What if coworking is more than a space for independents? What if it's part of turning business on it's head?
I'll frame this with 3 sub plots "Revolutions" then I'll get to my main point. Tell me if you think I'm smoking crack. :) Revolution #1 - The fall of privately developed software Software quickly approaches a value of $0 over time as it becomes obsolete. In the mean time open source software is gaining ground on privately developed software. Even Google doesn't make money on selling it's software, it makes money on advertising. So (here comes insight from 2005), let's assume the next wave isn't making software and selling it, it's making software and making $ in a "meta" way around that software. Such as selling ads (Google), or supporting it, as in a technical services company that's keen to open source development. Yes, web services as a business are big now. But I'll argue that even products like Basecamp aren't exempt from open source competition (see activeCollab). And web services actually make their $ in a "meta" way. They manage the hosting for their customers. Revolution #2 - Rise of the independent worker The days of company, employee loyalty are over. Gen-Y doesn't trust big corporations and the baby boomers are pissed they lost their pensions. Also technology has given individuals the ability to work remotely and independently of a single employer. Check out http://http-download.intuit.com/http.intuit/CMO/intuit/futureofsmallbusiness/SR-1037_intuit_SmallBiz_Demog.pdf for more on the rise of the independent worker. Revolution #3 - Coworking spaces form I don't need to explain why coworking spaces are forming to this group. :) So with these 3 things in mind. Wouldn't it make sense for a coworking community to create a decentralized service company based on open source values? Thus creating a company with near 0 full-time employees. And is instead powered by independent workers who are already gathered in a coworking space and community and may come and go as they please. In other words. Could you take open source values, a coworking community, and create a decentralized company that supports it's community and rewards it's contributers fairly based on the value of their contribution? Thoughts? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
