Beyond Open for Business

Reports about open source tend to be rather one-sided: either polemics against, or propaganda for, depending on who's paying for them. That makes a new report written by Jim Norton, former President of the BCS, with the rather unoriginal title "Open for Business", particularly welcome, since it has been sponsored by Amadeus, which describes itself as follows:

On Open Enterprise blog.

Of Open Data Startups and Open Businesses

Last week I was invited to talk at the South Tyrol Free Software Conference which took place in northern Italy, in the city of Bolzano (disclosure: a paid gig.) As its title indicates, this was a more local, specialised conference than some of its more famous international siblings, but I was impressed just how much activity was going on. It was also interesting to see that open data was already a hot topic here - it's not just national holdings that are being opened up.

On Open Enterprise blog.

Open Cities Toronto 2007

Open Cities Toronto 2007 is a weekend-long web of conversation and celebration that asks: how do we collaboratively add more open to the urban landscape we share? What happens when people working on open source, public space, open content, mash up art, and open business work together? How do we make Toronto a magnet for people playing with the open meme?

Sounds my sort of place. (Via Boing Boing.)

Open Source Laser Business???

Maybe you can push a meme too far:

We are publishing how to use the high powered laser system, set up, techniques, business practices and templates. You could start your own laser business, we'll even help you.

(Via Slashdot.)

Designing Business for an Open World

It's interesting to note the number of pamphlets that are being written as primers, explaining this wacky open stuff to "normal" people. Here's another one:

How do you do business with an illusive network that belongs to nobody? How do you work with talented people you are likely never to meet and who are not motivated by money? How can businesses learn to “take advantage of” innovation when it comes along in an open-platform world?

And on another level, are we seeing the beginning of the end for the existing business models based on hierarchy, planning and management, and pure competition?

We are in fact seeing a new level of change. What are the indicators? The rise of open-source development communities. The growth of an on-line knowledge commons. A shift of power to socially and technologically connected “smart mobs.” And many more.

Nothing new, but handy for the boss.

Open Business on Open Content

Once more, the indispensable Open Access News takes me somewhere I didn't know I wanted to go. This time it's to a site called Open Business. According to its home page:

OpenBusiness is a platform to share and develop innovative Open Business ideas - entrepreneurial ideas which are built around openness, free services and free access. The two main aims of the project are to build an online resource of innovative business models, ideas and tools, and to publish an OpenBusiness Guidebook.

At the moment it seems to be another tripod, with legs in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Its basic form is a blog, topped off with a dash of wiki.

The link that brought me here led to an interview with Esther Dyson. I have to confess that I tend to find her a little, er, light, shall we say? But this interview was an exception, and she had some interesting background to give on Del.icio.us, in which she was an angel investor.

I'm still not entirely clear what the site is doing - either strategically or structurally - but it has pointers to stuff I wasn't aware of, so it gets brownie points for that if for nothing else. One to return to.