2009[edit source]
March[edit source]
This is my very first edit here at Appropedia. Wish me luck!
I am interested in understanding what an "Open Business Model" is because of what I think they might be able to do for humankind, but have some questions.
1.) Does 'Open' mean that the designs (such as mechanical drawings or medicinal information (chemistry?)) of the products from such a business are available under an Open Source license, or are Public Domain?
I hope so, for that is very important and good, since 'Closed' design is bad for us as an entire species when it stops us from helping each other.
2.) Do you know of any person or group working on the 'complement' to this important initiative? By 'complement' I mean ... whew, this is hard to put into words ... I'm trying to ask about the "non-design" side of things.
If an Open Business releases the rights to make a product, then at least we can avoid paying THOSE royalties, but the common person still doesn't have the ability to actually MAKE any of those products because needed machines are still too expensive.
What I'm trying to ask is: Does (or will) the definition of Open Business Models here at Appropedia include some attempt to solve this problem of access, and if not, are there any known initiatives that do address it?
Thanks,
SarahTrane
This is my first full length chat session in wiki form!
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for addressing the issue of Open and what that means in the context of Business or elsewhere. No doubt it will be argued for some time to come!
I started Open Business Models out of necessity to address practical ways to develop and deploy Open Source Fab Labs used to give people further access as you put it.
By "Open" I mean Public Domain. No one is to get a financial return or "royalty" for using an Open Business Plan, because that royalty is seen more as a cost in the long run. Licensing is important here only to protect Public Domain content from being taken and legally patented due to some legal technicality.
We now need to look for a license that works in terms of Open Business plans and make it clear just what the terms are. If a license for the topic under discussion does not exist, we need to work with the communities that love and know well the areas of intellectual property to write one with us.
So, once that definition of Open is made clear, the statement of an Open Business Model is exceptionally revolutionary, because of the assumption behind it. What we're (you, I, and others) saying by presenting an Open Business Model is this: I'm using this model and I want you to use it too, because it will generate more value for yourself and I in the long run if as many people as possible put it to practice. That is practice in terms of Abundance rather than scarcity.
So let's make an example out of this definition of Open and Business:
I want to produce a Fab Lab to make 'almost' anything, but first need money to build one, but I'm not interested in profit so much as getting these labs up globally for abundant access so people can make what they want to have (rather than purchasing it). In prospect, once these labs are ubiquitous, I will ask "how can I make this?" rather than "where can I buy this?" Knowing this foreseeable reality makes the presentation of Open Business plans even more relevant
I then go to the market and see what's selling for a high return that's easiest to make with as few tools and resources as possible. Once I've reverse engineered (open sourced) the thing and simplified the production process (potentially ignorant of patent law) I can now build it in our feeble lab and sell it for a return (like on Ebay) in order to put more tools in the lab which are then reverse engineered and resold to produce more fabrication tools and so on until a fully replicable Open Source Fab Lab is in every town around the world.
Open Business Models are used with the understanding it is a race to the bottom financially speaking and that this race is a good thing, because it means abundance (real wealth) is generated in the process.
To better address your question, Open Business Models began to increase rather than restrict access.
I will address this issue with the p2presearch discussion list and place a link to that archive here once its generated.
With that said, here's some resources that can help our projects:
An Open Business hub which provides the two additional links to this small list. http://web.archive.org/web/20160328022408/http://p2pfoundation.net/Open_Business
OpenBusiness Guide 1.0 http://web.archive.org/web/20100416223117/http://wiki.icommons.org:80/index.php/The_OpenBusiness_Guide
Community Blog / Resource for Open Business http://www.openbusiness.cc/
I wrote the content here mostly ignorant of how others define Open Business, described in the resources linked.
In discussion we can better determine what resources to add to the Open Business Model page at Appropedia to save the confusion you experienced.
Nathan Cravens
Effortless Economy
Hello Nathan,
Your effort and care helps me feel welcome and hopeful.
I am researching the links you gave, and hope to somehow be of benefit to you or others later, once I've become less ignorant (smile).
Sarah
Those links and others where added to the page to better assist our explorations. I want to thank Michel Bauwens for collaberating on a good one sentence definition for 'Open Business Model'.
Content on the page that relates to open business plans, such as the formerly titled 'Sell Stuff to Make Stuff Model' are now called "plans" and are located at Open Business Plans.
We're talking Open Business Models here at P2P Research discussion group, a part of the P2P Foundation.
See "Open Business Models" as a subject in this archive in the discussion history: http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/2009-March/thread.html
Join the discussion from here: http://web.archive.org/web/20110727035206/http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org
Nathan
Perhaps... an ..[edit source]
perhaps .... if wiki participants pool knowledge together to create a NEW IDEA.... they could collectively PATENT the idea... AND SHARE any PROCEEDS! taht might be an OPEN BUSINESS MODEL! for an OPEN COMPANY.! WHOA?!?! Emesee
Resurgence and update[edit source]
Since this topic found Appropedia many years ago, much of the same cloud of thought around open business models has grown thicker and more dense and is now producing new rain pouring down into the global soil of grassroots economics. OpenKollab and the Espians first directed me here to Appropedia in 2009 and remarkably, most of the folks I met back then remain in long-term protracted conversations on this and similar topics.
So, to list a few names to research that keep coming up:
- Eben Moglin - law scholar and advocate of software freedom, Network Neutrality, commons-based legal structures, business ethics and license compliance.
- Michel Bauwens - Commons architect and organizer of perhaps the world's most highly developed peer-to-peer production and technology transfer community - commonstransition.org
- Ward Cunningham - Father of the wiki and creator of the Federated Wiki Network organizing and connecting teams all over the planet through a low-cost lean wiki-based collaboration scheme.
- Pamela McLean - Teacher, writer and community builder who blogs and reports upon key innovations and developments along the lines of technology transfer and multi-continent cooperation and team building.
Of course many more folks are on the same trails, which seem to be resurging in a fresh and powerful way as a sort of liberation front, blazing further into new economic structures never before feasible. From my perspective (rural mid-west USA) FEAST.fm seems to hold the most promise as an organizing tool to coordinate globally-scoped action .. Festival for the Environment And Sustainable Technology http://feast.fm
Thanks for the attention, CQ CQ (talk) 19:13, 15 March 2017 (PDT)