Hi Mark, I was going through some old emails and saw this one, and it caught my eye. I was curious if you were able to get any sort of cooperative going. I'm a web applications beginner trying to learn all I can, so I thought it would be great if I could learn something from people in an organization like this. Thanks for your time.
-Jamil On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 11:50 AM, Mark Stephan <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello All! > > Over the past couple of months I've been passing around the idea of > creating a RoR Cooperative/Development Community/Knit Group of Freelancers > with a Purpose/whatever you want to call it. (Ultimately it might expand to > include designers etc.. but we're not to that stage yet.) > > The concept is that there are a lot of freelancers (or individuals with a > lot of free time) out there trying to make it on their own. They love the > benefits of independence, but really don't like the negatives > of independence. > > Especially with the current economy as it is, perhaps banding together > might not be such a bad idea, and while developing this in a bad economy, I > believe in a good economy such a model will flourish and can grow. I already > have parties interested in Dallas, Houston, and beyond. > > Calcedon has been playing with idea for several months now, and really > wants to move forward with it. > > Read our blog post about it here: > http://blog.calcedon.com/2009/02/13/community-and-corporate-entities > > Our goal in doing this is to play the role as an umbrella corp that handles > the sales, legal, branding, marketing, and other aspects that many > developers don't like, and allow developers to work on projects that they > find interesting, able to turn projects down they aren't interested in, send > projects to the coop and get commissions for that, build teams in the coop > to complete projects they can't do or don't have time to do themselves, > build community, mentor others, and be mentored. > > I think this is an awesome opportunity for those who are trying to build > their own products, but want to work within a community to get extra > work/mentorship/and build community. > > Our hope is to build an environment that developers find exciting and > beneficial to them, while keeping some independence, not selling their soul > to a company working on stuff you really aren't interested in, and sometimes > signing contracts that keep you from working on your own products. > > Right now I'm trying to pull together those who are seriously interested in > such a concept. > > I don't think this would be a fit for people who just want work, but no > community. Community as defined by you not only taking, but also giving back > to the community helping make it better for everyone involved, whether that > takes the form of mentoring others, building tools that helps everyone, > evangelizing the community to others, etc... > > Whether this ends up as an official "cooperative" or just a well organized > tight-knit group of freelancers, I'd love to hear from anyone intrigued by > the idea. > > I'll be starting some mailing lists to start initial discussion about this. > So if you want to be on it, please let me know. > > Also I am willing to meet with anyone interested as well. So email me if > you'd like to catch a coffee/lunch. > > Thanks, > Mark Stephan > > ---------- > Mark E. Stephan > > Managing Partner / Founder > > > > Ruby On Rails Web Application Development Services > Austin, Texas > > Http://www.calcedon.com > > Austin Office: +01-512-961-6059 > > Email: [email protected] > > IM: markestephan (Skype) > IM: [email protected] (MSN/YAHOO) > IM: markestephan (AIM) > IM: [email protected] (Gtalk) > IM: 63071782 (ICQ) > Twitter (Personal): http://twitter.com/mstephan > Twitter (Corporate): http://twitter.com/calcedon > > -- Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin
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