Open Source Business

What does it mean to be an Open Source Business (OSB)? It simply means we make money by sharing our knowledge. Same as any business. Then what's the difference? We share our knowledge openly without fear of loss. Like any open source project, the more contributors the greater the value.

We're probably not the first and to be honest, we haven't even searched for others. Put that on the to do list for now.

Yes, we are Open Source and Open Standards Software advocates, and use them almost exlusively (unless we need to use the proprietary solutions of our clients), but there is much more to it.

We are an OSB for just five fundamental reasons:

1. Companies don't even exist. Not really. You can't see one or talk to one. You can only see the physical manifestations of the Company; it's assets. The Company itself is nowhere to be found.
2. All of the assets in the Company's five resource bases (financial, time, physical, human and knowledge) can only be leveraged by one of those resources; People. The Company, in and of itself, and all of its financial, time and physical resources, has zero capability. It is only people, by using their knowledge, that are capabile of achievement.
3. Even then, depending on who those people are and how committed they already are on other things, the overall available capability is actually dynamic, not static as corporate brochures would have you believe. Capability is a function of time.
4. Knowledge is hard to define. Is it Justified True Belief? What about the Cow in the Field? One thing is for sure, all the knowledge in the world is of no value unless it is shared. Hoarding it and protecting it may bring self-gratification but can bring little else. Such knowledge simply cannot be utilised. It is only through the sharing of knowledge that more knowledge can be created and the utility of that knowledge can be realised. All by people.
5. Company policy is driven by risk. Risk is driven by fear of loss.

So, if our Company doesn't really exist and it is only our association of knowledgable people who have any capability, and we must share that knowledge in order for there to be any benefit from it, even benefit to ourselves, then we have nothing to lose. If we have nothing to lose then there is no risk and we consequently don't need all kinds of Company policy to guard against loss. After all, it is in so many cases corporate policy which strangles people's capability and constrains the performance of the entire organisation. The proper concern and responsibility for each other is our behavioral, performance and safety policy.

No policy should not mean chaos. In order for any person to operate in any kind of social network they must sometimes subordinate their individual behaviour to the needs of the group. This is natural and normal, and happens with your family, friends, clubs, at the cinema, at a restaurant, everywhere. It is how we all get along. To subordinate should not be taken to be a bad thing. It is a social necessity.

At work subordinate may mean we have to take orders from somebody else. That is bad, but we all have a role to play to secure the future of the business. At work too we also must subordinate ourselves in the same social context as the rest of our lives in order to get along with our work colleagues and customers. There are behaviours that are acceptable and those that are not. Those behaviours are different at different kinds of workplaces and in different cultural settings. The thing is, we all know what is required because we have been doing it all our lives.