For those of you that haven't been following this blog: Some few of us have been working on a small project to test out some organizational and financial concepts that would enable the development of companies that work like the Internet.
Work like the Internet? Here's what we mean: companies that are highly decentralized, open and egalitarian. This is in contrast to traditional corporate hierarchies that are secretive, centralized, and totalitarian. What's the benefit of this organizational style? We believe these organizations would be much more productive, responsive/agile, innovative, rewarding, socially beneficial, and competitive than all other forms of organization for many business tasks. They would also make it easier to form resilient communities.
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We've finally found a very simple way to test out the concept of an open source venture with a project we're calling "Picture This."
In short, "Picture This" is:
A venture that gathers digital pictures of home/business/etc. at every postal address in the world.
Here's how it works:
- An Internet site that allows people to search on an address to view a picture of that location.
- An address specific self-service advertising system (akin to adwords and earlier work on context sensitive advertising).
- A cell phone application that makes it easy for anyone to take a digital picture and upload it to the site.
The twist in this approach comes in how it is built at the software level. It provides a way for tens of thousands to contribute and earn nearly all of the revenue it generates.
NOTE: Before anyone sends me a note on this: We know about Google Street View.