[A2k] Open Business - An Example From Professional Football

Thu Nov 20 15:12:01 2008

Dear all,

Here is a recent post from my personal blog (www.educationload.com) where I=
 wrote about open business, with an
example from professional football in Germany.

You might ask what does professional
football have to do with =E2=80=98open business=E2=80=99, and rightly so. W=
ell I get asked a
lot how the concept of =E2=80=98open business=E2=80=99 can work for those t=
hat produce the
material, be it music, videos, pictures or text. Examples include websites =
like Trama Virtualwhere much of the created
music in Brazil goes, in fact over 58,000 artists are registered on it, and
more than 200,000 recordings, which can be download for free. An entire
generation of Brazilian musicians come from this website. Also consider the
musical scene in Para called tecnobrega, which release 400 CDs and 100DVDs
every year, but not through traditional stores, but by giving their music t=
o
street vendors who can burn the CD=E2=80=99s and distribute. The people you=
 think sell
pirated goods are actually distributing this on the street and doing =E2=80=
=98marketing=E2=80=99
work. Those that get popular get hired by the concert
halls, bookers and sound-system companies who in turn organize professional
concerts and parties. There are always funders -
producers or party funders - and they sponsor or have stakes in the music. =
The
artists sell CDs and DVDs after they go live. The number they sell is
indicative - and often good quality, better lyrics, et cetera, but they are
still bought in high numbers. Research conducted in Nigeria, Mexico, &
Colombia about music, shows similar trends (some of the examples are taken =
from
the A2K3 blog).

So, how does
a professional football fit into all of this? Well, Youssef Mokhtari, who p=
lays
in the German second (soccer) division, is a perfect example of =E2=80=98op=
en
business=E2=80=99. Having had a reasonable football careerin Germany
(including clubs such as MSV Duisburg, Energie Cottbus, 1. FC K=C3=B6ln), h=
e found
himself without a club this year. So, he offered FSV Frankfurtto play for t=
hem
for free until the winter break (when clubs can trade players again), so th=
at
he could present himself to other clubs. The only condition was that his sa=
lary
is donated to children in need.

This is
exactly what =E2=80=98open business=E2=80=99 is all about. You offer your s=
ervices for free, in
the knowledge (or hope) that others will either donate to you (often the ca=
se
in open source projects), or that you make money around the core project (a=
s is
the case with tecnobrega). At twidox we are also giving our technology and
infrastructure, including hosting, away for free to users and organizations=
 in
order to promote open access and access to knowledge. To re-finance the cos=
ts,
twidox offers a number of services around the core product (the hosting of
documents), such as the ability to print and have delivered large documents=
.
Would be
great to hear about other examples of =E2=80=98open business=E2=80=99.
For more
information about =E2=80=98open business=E2=80=99, please visit these sites=
:
=09* http://a2k3.org/2008/09/open-business-models/
=09* http://netzpolitik.org/2008/isummit-08-open-business-mit-erfolgen-und-=
definitionskrise/ (German)
=09* http://www.openbusiness.cc/2006/10/11/the-end-of-open-source-%E2%80%93=
-the-beginning-of-open-services/
=09* http://jamesdixon.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/re-evaluating-an-open-sourc=
e-projects-business-model-ciocom-blogathon/
=09* http://faruth.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/open-source-plus-open-standards=
-are-a-%E2%80%9Csmart-business-decision%E2%80%9D-says-eu/

Any more examples, or interesting websites, would be appreciated.

All the best,

Nicholas

Nicholas MacGowan von
Holstein (BA, LL.M.)
Co-founder

twidox GmbH
Bierstadter Strasse 17
65189 Wiesbaden =E2=80=A2 Germany

+49 (611) 360877 22
_ Phone
+49 (611) 360877 25
_ Fax
+49 (176) 234989 36
_ Mobile

mailto:nicholas@twidox.com
http://www.twidox.com

http://blog.twidox.com
http://educationload.com

Amtsgericht Wiesbaden, HRB 23640
Gesch=C3=A4ftsf=C3=BChrer: Jan Christof Deppe, Nicholas MacGowan
von Holstein

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