Under The Sun

Last week, Tim O’Reilly was promoting a special OSCON session on his blog, Radar. OSCON is billed: “a place for the open source community to gather together and gain momentum.” I am a longtime free software user and contributor, so figure myself as a casual member of the open source community.

Reading Tim’s piece, I found something that struck close to home:

I’m focusing the program around the intersection of Open Source and Web 2.0, because I continue to believe that even though Web 2.0 is deeply rooted in open source, it’s the open source community that most needs to be reminded of the connection.

Wow! That’s how I feel, and that’s how I hatched my idea about web cooperatives! So I quickly chimed in on the comments:

Tim-

As I’ve noted before, I think a web cooperative might lie at the intersection of open source and web 2.0.

Not only does it hold a unique promise for its users, but it also presents a novel means for funding open source software development.

I’m kicking related ideas around on my web co-op blog. Your thoughts?

Thanks-
Sid

This drew him out a little:

Sid — I find your idea of a web cooperative intriguing but unconvincing. It certainly could work. But the best way to find out is to try it. In today’s web, it’s pretty easy to get new systems up and running, so I have acquired a bit of an “I’m from Missouri” attitude towards ideas (including my own) that don’t have existence proofs. Love to hear more when it’s up and running…

His quick “intriguing but unconvincing” judgement is good and fair. The rest of his reply is generally useful advice, but it overlooks the uniqueness of the coop proposition. I followed-up:

Tim-

Thanks for the reply. I completely agree about rapidly getting the rubber on the road — I’ve done that in the past. The difference with a co-op is that its implementation is in its organization, and I feel it is critical to get that right. Plus, it must provide services people or businesses need — what would you (or ORM) want from a web co-op?

So that is why, for once, I’m talking about something so much and not simply cranking it out. A solo co-op would be rather sad. To succeed, it must be community from the inside out.

I coined: “community from the inside out” on the spot, and I think it nicely captures the fusion you would get by mixing free software culture into a web 2.0 social platform. A cooperative struck me as a good vessel for doing this. Ergo: web co-op.

However, a spoiler lurks behind my pithy coinage. Free software and open source are fringe cultures. Does a web 2.0 user really have anything in common with a free software advocate? Their intersection could well be the empty set.