 100 percent (or Free). Instead of earning online gold stars for their good deeds, they receive "Thankyou's" - known to initiates as "Ts" - from those they've helped. The number of Thankyou's usually coincides with the amount saved through the offered discount. One "Ts" is equivalent to $1 saved because of the discount or favor received.

"It's a dollar earned but that you refused to take," said Sergio Lub. "It goes into your account for the future. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing - that is essential. To make this work it is important that the Thankyou's are not redeemable ... A Thankyou is not a measure of wealth, it is not a measure of income, it is a measure of generosity and good will."

The Friendly Favors concept grew out of conversations at a 1995 State of the World Forum in San Francisco and was further expanded by Lub and Internet web master Victor Grey, author of "Web Without a Weaver." The idea of using complimentary currency was the brainchild of Bernard Lietaer, who created the Euro, Europe's new currency.

Friendly Favors hosts guest speakers at events throughout the Bay Area - Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, will speak at a potluck dinner April 15, following his appearance at the Napa Peace Table. Aerial photographer Chuck Feil will be featured at a reception at St. Supery Winery June 13. At St. Helena High School in March, the group cosponsored a free lecture by John Falchi titled "Transforming Education for the 21st Century."

Friendly Favors also powers other sites, including that of the State of the World Forum, through software developed and serviced by members as favors acknowledged with Thankyou's. Lub estimates the total value of the favors contributed so far, which covers donated office and server space as well, is equivalent to about $3 million.

Lub, whose conversations have a tendency to veer down interesting and obscure paths, thinks of the Friendly Favors website as a cyber Rolodex; more informative than a collection of business cards but easier to maintain since members are responsible for updating their entries. This includes professional information, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, photographs and personal fields for skills and interests.
Each new member is sponsored by a current member with the understanding that if one accepts a favor, one does a favor for someone else. The Thankyou's help keep track of favors owed. A diminished Thankyou's account is an indication that it's time to do a good deed or two.

"We don't just act in one circle of people," he said. "It's like layers of an onion, these are our areas of influence and areas for caring. The closest is yourself, then your mate, then your family, extended family, friends, friends of friends. Normally there is less caring as the circle enlarges."

Lub's own circle of caring encompasses the world. He is a member of numerous groups in addition to Friendly Favors, including the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Acorn Soupe, Association for Global New Thought, the Bioneers, the Club of Rome, Economia Solidaria, Institute of Noetic Science founded by futurist Willis Herman, Napa Valley Peace Table, Praxis Peace Institute, Self-esteem Counsel, Sustainable Money Network in Germany, and Time Dollars Institute founded by Edgar Cahn.

Thirty years ago, Lub's address book could just as easily have served as a death warrant for those in his circle of friends.
Lub, a native of Argentina, was an art student living in Buenos Aires when the country was taken over by a military junta.
"It was a culture where if you expressed independent thought you would be picked up by the police and 'disappeared,'" said Lub's wife of 16 years, Gaye. "Many people around him were disappearing. They would be taken away and the police would also look for their (personal address) book and use it as a reference to pick up others."
It became common for small groups to gather secretly and ceremoniously burn their address books, page by page. When Lub's partner in a successful Sergio Lub Bracelet business was picked up, Lub knew it wouldn't be long before he was targeted. He fled the country, taking with him his address book and samples of jewelry and made his way to the United States.

"Today, 26 years later, old friends still call me from Australia or from Europe - the ones who survived - to see if I've kept in touch with some of our common friends in Argentina," he said. "Little by little I'm able to rebuild the network ... and it becomes so important to have that book."

Lub, despite his business acumen, said his experiences, and those of his family, have taught him the illusionary quality of money and that only relationships have lasting value.
"My father had seen it, my grandfather had seen it." During the Bolshevik revolution, Lub's Russian grandfather converted all he had from gold to Czar notes. The family ended up stranded in Siberia with worthless money which they used to paper the walls of the shack they were living in. Lub's father would eventually immigrate five times, "changing continents, language, culture, everything," his son said. With the help of friends, "He survived two world wars and three revolutions."

And Lub came to understand this lesson as well. "When the special parapolitical forces were looking for my friends and looking for me, the only thing that really mattered were the people who stuck their necks out and kept you overnight in their homes at risk to their own lives," he said. "I'm here because many people risked their lives to save mine."

Relationships remain important to Sergio Lub. Friendly Favors is based on friends recommending friends who in turn recommend other friends or people they trust.

"We are managing, for the first time, to allow technology to account for karma during our lifetimes," he said.