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

[Micah Lee]

I think the biggest thing that makes Noisebridge different than most
companies is that it's open to everyone and everyone who wants can
participate in consensus decision making. It's hard to run a business
that's "open to everyone" if that means everyone who helps gets paid
too. But there are lots of consensus-based businesses out there. I was
marginally involved with a cafe/bookstore in North Carolina called
Firestorm where all 13 or so workers are also equal-share owners, and
all decisions are made by consensus. I was never an owner, but I
worked once a work for them during their meetings, so they didn't have
to miss anything.

Here's a website for Bay Area worker-owned collectives: http://www.nobawc.org/

I think running companies like this is a great idea, if you can work
out the initial investment problems (if one person puts in all the
start-up money, how can the company be owned equally by all the
workers? things like that). Of course if you work in a collective,
your job can't be "just a job". It doesn't really work too well unless
everyone is somewhat invested in it.

Micah

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 9:06 AM, Nuno Morgadinho
<nuno.morgadinho at gmail.com> 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?
>
> 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.
>
> --
> Nuno Morgadinho
> http://www.morgadinho.org
> http://twitter.com/morgadin
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