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Toward the Open Company

Posted by kdawson on from the putting-it-on-the-line dept.

Arto Stimms writes "The author of the e text editor is using the principles of open source to transform his company into an Open Company. Not only is he releasing the source, the company itself becomes totally open: no concept of bosses or employees. Anyone can join in at any time, doing whatever task they find interesting, for whatever time they find appropriate. This is in service of the idea of 'the real freedom zero': the freedom to decide for yourself what you want to work on."

4 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. There's already a name for this... by Chris+Missiles · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think the new buzzword for this is "crowdsourcing".

  2. Re:Ok, I will join! by Quothz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh, you mean this company is not going to pay me and I should work for free?

    Read. The. Fucking. Article.

    No, really.

  3. Re:Seriously.. has no one read Atlas Shrugged by Hemogoblin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Getting really offtopic, but I thought I'd share this interesting Economist article regarding Atlas Shrugged.

    Atlas felt a sense of deja vu
    Feb 26th 2009
    The economic bust has caused a boom for at least one author

    BOOKS do not sell themselves: that is what films are for. "The Reader", the book that inspired the Oscar-winning film, has shot up the bestseller lists. Another recent publishing success, however, has had more help from Washington, DC, than Hollywood. That book is Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged".

    http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13185404

  4. Re:I don't think it will work... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 5, Informative

    Once a cornerstone of its socially responsible identity, the company removed its salary cap on the compensation of its highest paid employee in 1994. The company historically limited the salary of its highest paid employee to no more than five times the salary of the lowest paid worker (though the ratio was revised to seven-to-one in 1993). With the removal of the cap, the gap between the highest and lowest paid employee has risen to unprecedented levels. The ratio was an astounding 16-1 in 1998 and is even higher once the current value of unexercised stock options are factored in! Of course, even under the former stringent salary cap, the ratio was misleading for it did not take into account stock options for executives. http://leda.law.harvard.edu/leda/data/236/Patel,_Tupate_-_Paper.html