[p2p-research] Open Business Models

Thu Mar 5 11:10:54 CET 2009

Hi Nathan,

do you have an official definition?

here's a proposal:

Open Business Models are models that do not rely on privatising intellectual
property and hence do not impede the uptake of innovations by the rest of
humanity.

Michel

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 7:02 AM, Nathan Cravens <knuggy at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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