Thanks Alex, To make you feel better about the chaos, the lord of chaos is already a CC t-shirt made by barcamp milwaukee :) So embrace chaos, but you cannot be the lord of it. www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/1583760021/ <http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/1583760021/>Oh, and you method sounds like a fair idea too.
Kevin Ciesielski Bucket Brigade @KeVroN http://bucketb.com/kevron 608-695-5453 Bucketworks 706 S 5th St Milwaukee, WI 53204 On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 6:35 PM, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com>wrote: > No, I have not run off with the donated money. Nice try > Steven<http://twitter.com/foxbane/status/11343846302> > . > > And you're all *very lucky* that I didn't get around to execute my planned > April Fools joke of redirecting http://coworking.com to > http://www.regus.com/ for the day, just for kicks. But after the last > Regus-related stunt I > pulled<http://www.indyhall.org/blog/2008/04/01/a-perfect-partnership/>, > I thought better :) > > But, now, 2 months later, the dust has settled around one of the more > chaotic discussions in the coworking group. > > Chaos isn't a bad thing, mind you. One of the most important things I ever > learned from Tara Hunt was about the importance of embracing chaos, since > most things aren't in your control anyway. I think we all came out stronger > from that discussion, learning a lot about this group, and ourselves. > > Where we last left off: > > In the span of 30 some hours, nearly $10,000 was raised by around 30 > contributors<http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/02/coworking-com-the-next-generation/>from > around the world to go towards the purchase of the > coworking.com domain. The move was abrupt, mostly because it had to be, > and in the heat of the discussion one of the issues that we agreed to sort > out was a better way of distributing the visible contributorship so that it > didn't look like the domain was purchased by the fastest 5% of the > community. Furthermore, the old way left out the opportunity for more people > to gain access to the same benefits. > > Bottom line, we needed to rethink, and make things simpler. All of the > confusion was rooted an unnecessary complication. > > I put out a request for proposals on how we could re-collect the money in a > more democratic way, and then redistribute the originally paid funds back to > the entities that contributed. > > It looks like there are some common themes in the suggestions about how to > redistribute the funds gathered to buy the coworking.com domain. > > With the help of Jacob Sayles from Office Nomads, I have compiled them into > a plan and are ready to move forward. > > *Here we go:* > > 1. We'll have an open enrollment period for two weeks where we'll be taking > pledges from everyone who would like to contribute. > 2. At the end of that time, we'll find the lowest amount commonly pledged > that meets the goal. (simple arithmetic, yay!) > 3. Everyone who pledged under that amount will be contacted and given an > opportunity to *adjust* the amount they would like to give, or *withdraw*from > the process. > 4. When that is settled people who haven't sent in money will be prompted > to (we'll use paypal) and those who have already donated will be refunded > any amount over the final amount determined by this exercise. > 5. We'll write up a page documenting the event and thanking all the > contributors. > > *Reminders*: > > - Pledging money does not indicate any legal ownership of the domain. > It provides you an opportunity to be a *part of something big*, the > community acquisition of coworking.com. > - Until an ownership structure makes sense for everybody, the domain > remains in my Godaddy account, which I will bestow authorization to one > other person (unrelated to the contributions, and to be named) to relieve > the concerns of "what happens if Alex gets hit by a bus". Which, by the > way, > I hope does not happen. > - There will be more opportunities to associate with and utilize the > domain in the future, this is to handle a single snapshot event in history. > There isn't any gate closing. This isn't the end of time. That comes in > 2012, according to a recent John Cusack movie. So we have plenty of time. > - Not pledging money in NO WAY indicates that you are not a member of > this community. Conversely, pledging money ALSO in NO WAY indicates that > you > are a member of this community. *The only measure of membership in this > amazing global community is** participation**.* > > I'm going to set up the form to collect pledges on Monday, April 19th. Any > discussion between now and then will happily be factored into the plan, but > after the 19th, we're pressing forward! > > Thanks everyone, I look forward to the sealing of this chapter so that we > can move on to even bigger and better things! > > Cheers, > > Alex > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > -- > 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. 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