I've been fascinated how this discussion has evolved. There are a number of very real issues being addressed, and this is anything but a bad thing.
I remain firm on a couple of aspects of the discussion so far: - the model used to collect the funds to buy the domain was done with the purpose of just that: to buy the domain. we overshot, a good problem to have. once the final costs have been established, a technique to either return, or appropriately distribute the funds to a domain-related projects (design/development, hosting, etc). The people who contributed could have chosen not to do so if they didn't trust me to be responsible with their hard earned money - more importantly, I'm in complete agreement that the model used to collect the funds to acquire the domain is *decidedly not ideal* moving forward. It was effective for accomplishing the goal, but at the same time it is closed, exclusionary, and doesn't fairly represent this community. Once the domain has been acquired, I think we can come up with a better mechanism, and that mechanism may even involve returning some portion of the raised funds to the ~20 funders that stepped up. - the discussion around a "coworking entity" has crept back in. *I'm not opposed to* the researching of entity creation, the creation of an entity, associating with with an entity, or anything else that's been tossed on the table. *What I AM opposed to* is the idea that an entity solves the problem of how this group makes decisions. The fact of the matter is that a group this large makes it hard to make decisions. An entity in any of the proposed formats (LLC, Non-profit, co-op, collective, etc) that I've read would not be any better at making decisions. We're basically talking about an *informal* clusterf*ck (I say that in the kindest way possible) and making it a *formal* clusterf*ck. Either way, I've yet to meet a clusterfuck that's good at making decisions. - I do think that an organizational model can, and will, emerge. That model will be good at making decisions, and act in the best interests of the community it represents. It may or may not include everybody. It should operate on coworking core values. - I am assuming the responsibility for the domain coworking.com in trust of this community. Should a new entity emerge that makes sense based on everything that's been said so far, and that entity would like to assume the responsibility from me, I'm 100% ok transferring the domain. until then, we'll keep the coworking.com related properties as focused and lightweight as possible. - To Mike (and subsequently Tony)'s points about Open Source: the most common open source projects are the ones that are code prototypes being put out into the wild with no leadership behind them, no stated goals, and no community of contributors; only a community of users. The *healthiest* open source projects adhere to the ideas behind open source, but have defined leadership that's able to make decisions that benefit the trunk project. Anyone can run a fork, but the trunk...the recognized trunk...is managed in every sense of the word. It's open to contributors, but to keep code stable and clean, those patch submissions go through several levels of approval before being merged in. Linux kernel, the worlds biggest and best known open source project, follows this process. *I AM NOT PROPOSING THIS*, I am simply citing the realities of how healthy open source projects are grown. What is an unhealthy open source project? In my opinion, it's one that is free (as in beer) but has an imbalanced ecosystem of contributors and users surrounding it, effectively making it unsustainable. Sustainability is in our core values to mean more than just "being green". Being sustainable is also a reference to business models, practices, communications, and more. I'm going to say something controversial, but is largely true: operating with unsustainable practices is something that open source projects aren't much better at than anybody else. "Opensville is a utopia, but nobody wants to pay the taxes." *Nestled between Proprietary and Freedomberg, Opensville is a utopia. > Everyone who lives in the adjacent cities spends their free time in > Opensville. The parks are beautiful, the shopping is amazing, and the > nights > are pure Vegas. Sounds like a great place, huh? One problem: no one > actually > wants to live there. No one wants to pay the taxes or put in the effort it > takes to keep the city running. Welcome to Opensville, population zero. > * - William Hurley, in his essay Welcome to > Opensville<http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-whurley/whurley/opensville/> > . Awesome, healthy discussion here. I love hanging around so many smart people!! -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 5:35 PM, scott anderson < sc...@statewidepropertyinspections.com> wrote: > As we are putting together our coworking space here in St Cloud, MN, I > sit back and read all the threads by you ‘coworking gurus’ and get so > impressed by how this movement is just taking off. I thought I was getting > into something that was just a simple concept of getting like minded > individuals (those who don’t like to work alone, but work there own business > in the company of others), but now is turning into this huge steam roller of > ideas. It really is cool to see the collaboration take place. I still find > the hardest part of this, is drumming up other “like minded individuals” in > our community who want to jump on board with the enthusiasm of a coworker. > > I know it all takes time & patients. Keep up the awesome work, > > > > Scott Anderson > > Statewide Property Inspections > > 320-761-2100 > > *Web* www.statewidepropertyinspections.com > > *Blog* http://statewide-homeinspections.blogspot.com/ > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* coworking@googlegroups.com [mailto:cowork...@googlegroups.com] *On > Behalf Of *Alex Hillman > *Sent:* Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:07 PM > *To:* coworking@googlegroups.com > *Subject:* Re: [Coworking] Clarification > > > > I haven't been ignoring this thread, or the other related to the > coworking.com purchase, I've just been in a conference all day :) > > > > I'm going to need some time to catch up. Thanks y'all. > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Steven Heath <she...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I don't know what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure the answer is not > "do > > nothing." I also think we are all smart and capable people able to come > up > > with an answer that works well if we put our heads together on the > matter. > > Lead us. > > > > I was one of the ones saying we needed 'something' to hold this name. > However, it very quickly became apparent that we did did not agree on > what that 'something' was. > > I very strongly said I would rather have Alex hold the name in trust > for ever rather than having a USA LLC or non profit company created. > Some of the reasons are legal (USA law is an arse when it comes to non > citizens as shareholders) and some of it is watching creatures like > ICANN (use USA law against its own directors) and the other is we are > not sure what direction is going to occur. > > We can wait. All those that have paid up trust Alex to do the right thing. > > Lets do the deal, bed in an initial website and then decide from that > point what to do. > > -- > Steven Heath > Director, Foxbane Consulting > Founder, AltSpace > Cell: +64 21 706-067 > www.foxbane.co.nz > Level 22 > Plimmer Towers > 2 Gilmer Terrace > Wellington > > AltSpace.co.nz - Shared office space in Wellington for home based > workers, freelancers, or nimble companies > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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