[Noisebridge-discuss] Hackerspaces and Companies: Where they differ and where they overlap

[Joel Jaeggli]

On 03/01/2010 09:06 AM, Nuno Morgadinho wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> I'm doing a research work titled "Hackerspaces and Companies: Where
> they differ and where they overlap". It's about what aspects of a
> Hackerspace could one borrow and apply to a company.  Does anyone have
> anything to say about this?
> 
> Is it possible to operate a company under the same principles as a
> Hackerspace? What would be the main obstacles?

Define same. Corporate entities be they for profit, non-profit, co-ops,
religious organizations, etc are formed to advance some kind of agenda.
At the end of the day a for-profit entity is expected to return a profit
for it's investor's.

One could imagine a number of for-profit entities or co-op entities that
would have some properties of a hacker space.

The most obvious (to me) are something along the line of:

Capitalist aggregates hacker related resources charges a simple fee for
their use. (tech shop)

Capitalist acquires space, provides business management, rents
space/resources to what are essentially independent businesses. (beauty
parlor or realestate agent model)

group of partners or related business form an llc or co-op entity to
pool risk reward or acquire a capital good (example would be a building)
would none could individually afford for a series of related  or
unrelated ventures.

xerox parc

etc

> I know some of you will probably go sky rocket with such absurd
> questions but please bare with me. The real reason behind my work is
> that I would like to be all the time at a Hackerspace :) but I still
> have to pay bills at the end of the month :(
> 
> Thanks for any inputs,
> 
> p.s. I'm not a member of Noisebridge but I started subscribing and
> following the mailing list after seeing a talk by Mitch Altman.
>