Mike, Good points all around; there's much to be gleaned from the open source movement and what happened to it.
I wasn't aware of the Open Source Initiative. Do you know more about how they have helped the world of open source? The phrase still gets co-opted and misused left and right, but I suppose to some extent that can't be helped. Similar to the notion of "open source," I hold that "coworking" is a concept that represents a set of needs and values that nobody can control or own. It simply is what it is. The best we can do is represent that concept the best we can, so that others may more easily and effectively participate. So regardless of what constructs we create, the concept will always exist outside of them. If somebody forms some sort of organization, it should be formed with that fact in mind. Tony --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Work City - Work with, not for. Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc Email: [email protected] Phone: (888) 823-3494 On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 2:36 PM, Mike Schinkel <[email protected]>wrote: > On Feb 16, 2010, at 2:08 PM, Tony Bacigalupo wrote: > > Serious stuff here. Let's take a step back for a second. > > > I agree with you in principle, but not as black & white. > > > Do you see the Open Source Initiative as harmful? They did it in part to > control the branding of "open source" which is essentially what acquiring a > domain is about, branding. This doesn't have to be able running a > conference, but it should be about branding, IMO. > > > When you get people with shared interest in an initiative together it works > when the number is small (see "Dunbar's number" as reference) but as the > number grows and new people come in without the crystal clear ethos of the > original members things turn to chaos without some way to manage it. Sadly > it's human nature and wanting it to stay the same won't make it so. Worse, > someone who does manage it well will be able to co-op the initiative (i.e. > the exec suites industry in this case) if it isn't managed by the existing > thought leaders and I'd put you, Alex, Tara and a lot of others online here > in that group. > > > I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure the answer is not "do > nothing." I also think we are all smart and capable people able to come up > with an answer that works well if we put our heads together on the matter. > Lead us. > > > -Mike Schinkel > Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking > http://ignitionalley.com > > -- > 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]<coworking%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > -- 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.
