IT Managers have an article about a Canadian communications student is trying to put a new spin on open source business models. Greg Dean, a student at Simon Fraser University, is attempting to merge the principles of open source with that of a co-op and a regular corporation. Greg spoke recently about the structure that he is starting to implement at the Vancouver PHP Users’ Group, one of the very active PHP groups around the world.
On the first slide of his presentation, Dean described the ICT/OS as a ‘participatory, self-managed workers’ business’ designed for ‘getting the benefits of a corporation through the convivial democracy of a co-op.’ Punctuated by dozens of questions, the rest of the presentation explained exactly how he thought this goal could be achieved. In his vision, the co-op would involve three types of members: full members, who are freelancers in high-tech professions and have full voting rights; associated members such as lawyers who provide services to the co-op; and non-members with an investment in the company.
