Cooperatives vs Flexible Business Networks

[Davi Leal]

Hi all,

I agree with you João. I think cooperatives are too risky due to the human 
nature.

So, I propose that if your company is not able to undertake fully a project, 
you could do outsourcing, offshoring, or whatever.

  "By choosing to work with multiple outsourcers, CIOs can cut costs and 
foster competition between vendors, while taking advantage of vendor 
specialization and technical expertise." [1]

Flexibility is good. For some projects you could get a team and for others 
another one: Flexible Business Networks.


As a proposal, we are developing a Free Software job site embedded in the 
http://www.gnuherd.org/ Free Software Organization-Association. Right now, we 
are redesigning the data base. Flames are welcome.

Regards,
Davi

 1. http://www.cio.com/sourcing/outsourcing/
    http://www.outsourcing.com/
    etc. at google.com



João Miguel Neves wrote:
> Well, I was one of a group of people who tried building such a
> cooperative in Portugal, but failed. Issues included accountability
> (who's responsible for what, particularly replying to RFPs), payments
> (who receives what) and general coordination. Eventually we had 2/3
> highly motivated people that tried to push it forward, but these
> discussions turned all work impossible and didn't allow us to reply
> quickly to inquiries. Obviously the problems weren't formal ones, but
> related to people.
>
> Eventually I convinced myself that it wasn't going to work when we
> failed to reply to the enquiry on a big desktop deployment project after
> having done a complete proposal.
>
> In the meantime I created my own company (Intraneia -
> http://www.intraneia.com/ ) and we're going for the free software
> support business for micro, small and medium enterprises (server and
> desktop). The company exists since March and the contracts we have now
> pay for all the bills. If things continue this way, I'll probably be
> hiring within the next 6 months (which is more than I hoped for).
>
> Cooperating with others would be great particularly as it has been setup
> according to the GBN definition I had. Having worked with free software
> people before, coordinating people and/or companies is the most
> difficult task I've faced (yes, I do think lobbying politicians is
> easier).
>
> Ter, 2005-05-24 às 22:58 +0200, Davi Leal escreveu:
> > Jeremiah Foster wrote:
> > > I think the idea for a *cooperative* is an excellent one. It would
> > > allow groups and individuals an opportunity to communicate and share
> > > experiences. And I agree that it ought not to interfere with
> > > consultancies or individuals who are earning their living supporting
> > > Free Software.