Open-core and co-ops in the land of the future
2023/02/15
Can we build an equitable tech business that aims to liberate without being hypocrites?
Open-core
I want to start this article by first talking about open-source code. There are many reasons why organisations keep code private, some more valid than others, and I am not here to cast shame. But I do want to highlight the various degress of success that many organisations have reached with what is called the "open-core" model.
The "open-core" model essentially means that a business' core value proposition does not come from licensing a carefully-protected product but from the expertise in supporting other organisations using a freely available one. The tech world is full of companies like this: GitLab, Docker, Elastic, Redis, just to name a few. They create free and open-source technology and then host it on managed cloud infrastructure for paying customers and provide support and training consultancy. This gives people the choice to use the technology for free, but spend time learning and managing it, or to pay for a simpler, managed experience. It is this business model that we are planning to implement around our open-source technologies.
This sounds pretty great but it can be taken a step further. These tech companies are (mostly) still under the control of shareholders and directors, giving decision-making power that affects vast swathes of people to just a few. We then have to hope that they remain virtuous and gracious in their actions. What happens when a large institution wants to buy the technology? Typically, shareholders are in it for profit and so they jump at the opportunity to sell. Ideally, people using a technology should have a say in its direction and how it can be used for profit.
For these reasons commercialisation of Shineponics technology is being very carefully considered. Companies registered in Germany for example must have a certain percentage of board members be workers, I have a friend implementing a setup like this for a community-land trust. I am also very intrigued by the idea of a co-operative platform for many of the aforementioned reasons but there is still much to learn. I hope you are interested in following along with the journey.