Creator Co-Op

Thought of the day:

There should be new kind of business/co-op/makerspace/school/factory/thinktank. Initial working names are Creator Co-op or Invention Village.

There are a few big ideas stirring around for me in this. I'm just going to list the disparate pieces, and then try to establish how they relate.

One is that great things happen when creative people get together in community - as Paul Graham says in his fantastic piece "Taste":

Nothing is more powerful than a community of talented people working on related problems. 

The next piece comes from a fantasy novel, specifically, Patrick Rothfuss' peerless debut, The Name of the Wind. The idea I like is the Artificery which is part of the University in the book. Students can come in and build magical items from plans, according to their level of ability. Customers come to buy things there, and students earn a commission of 60% of the purchase price. Inventors can create plans, and if you create the first item of its kind, you get a share of the sale price on any copies sold thereafter. Presumably the University takes a cut as well.

Another interesting piece from fiction: Fire Star, a quirky sci-fi that contains some very novel (if overly optimistic) ideas about bringing free-market economics into the classroom - basically, giving students a chance to earn money and start businesses as part of their education.

I've also always loved the model of FreeGeek, "helping the needy get nerdy". They get computers donated, install Linux, and then sell them off at cheap prices. It's like a nerdy thrift store, except there's a big education component and they allow anybody to come in off the street and volunteer for a few hours to earn a computer.

An important consideration: the Open Source "economy", which has produced Linux, a freely available modern version of which can be valued at over $10 billion dollars, at least in terms of the cost to replicate it if you paid programmers to do so.

A counter-point, or perhaps supporting piece: The fact that free-market forces, judging by history, have probably lifted more people out of poverty than any other system yet devised.

Other, minor pieces - the advent of rapid prototyping and other maker technologies, the "gig economy", crowd-sourced investing.

Put it all together and what I envision is this:

A space that allows people with skills and equipment to connect and help one another. An amateur videographer meets with an artist with a design idea, and an engineer with a 3D printer. These people can design a product, market it, fund it, and produce it.

A space that sells its creations - a storefront.

A space that allows people to earn creations, via volunteering.

A place that encourages the open source spirit of volunteerism and the economy of share and share alike.

A space where anybody can come in and earn a few dollars - assemble some kits, ship some merch, man the front desk, build a computer, promote something on instagram.

How is this different from FreeGeek? A focus on makers, not just computers.
How is this different from a makerspace? A focus on making products to sell, not just to show off.
How is this different from a school? People aren't here just to produce pointless work and go through the motions.
How is this different from a startup incubator? It doesn't have to be a grand project (although it can be). It doesn't have to be grossly profitable.
How is this different from a standard business? Well, because the point isn't to earn money for shareholders, the point is to provide an environment where things can be made, ideas can be formed, skills can be learned.
How do you fund it? Selling the products, for one. But how, exactly?

• I think there should be a new kind of economics, and this is where the gig economy (and maybe some other things) come in. First of all, the main point isn't to get rich quick, although there would be potential for some people to earn basic income here. The point is that people want to create. Some people want to create, even for non-monetary reasons - just because they love the act itself, or because they have a personal interest in seeing a product created, or because they are trying to build skills for personal development.
• The commission model of the University is excellent inspiration - pay people when their products sell. Take a cut to fund people who are helping to run a storefront and keep the lights on.
• Alternatively, do big, self-funded projects and then make megabucks via kickstarter
• Let people contribute for a percentage ownership in something. If an artist designs a sculpture and an engineer turns it into a 3D model that will print well, and then a marketing guy makes a clever ad, each should get a percentage of the purchase price every time someone prints one. A bit also goes to supporting the building, and of course just paying for materials.

This idea is incredibly raw and unrefined. But it ties together some very profound possibilities in a way that I've been wanting to do for ages. Enabling creators by connecting people with diverse skillsets, giving them raw hardware to manufacture their goods, making it as easy as possible to bring products to market, and providing a platform to share costs equitably to both reward the process itself but also compensate people for their ideas... it could be amazing.

I need to give it some time to percolate. How you build this from nothing is one big question.