OVN regarding Ajinomatrix and FabLab common questions

[Gavriel Wayenberg]

Hi all,

Regarding Ajinomatrix, let me introduce the plaform: we digitize the senses of taste and smell for the food industry. While doing so, we try (very hard) establishing an industry standard that is both open and collaborative, based on open source and open science.

Regarding FabLab organized by Nicolas de Barquin, there is a will to promote a user-member base as well as a way to remunerate contributors and founders.

Both projects share the same ideas of how to grow an organisation's user base and expand it's core-useability through an organisation type that innovates.

The problem that we face at the moment is how to implement the OVN-model in Belgium and adapt it to the specificities of the juridical system to make it an implementable reality.

There are many other issues to discuss as well so feel free to join the discussion! :)

François

Ajinomatrix.org, CEO

[Tiberius Brastaviceanu]

Hi Francois et all, 

Thanks for reaching out here in the Forum. As I said, having this discussion here can help others who are in similar situations. 

Regarding FabLab organized by Nicolas de Barquin, there is a will to promote a user-member base as well as a way to remunerate contributors and founders.

 We created THIS resource some time ago, in response to similar request: people who want to create an open lab with a more entrepreneurial culture or people who are already operating an open space but want to move towards the OVN model. From there, you have a link to Sensorica Lab Stewarding page, which is the admin page for sensoricans using the lab, gives an idea how the lab functions. 

Please start with that, and ask questions if you don't find or understand something, or if you need an opinion or an advice based on our past experiences. Through this back and fourth process we'll also improve these online resources. 

... we digitize the senses of taste and smell for the food industry. While doing so, we try (very hard) establishing an industry standard that is both open and collaborative, based on open source and open science.

Yes, you can explore the OVN model for that, remix it, keep stuff that works for you. the first reference is the Collaborative Entrepreneurship course [do more with less], which btw, is not a complete course, but a project to design a course on collaborative entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, you'll find there a bunch of information about this topic. Your project can, in fact, be an interesting use case for this course. Proposition: we can setup regular meetings and go over the 9 sections of this (future) course [see the 9 sections in this presentation]. This would allow you to evolve your thinking about how to make your venture benefit from collaborative practices, and at the same time, it will help the course evolve, which is my motivation to help you and not charge you any consultancy fees :)  

If you want to take even more risk, you can create an OVN. For that, We've created an OVN manual, which is also a living, evolving doc. There is also a design process under way, documented in the OVN 3.0 document. 

Your questions tends to be leaning towards legal structure and governance: 

 

how to implement the OVN-model in Belgium and adapt it to the specificities of the juridical system to make it an implementable reality.

If you are convinced that the OVN model (or whatever you take from it) makes economic sense, then we can think about how to make it fit in the EU environment. This would be a nice exercise and I'm happy to be part of it. To increase the motivation on my side, we can make it as part of the Collaborative Entrepreneurship course. I noticed that there is no section on legal forms and governance. 

To start your thinking going, the OVN model in Canada rests on the law on association a non-registered association - Code civile section V, 2267

This law provides legal code for very fluid open and participatory networks, since peers don't even need to sign a contract among themselves, if their activities emanate from the tools they use, from the rules they embed in their collaborative environment, from their day-to-day activities. From there, you can build other traditional legal structures around the network, as legal interfaces between the network and the traditional world [create custodians and exchange firms and other things like that]. We need to see if you have something similar to a non-registered association in Belgium, BUT you must also think that your open network will not just be confined to the geopolitical borders of Belgium. 

NOTE: I am currently working with the Seasteading Institute and with Ocean Builders on the same problem, to establish another OVN in North America - see project here, look for Notes. We are also working with the Open Climate Collabathon to design and implement an OVN-inspired organisational structure for this initiative. We might get some funding to put some lawyers to better formalize the OVN approach, you can benefit from that. Perhaps we can all join forces and mutualize this process - money and brainpower. That's why it's interesting to be part of a larger network, you find people working on similar problems and save time and money :)   

The sensing venture and physical space are connected. If you want to adopt collaborative approaches for innovation and business development you need to operate in virtual and physical spaces that foster collaboration. 

So let's use this thread for general questions and move into specific action as we identify the need. I favor merging efforts and finding synergy between things that you need and things that are already happening. Synergy increases the chances of success, because more people are motivated to stick to it. 

[Tiberius Brastaviceanu]

Hi Francois, I reworked the Create an open lab page, created a How-To section. This might be helpful for you.