Repository navigation
hold an "Open" House event #18
Description
Save the Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013, starting at 6:30 pm
Location:
Balanced HQ
965 Mission St.
STE 425
San Francisco, CA 94103
Schedule:
6:30 - 7:00 Drinks, warmup
7:00 - 8:15 Moderated panel discussion on "Open Business"
8:15 - ???? Drinks
Moderator: Diane Bisgeier, Program Manager, Mozilla WebFWD
Panelists:
- Chase Adam, Co-Founder/Vision, Watsi
- Jaisen Mathai, Founder, Trovebox
- Matin Tamizi, Co-Founder and CEO, Balanced
- Chad Whitacre, Founder, Gittip
Topic: "Open Business"
In his landmark book The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond concludes:
I expect the open-source movement to have essentially won its point about software within three to five years (that is, by 2003–2005). Once that is accomplished, and the results have been manifest for a while, they will become part of the background culture of non-programmers. At that point it will become more appropriate to try to leverage open-source insights in wider domains.
He was basically right, and projects such as Wikipedia and PLoS ONE have amply demonstrated by now that "open-source insights" can indeed be applied beyond software. Just how far can these insights extend into the products we build? Can these insights extend even further than our products into our business models themselves?
Activity
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
How about I just searched for "open business" (about time!) and uncovered some quite interesting material. E.g.:
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
I love the way the timing of the PG/Economist material lines up with ESR's prediction.
jkwade commentedon Mar 5, 2013
@whit537 you had mentioned Diane from Mozilla and Peter from Lincoln Loop as potential panelists. I proposed reddit CEO, Yishan, as moderator. I think figuring out people is highest priority, logistics around food and drinks can be figured out later. But we should get @dmdj03 to make us a sweet flyer to publicize the event.
tmblweed commentedon Mar 5, 2013
Will there be a "meet the team" part?
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
@jkwade Yes, let's loop them in. Emails sent to Diane and Peter. Can you contact Yishan?
Who else should we talk to?
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
@tmblweed You're thinking of something more formal than casual conversation time before and after the panel? What would you like to see?
tmblweed commentedon Mar 5, 2013
I'm curious about your product and would LOVE to see a demo or see how it works. Like an open learning/sharing maybe?
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
From Diane in email:
gitbiz commentedon Mar 5, 2013
yep, that was me.
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
People interested in "open business" and the companies represented. Personally, I'm hoping we'll interest members of the press, so we can amplify the conversation around open business in general and our own open businesses in particular.
For me? Promotional, mostly, if I'm honest. I want to get people talking more about open business, so that I can grow my open business. :)
What goals would you have for your participation in this event, and how can we structure the event to help meet your goals?
Again, speaking for myself—my thought with a moderated panel discussion was that "open business" has no one central "absolute truth" definition, and bringing together a panel where we can each tell our own story and having a moderator to facilitate the discussion—between and among both the panel and the audience—would hopefully model this reality.
I'm fine with tweaking the schedule. The above was a suggestion to get the ball rolling ...
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
@gitbiz So more specifically on point 3 ... maybe the panelists each prepare an opening remark in answer to the question "What does open business mean to you?" And then the discussion proceeds from there, with the moderator guiding the discussion based on audience questions and the moderator's own questions. How does that sound?
gitbiz commentedon Mar 5, 2013
That could work but could also pose this as a debate. I'm personally not interested in debating "what is open business?" - I'd prefer to position this as "approaches to open business." I think there are various models and do not want this to become a religious argument ;)
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
@gitbiz I couldn't agree more! I think the best indicator of the tone of the discussion will be the people participating. :) Is there anyone who jumps out at you as being a good candidate for a panelist or moderator here?
gitbiz commentedon Mar 5, 2013
We have a few local alumni and current teams from our program -- interested in any? Nudge, Trovebox (fka Open Photo) and Mobozi are all Bay Area > http://webfwd.org/portfolio
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 5, 2013
@gitbiz Sure! Any that you think would particularly contribute to the conversation? Hard for me to tell from over here ...
I've sort of been thinking that 4 or 5 is the ideal number of panelists. Too few and there's not enough diversity of opinion, too many and the conversation is spread too thin.
I also want to hear what @matin @mahmoudimus and @jkwade are thinking ...
71 remaining items
jkwade commentedon Mar 19, 2013
Ah, one thing I just remembered is that Balanced doesn't have enough chairs for all these ppl. I'll look into renting some tonight. Any other suggestions?
jkwade commentedon Mar 19, 2013
@gitbiz that list of questions looks great. I was quizzed by a former co-worked about Balanced's open business approach a few weeks and he specifically asked questions 2-4
gitbiz commentedon Mar 20, 2013
@jkwade : awesome!
Curious - if I came by earlier tomorrow can I camp out and get work done? Otherwise NP - I will be there at 6 ;)
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 20, 2013
I have the same question. :)
jkwade commentedon Mar 20, 2013
@gitbiz I'll likely be running around up until 6pm trying to get everything organized for the event. I've recuited @whit537 to help me out. What time were you hoping to stop by?
jmathai commentedon Mar 20, 2013
I can be there between 4 and 5.
On Wednesday, March 20, 2013, Jareau Wade wrote:
-- Snet form my mobl phoone
gitbiz commentedon Mar 20, 2013
ah no worries - don't let me mess this up - let's do the 6pm rendezvous as planned. I will find a spot to squat no problem (I do it all the time ;)
jkwade commentedon Mar 20, 2013
50 chairs will be delivered to Balanced HQ around 5pm tonight. Is that too many, too few? Going to get food & drink figured out next. Any suggestions? Was planning to pick up some:
gitbiz commentedon Mar 20, 2013
My only request: sparkling water please (wasn't that in my rider? ;) - thanks a bunch!
jmathai commentedon Mar 20, 2013
@jkwade Do you need another hand or do you and @whit537 have everything covered for setup?
jkwade commentedon Mar 21, 2013
Closing this issue after a very successful Open House.
Thanks @gitbiz for moderating. You did an incredible job.
@jmathai @whit537 @matin & Chase, thanks so much for agreeing to be on the panel. I know you're all very busy, so spending a rainy evening on a panel is much appreciated. I think everyone who attended enjoyed the event.
We had about 45 ppl at the event by my estimate -- not bad. I'm not sure about all of you, but I did very little promotion for the event. I'd love if we could continue the conversation about Openness into the future. Please call on this group if any of you have interesting events or conversations you'd like to share in the future. @gitbiz looking forward to your write-up.
Finally, here are some pictures from the event:
chadwhitacre commentedon Mar 26, 2013
@jkwade Send us the bill, ya?
aisipos commentedon Apr 1, 2013
Great that this happened, sad I didn't make it. Are there any notes / transcripts / blogposts / (dareisayit) videos of the event?
gitbiz commentedon Apr 1, 2013
hi there @aisipos > I wrote up my summary here: http://diane.bz/being-open-about-being-open
Thanks for the interest and here's to being open! :)
Diane