[p2p-research] Open Business Models

[Nathan Cravens]

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 <http://www.appropedia.org/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<http://www.appropedia.org/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://p2pfoundation.net/Open_Business

OpenBusiness Guide 1.0
http://wiki.icommons.org/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
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