http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/ en-us 2003-10-28T14:05:22-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/a-programming-collective-experience.html I work for, and was one of the founder members of, a programming collective, started 3 and a half years ago explicitly as a blog co-operative professional services firm based on open source software. I'd like to share some experiences, and ask for some comments, and even help. Good stuff first: we're still here 3 and a half years later, there are 15 of us (up from original 4). We started with no capital except for £20,000 from the founders ($30,000). We took on 2 people with zero IT skills, trained them for free and got them to the point where they were able to make a living (one still works for us). We're distributed: we have offices in two towns in England (people are able to work from home at least one or two days per week) and individuals who work in Switzerland and Canada (and in the past, Brazil). We have created and (just) released an open source content management system, and the organisation is run pretty much entirely on open source software. Next a bit of history. We started out very much with distributed decision making. All important issues were discussed amongst everyone, and decisions made either by informal consensus or on the basis of a majority vote. This continued until we got to around 8 people, when it started to get a little unweildy. We began to find that we took too long to make decisions, and often found ourselves revisiting decisions that some people thought had already been made. These were key decisions such as those about structure, product vs. service, platform to adopt, etc. etc. Some of us felt that there were compensations; though decisions took longer they were more robust and there was buy-in. There was certainly a very high level of belief in the company from all participants. So we streamlined decision making in an equitable way. We formed a series of working groups around key issues: project management, codebase, systems administration, operations and reporting. Each of these groups had a leader (the person best placed) but anyone could volunteer to join. The group explored options, wrote documents, and recommended decisions. The idea was that this would streamline the discussion and exploration stage - and for a while it worked. It's continuing to work in some areas - system administration for example. But as we grew larger, even this began to creak. Somewhere around 12 people things began to change, whether caused by the numbers or not, I'm not sure. In fact I think it was multifactorial. I'm very conflicted about what happenned next, and in fact right now its a crucial issue. Though our culture remains very inclusive, the last major and crucial participative decision was made at the end of 2002. This was on what we were going to do with our software - a decision that affected everything from project management to marketing. The details aren't important, but after 5 days of special 2-hour sessions (facilitated) in which everyone... anonymous 2003-10-28T14:05:22-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/donating-to-charity.html http://www.blogcoop.com anonymous 2003-09-30T08:56:42-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/united-diversity.html http://www.blogcoop.com anonymous 2003-09-24T21:55:17-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/restructure-of-this-site.html http://www.blogcoop.com anonymous 2003-09-12T22:57:02-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/web-presence-consulting.html The purpose of this site is to initiate discussion about the Blog Cooperative model. I hope it generates much discussion and ideas. I also hope that it spurs action. Towards that end, I would like to propose the first Blog Cooperative, a consulting venture aimed at helping companies manage their web presence. Areas of focus may include helping companies start conversations with their customers, speaking with their own voices (perhaps in blog format). If this sounds familiar to you, it's likely because this idea, as well one of my blogs, is inspired by Cluetrain. Most company web sites are impersonal, and read like print ads with hyperlinks. There is usually no way to engage in conversation with companies' principals or employees. This blog cooperative venture can help companies create conversational web sites that create real relationships with customers and prospects. If you are interested in joining such a venture -- and ready to do some experiementing with the blog coop model -- join in the discussion for this entry and let's make something happen!... Join the First Blog Cooperative Mark 2003-07-14T11:38:17-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/the-blog-cooperative-experiment.html In some ways, the first Blog Cooperatives will be experiments. To my knowledge, there isn't any business that is modeled in a similar way. Like any experiment, sometimes you have to do substantial tweaking to get things to work. For Blog Cooperatives, experimenting with various social software tools and systems for measuring reputation will be necessary and important. The discussion, deliberation, and voting processes may also require experimentation. I strongly believe that this business model can work. It may take some experimenting to find the best tools, processes, and practices, but I think that like-minded individuals can come together to conduct business as individuals with an equal voice.... 