Here’s how I framed the scope of my thesis before:

Peer production and the networked enterprise: how can peer production and peer governance be used to create enterprises, or networks of enterprises, that can compete in the marketplace without exploiting labor or negatively impacting the biosphere.

Way too big for fifty pages.  Here are some sub-themes:

Peer enterprise and capital

I heard Douglas Rushkoff speak at NYU and he had this great talk about how we have too many people whose job it is to just move money around.  Too many entrepreneurs worry about how they are going to get funding for their idea before they ever start building it.  A lot of value can be created on a shoestring.

A nice thought, but there are only so many enterprises that can get off the ground without major funding.  You can’t build a better nuclear reactor on a shoestring.  It works for software projects that require only time and a net-enabled PC, but not for many other worthy projects.

So what are some of the ways that networked enterprise can circumvent the requirements of capital?

• crowdfunding: get seed capital from friends and well-wishers
• cheaper coordination: you can run your whole business on Google
• legal innovation: innovations like virtual companies and oneclickorgs eliminate physical space requirements and reduce legal costs
• collaborative mindset: social enterprises that aren’t seeking to hoard value can more freely collaborate with other enterprises
• networked micro-agencies: instead of having a single entity with multiple divisions, you have many specialized micro-entities that can freely associate in order to meet the needs of a complex project
• ad-hoc enterprise: networks of micro-agencies can create new entities for specific cooperative projects, and then let those entities die when the project is finished

The Decline of the Corporate Person

I forget where I read this (maybe Benker’s Wealth of Networks) but it turns out that the original intention of the corporation was to facilitate one-off projects that would benefit the community.  You need to build a bridge or a church or a factory?  This legal vehicle will smooth out that process. And when the project is done, you kill the entity.

But now it’s getting cheaper to do the things that companies do, and there is a growing movement to celebrate the independent worker.  Corporations are increasingly being seen as means rather than ends again.

Heterogeneous Excess Capacity and Alternative Currencies

I recently read Robin Chase’s excellent post on Cooperative Capitalism:

http://networkmusings.blogspot.com/2008/11/time-for-cooperative-capitalism.html

This simple formula is the basis of ZipCar and GoLoco:

1. Identify excess capacity.
2. Build a platform for others to share/engage with this excess capacity.
3. Appreciate unanticipated benefits

When you have a fairly homogeneous good, like transit capacity, the path to building a platform to share that capacity is more clear.  One of the problems I’ve been working on is how organizations with similar goals but heterogeneous surplus can better exchange that surplus to meet their shared goal.

Imagine these three entities that all share a desire to, say, fight climate change:

• I have a bunch of great web developers and need some marketing help.
• You’re a law firm that needs a website.
• You know a marketing firm that needs some legal help

How can we discover this opportunity and then make good on it for our mutual benefit, thus strengthening the movement we’re all a part of?  There are lots of factors.  This is what we’re working on at http://openkollab.com