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Biotope for Geeks
Dr. Volker Göbbels
Arachnion GmbH & Co. KG
http://twitter.com/VolkerGoebbels
1
Who am I?
PH.D. in Chemistry
Web development specialist since several years
Self-employed / own company since 2000
Freelancing in projects on location and remote
Building own projects
2
Who are you?
Anyone freelancing / self-employed?
Having a „regular job“?
Environment:
Working in an office?
Travelling a lot?
Are you happy with your current situation?
3
What do I talk about?
Its a gathering of information and thoughts not
Work:
where you want
when you want
whith people you like
for whoever you want (or not)
get paid for it!
Leverage your expertise
Learn new things
4
Self-employment El Dorado?!?
No, additional costs compared to employed:
Pay your heath inssurance yourself
Taxes
Possibly payments to chamber of commerce
Tax advisor
Doing your own acquisition
Rent an office (?)
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Where do good ideas come from?
Ronald Burt, University Chicago
Bridging: It‘s not how many people you know, it‘s how many kinds
Most good ideas come from people who bridge structural holes
It‘s not creativity born of deep intellectual ability. It‘s creativity as an import-export business.
6
Social community (r)evolution
Normally having more than a few people in an „organization“ requires some sort of management
Standard for management organization is a hierarchical structure
Contrary concept is „market“: free commercial relationships between buyers and sellers
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HierarchyMarket
Market vs. hierarchythe big picture
Everyone talks to everyone
Information G
overnance
Uniformity
Abstraction
You only talk to your direct neighborsupstream and downstream
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HierarchyMarket
Market vs. hierarchydiscussion
Gets complicated with large groups
No controlling, only negotiation
Communication costs high
Communication costs lower
But: management costs!
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OK, now where‘s the revolution?
Ronald Coarse, 1937, „The nature of the firm“:
The max. size of a company depends on the ratio of transactional costs (TC) vs. revenue
A small reduction in TC leads to a higher size limit for large and a better effectivity in smaller companies
When TC implodes (like with networked collaboration tools) new products and services are possible which were not achievable with a regular enterprise
Thats our gap!
10
Why should I try?
Scott Bradner: „The internet means you do not have to convince anyone else that something is a good idea before trying it“
The distinction between professionals and amateurs fall apart, this means for software projects:
We don‘t need a management (we can now discuss that among us)
We don‘t need project brokers (we can communicate with customers ourself)
We can be found by every interested customer
11
The cultural process behind
New communication technology is disruptive, not evolutionary
New technology is not an enhancement to society but a challenge
Things previously beyond our power become possible
The social media scene is just realizing that, in economy we are still struggling for an understanding
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Some figures
Cali Ressler, Jody Thompson (Best Buy): „Work is something you do, not a place you go to“
Results:
Productivity: +35%
Own dismissals: -90%
Forced dismissals: +50-70%(underperforming coworkers are more obvious)
13
Benefits for freelancers
No or less acquisition (communication of opportunities inside the team)
Work with people you like and who are cool
No daily way to the office
No „body leasing“
„Surround yourself with excellence“
Single freelancers don‘t get opportunities for big (and cool) projects
Nearly no operational costs
You decide if you work on a project (but you have to be seriously commited)
14
Benefits for customers
Ambitious projects require the really good guys
Often you don‘t get those as employee of a consulting company
You don‘t get them cheap but for a good price
You don‘t have to gather and form a team yourself
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Getting real
Tools for communication:
IRC
Tools for colaboration:
some sort of groupware
DoingText.com
Version control (git, svn, cvs)
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Open questions
What about the money?Someone has to write an invoice.
Does everybody see what other team members charge?At least inside a project team, there should be some transparency
What about the legal mumbo jumbo?Who is liable for problems from the customers point of view?
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References
Clay Shirky, „Here comes everybody“, ISBN 978-0-713-99989
Markus Albers, „Morgen komm ich später rein“, ISBN 978-3-593-38652-2
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Thanks a lot!
