Open Business Model?

NatePuri wishes to share this idea with you all: "I've been considering approaching the founding of a new web services community from the standpoint of an open business model. I'm looking for input as what it would look like. How would it be organized, both from a technical infrastructure standpoint and from a cultural standpoint? How would people join either as a user or as a member? Should there be shares as in a corporation or should it be organized as a co-op? Finally, how would revenues be dispersed in the fairest manner? Perhaps we can flesh out these issues and companies employing open source software and documentation can take counsel in these words. "

Openness Rules

[euroderf]

If I follow you .. maybe the simplest way to run this kind of operation is to have the books open. I've read about employee-run companies that do this, and it's a great help, because everyone is working on the same information.

I'm sure there's plenty of community-access TV channels that operate this way. Maybe look to them for an operational model ?

As for as finding operational management, well, come to think of it, there's no reason why you can't vote for management, eh ? Management is elected for fixed terms, or until (in an extraordinary meeting) they lose the confidence of the voting class.

Does this help at all ?

Inherently wrong.......

[Wiggins]

Open source business model is a contradiction in terms. It would be possible to have a business, selling or marketing or supporting, etc. an open product (i.e. Redhat, Caldera, etc.) but to have an open business model goes against the whole capitalist notions, and because that foundation is not there, won't work. Esseentially that is at the heart of socialism, communism, etc. If you want to look for a good example of this, the best in this country is the US govt. No I am not some conspiracy theorist, but think about it, anyone can join, anyone can try and run it, anyone can work for it, etc. And while it is probably the largest organization in this country (other than maybe the NRA or the WWF) it is also the most in debt, and has to be able to make its own money to function! This will not work in the business community, it never has and never will. Seriously consider what you are thinking from an abstract view before thinking about whether it shoud be a co-op or a corporation, etc....there are underlying issues that should be explored way before income distribution should even be thought about.........

*bzzt*

[zerone]

There is in fact a open-ish member-owned capitalist business that grows 20% annually, past $1.2 thousand billion (trillion) ((no kidding)) in 1998 sales. (IMO RHAT and /. may have a tough time mixing private stock ownership with open source community ethics/compensation models.) Alternative?

VISA has been an info-age corporation for 30 years, now, growing 20% annually past booms bubbles busts bear bulls. No take-overs, buy-outs, trade-outs, shake-outs, raids. How? It's owned by its members. Shared in "non-transferable rights of participation". Dee Hock, who founded it, wanted to extend ownership to merchants and cardholders, but it wasn't possible at the time. Had it been, he believes it would be four times more powerful today.

Key to Visa's success is chaos/organized *open* structure that attracts the by far most valuable (and least used) resource on earth: human ingenuity. Call it "chaorganization". Read about it here [fastcompany.com] here [chaordic.org] here [cascadepolicy.org]