Collaboration / Beta Testing

17-Jul-03 12:01

I'm just tossing a thought out here...but it sounds like the legal and logistical issues of forming a virtual company would be a nightmare. So, why not form a co-op. Build a centralized branding and location for customers to find one of the co-ops fine contractors.

Each contractor subscribes to a certain set of business rules set forth by the co-op and a such is autorized to do business under the group's branding. Behind the scenes, the co-op members, contractors, however you want to put it can "hire" each other at a set rate agreed to by the group.

This will give you the power of many under a single umbrella, plus you can share your work load with others. It will also allow folks to take on larger projects than usual. It will let the individual contractors keep there own business separate from the larger entity for legal or whatever other reasons too.

I have a larger vision in my head, but have to actually organize it a little better if people are interested in listening.

I'll add some more to this post in a little bit. I need to run and take care of something urgent at the moment.

Regards,
The Boolean Operator aka Boo

jhaga17-Jul-03 12:46

17-Jul-03 12:46

Sounds ok to me. One practical issue, that I would like to be addressed, is a possibility for members to make investment in the Virtual Company in the form of time and hours, instead of in money.

More ideas:
- a way to control that all work that is done, has some minimum standard.

- use of only one programming language (c# ?) as a way of simplifying communication and administration.

** will add more later** Smile | :)

jhaga

---------------------------------
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Conclusion, 1854

BooleanOperator17-Jul-03 14:57

17-Jul-03 14:57

I agree with the part about allowing members to make a non-cash contribution. But, putting down cash forces a commitment. Frankly, right now time is about all I would have to offer though.

And there would have to be standards. Standards on conduct, business practices etc.

I don't think you could confine it to a particular language. You could probably confine a particular project to a language. But, I'm new to the development community so I would not be a subject matter expert.

I also think it would take out some of the appeal. If you have a diverse group of experienced developers. The whole team is more appealing. You could feature a strength like .NET development. etc. But still offer other services.

One of the challenges would be how to handle customers. A potential customer in Germany for example should be hooked up with a German developer. That person could act like a general contractor for a construciton project. The only issue would be how would you compensate the general contractor if he/she was acting as a proxy for say a developer in the US.

write more later...

Regards,
The Boolean Operator aka Boo

jhaga17-Jul-03 23:10

17-Jul-03 23:10

BooleanOperator wrote:
how would you compensate the general contractor

The general contractor would get paid directly by the customer, but how does he compensate the other members that has contibuted to the project? My idea is that he would pay by helping the others when they need help in some project. At some point we would need to start doing real money transactions but in the beginning we could do like this, or what do you think?

jhaga

---------------------------------
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Conclusion, 1854

BooleanOperator18-Jul-03 19:40

18-Jul-03 19:40

jhaga wrote:
My idea is that he would pay by helping the others when they need help in some project.

Well to be honest, I think that would be a starting point, in terms of helping others. Digging around, I think some groups similar to what we are talking about exist -- rent-a-coder type groups. Not sure if any exist yet where you barter time.

Let me state first, I'm not meaning to be negative. I’m just looking at things from a pessimistic, yet realistic, angle.

There are problems with bartering for services. Unlike bartering for goods, there is no tangible exchange. In other words, you are not trading apples for clams. So people tend to evaluate how they fulfill that barter agreement based what their needs are. Not the spirit of the agreement. This is not always the case, but I will provide a case in point below.

Lots of things are done on barter agreements in the radio broadcast industry. Thus the phrase radio stations are often, “Trade rich and cash flow poor.” Normally these agreements work out because the stations trade air-time – a non-tangible product – for goods and services by advertisers – often start-ups – without much capital that couldn’t afford to advertise otherwise. When trading for goods, this usually works out for everybody. However, the times when radio stations usually get burned are when trading for services.

For example, WXYZ is approached by start up ISP and web publisher X. They strike an agreement that WXYX will run 100 ads a month for X. In exchange, X will design and manage the station’s website. Since WXYZ’s traffic and billing process is mostly automated X’s ads run almost unnoticed -- faithfully. X keeps up its part of the agreement until X starts to get busy with paying customers. These paying customers start to take control of X’s attention and the level of service provided to WXYZ drops and drops until the station’s needs start being ignored. Of course the story ends differently in each case, but it almost always ends the relationship badly.

This scenario has been repeated dozens, if not hundreds, of times at radio stations here in the US alone. I can see this pattern playing out in the proposed co-op as well. Perhaps not with the frequency that I described in the radio business, but it will happen if no tangible product or financial exchange occurs.

Regards,
The Boolean Operator aka Boo

Heinz R. Vahlbruch18-Jul-03 7:19

Heinz R. Vahlbruch

18-Jul-03 7:19

That Co-op idea sounds pretty good. It will be a lot of work but I think we could manage it.

BooleanOperator wrote:
A potential customer in Germany for example should be hooked up with a German developer

I'd like to be one of your German developers ... Big Grin | :-D

Greetings,

heinz r. vahlbruch
c++ & c# programmer from germany

If IntelliSense doesn't have it, it ain't worth calling - Anonymous

My compiler compiled yours - Seen on a VC++.Net T-Shirt

Anders Molin18-Jul-03 9:44

Anders Molin

18-Jul-03 9:44

jhaga wrote:
- use of only one programming language (c# ?) as a way of simplifying communication and administration.

Bad idea, why limit what jobs can be done. Do you really mean that under this "umbrella" only projects using a single language is accepted.
Then it's going to die soon.

- Anders

Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"

jhaga18-Jul-03 10:03

18-Jul-03 10:03

Do you want to invest cash into the company or just your time?

jhaga

---------------------------------
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Conclusion, 1854

Anders Molin18-Jul-03 10:08

Anders Molin

18-Jul-03 10:08

jhaga wrote:
Do you want to invest cash into the company or just your time?

Funny reply to what I wrote Hmmm | :|

Right now I dont know if I will invest anything or even be a part of it. I'm interested, nothing more, I dont know enough to tell if I wanna invest anything more that writing this...

- Anders

Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"

jhaga18-Jul-03 10:31

18-Jul-03 10:31

It was not a reply. All this process would just be much easier if people would say what they like, instead of what they don't like.

jhaga

---------------------------------
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Conclusion, 1854

Anders Molin18-Jul-03 10:51

Anders Molin

18-Jul-03 10:51

Well, if you dont want anyone to critisize your ideas, then I'll just shut up and leave the discussion!

- Anders

Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"

jhaga18-Jul-03 21:32

18-Jul-03 21:32

Of course you can critisize as much as you want, that's the idea with this. And I will put forward new arguments for my ideas if I have any. I am only for C# if everybody else is, so I will forget about that.

jhaga

---------------------------------
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Conclusion, 1854

BooleanOperator18-Jul-03 17:19