9. What about Blogs? Mark 2003-07-14T10:19:52-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/bloggers-and-blog-cooperatives.html At this point, you may be asking: what does this have to do with blogs or bloggers? The answer is that it has nothing directly to do with blogs. This form of business could be started by any group of online individuals. That said, I think that members of the blog community are well suited to the Blog Cooperative approach. Bloggers have a good understanding of how the web can be a platform for opinion and conversation. Communicating, interacting, and collaborating with others using social software over the web is not new to most bloggers. Much of this interaction is between people who have never met in person, often seperated by oceans and borders. Finally, I think that blogging has given many a taste of a better way of doing business. A way in which the voice of individual is valued, a way that doesn't include hierarchy and bureaucracy, a way that rewards individuals for their accomplishments and contributions. I think bloggers are ready to participate in this experiment.... 9. What about Blogs? Mark 2003-07-14T10:12:03-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/donate-10-of-profits-to-charity.html In my opinion, most companies don't do enough to contribute to charitable causes. If a company is making a profit, I think it should give a small percentage of those profits to charity. I won't get into the math, but if every major company in the world gave 10% of profits to charity, think of the huge impact that it could have. There is nothing specific about the Blog Cooperative model that lends itself to this practice (all companies can do it), but I propose that Blog Coops set an example and embrace this practice.... 7. Financial Operations Mark 2003-07-14T09:49:44-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/other-business-types.html Other types of businesses may also work well within the Blog Coop model. Join the discussion for this entry to suggest other business types.... 8. Types of Business Mark 2003-07-14T09:41:17-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/cooperative-source-software.html The Blog Coop model may also be well-suited to collaborative software development. Instead of open-source, call it cooperative-source software.... 8. Types of Business Mark 2003-07-14T09:39:19-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/professional-services.html Some types of business may be better to suited to the Blog Cooperative structure than others. Professional services is one area that seems well-suited to the model. Professional services encompasses a wide range of services, inlcuding consulting, advertising, web design, etc. Services are well suited to the Blog Coop model because the need for start-up capital is low, and because the product itself is the advice or services of its members.... 8. Types of Business Mark 2003-07-14T09:35:38-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/cooperative-bank-account.html Perhaps a PayPal account could be established to act as the bank account of the Blog Cooperative. This raises some important questions. Whose name(s) should the account be in? What controls should be put in place to ensure that those with bank account access act responsibly? This also leads to a number of legal questions. For an international business with no offices, in what country should the company be registered (if any)? Should the Blog Cooperative be considered a 'company' at all? After all, it's just a group of individuals collaborating to provide products or services to others, right?... 7. Financial Operations Mark 2003-07-13T22:49:47-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/financial-transactions.html Being an online business entity, it makes sense to use online services such as PayPal to conduct financial transactions, wherever possible. Of course, the nature of business will have a major bearing on the financial infrastructure, depending on the size and frequency of financial transactions.... 7. Financial Operations Mark 2003-07-13T22:46:09-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/startup-capital-and-membership-fees.html Depending on the nature of the business, the cooperative may or may not require start-up capital. In either case, the founders may choose to set a membership fee, payable by all members (including the founders). If for no other reason, the fee can act as barrier to entry, improving the probability that only serious individuals will join. The fee should be equal for all members. Payment of membership fees should not grant members any right to future profits of the business -- that is to say that there should be no silent partners. Profits should be distributed based on reputation and contribution to cooperative, not based on the payment of fees or investment. The implication of this approach is that members will pay the membership fee with the full knowledge that they will not receive any share of profits unless they participate and contribute to the operations of the business - nobody gets a free ride. This further ensures that members will have serious intentions when joining.... 7. Financial Operations Mark 2003-07-13T22:41:12-05:00 http://www.markcarey.com/blogcoop/reputation-system.html As mentioned previously, the reputation system would be one of the key software components of the operation of a Blog Cooperative. Ideally, the reputation system runs without much member intervention - it records votes and ratings and other aspects of a member's actions within the cooperative. All reputation information would be archived and made available for any member to view at any time. Reputation data should be able to be filtered by time period and category/expertise area.... 6. Tools Mark 2003-07-11T17:20:27-05:00