hold an "Open" House event

[chadwhitacre]

Save the Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013, starting at 6:30 pm

Location: Balanced HQ 965 Mission St. STE 425 San Francisco, CA 94103

Schedule:

6:30 - 7:00 Drinks, warmup 7:00 - 8:15 Moderated panel discussion on "Open Business" 8:15 - ???? Drinks

Moderator: Diane Bisgeier, Program Manager, Mozilla WebFWD

Panelists:

• Chase Adam, Co-Founder/Vision, Watsi
• Jaisen Mathai, Founder, Trovebox
• Matin Tamizi, Co-Founder and CEO, Balanced
• Chad Whitacre, Founder, Gittip

Topic: "Open Business"

In his landmark book The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond concludes:

I expect the open-source movement to have essentially won its point about software within three to five years (that is, by 2003–2005). Once that is accomplished, and the results have been manifest for a while, they will become part of the background culture of non-programmers. At that point it will become more appropriate to try to leverage open-source insights in wider domains.

He was basically right, and projects such as Wikipedia and PLoS ONE have amply demonstrated by now that "open-source insights" can indeed be applied beyond software. Just how far can these insights extend into the products we build? Can these insights extend even further than our products into our business models themselves?

[chadwhitacre]

How about I just searched for "open business" (about time!) and uncovered some quite interesting material. E.g.:

• Wikipedia entry - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_business
• 2005 Paul Graham essay - What Business Can Learn from Open Source - "But the biggest thing business has to learn from open source is not about Linux or Firefox, but about the forces that produced them. Ultimately these will affect a lot more than what software you use."
• 2006 Economist article - Open, but not as usual - "As 'open-source' models move beyond software into other businesses, their limitations are becoming apparent"
• A couple trade groups - OpenBusiness, Open Business Council

[chadwhitacre]

I love the way the timing of the PG/Economist material lines up with ESR's prediction.

[jkwade]

@whit537 you had mentioned Diane from Mozilla and Peter from Lincoln Loop as potential panelists. I proposed reddit CEO, Yishan, as moderator. I think figuring out people is highest priority, logistics around food and drinks can be figured out later. But we should get @dmdj03 to make us a sweet flyer to publicize the event.

[tmblweed]

Will there be a "meet the team" part?

[chadwhitacre]

@jkwade Yes, let's loop them in. Emails sent to Diane and Peter. Can you contact Yishan?

Who else should we talk to?

[chadwhitacre]

@tmblweed You're thinking of something more formal than casual conversation time before and after the panel? What would you like to see?

[tmblweed]

I'm curious about your product and would LOVE to see a demo or see how it works. Like an open learning/sharing maybe?

[chadwhitacre]

From Diane in email:

Questions: 1) Who will the audience members be? 2) What is the goal of the panel? Educational? Promotional (if so, of what)? Other? 3) What is the agenda for the panel? A bunch of Q&A? Or anything else? 4) Related to #3: Looks like this will go to 9pm - is there any flexibility on starting the panel so things wind up a smidge earlier? Or maybe having a panel less than 75 minutes (that feels a bit long to me regardless - I fear the audience may not have that kind of stamina, let alone myself ;)

[gitbiz]

yep, that was me.

[chadwhitacre]

1) Who will the audience members be?

People interested in "open business" and the companies represented. Personally, I'm hoping we'll interest members of the press, so we can amplify the conversation around open business in general and our own open businesses in particular.

2) What is the goal of the panel? Educational? Promotional (if so, of what)? Other?

For me? Promotional, mostly, if I'm honest. I want to get people talking more about open business, so that I can grow my open business. :)

What goals would you have for your participation in this event, and how can we structure the event to help meet your goals?

3) What is the agenda for the panel? A bunch of Q&A? Or anything else?

Again, speaking for myself—my thought with a moderated panel discussion was that "open business" has no one central "absolute truth" definition, and bringing together a panel where we can each tell our own story and having a moderator to facilitate the discussion—between and among both the panel and the audience—would hopefully model this reality.

4) Related to #3: Looks like this will go to 9pm - is there any flexibility on starting the panel so things wind up a smidge earlier? Or maybe having a panel less than 75 minutes (that feels a bit long to me regardless - I fear the audience may not have that kind of stamina, let alone myself ;)

I'm fine with tweaking the schedule. The above was a suggestion to get the ball rolling ...

[chadwhitacre]

@gitbiz So more specifically on point 3 ... maybe the panelists each prepare an opening remark in answer to the question "What does open business mean to you?" And then the discussion proceeds from there, with the moderator guiding the discussion based on audience questions and the moderator's own questions. How does that sound?

[gitbiz]

That could work but could also pose this as a debate. I'm personally not interested in debating "what is open business?" - I'd prefer to position this as "approaches to open business." I think there are various models and do not want this to become a religious argument ;)

[chadwhitacre]

@gitbiz I couldn't agree more! I think the best indicator of the tone of the discussion will be the people participating. :) Is there anyone who jumps out at you as being a good candidate for a panelist or moderator here?

[gitbiz]

We have a few local alumni and current teams from our program -- interested in any? Nudge, Trovebox (fka Open Photo) and Mobozi are all Bay Area > http://webfwd.org/portfolio

[chadwhitacre]

@gitbiz Sure! Any that you think would particularly contribute to the conversation? Hard for me to tell from over here ...

I've sort of been thinking that 4 or 5 is the ideal number of panelists. Too few and there's not enough diversity of opinion, too many and the conversation is spread too thin.

I also want to hear what @matin @mahmoudimus and @jkwade are thinking ...

[gitbiz]

I just shared it with those teams + Entropy Wave. Question: how will you be getting the word out (dist lists,user groups etc)? This will help us all know what kind of audience to expect. Thanks!

[chadwhitacre]

@gitbiz Cool, thanks! :) Most of my marketing happens through Twitter at this point. I may also reach out to the trade groups mentioned above to see if this is something they're interested in. We've also got Gittip and Balanced blogs we can use. Maybe a press item from Balanced announcing the event would get some play in local outlets? Open to suggestions ...

[chadwhitacre]

I tweeted at those two trade groups:

• OpenBusiness.cc: https://twitter.com/whit537/status/309128897683931137
• The Open Business Council: https://twitter.com/whit537/status/309128730930978816

[gitbiz]

nice! I'd reach out directly to as many people that you already know as possible. Cold digital outreach can be tough. In the meantime, Nick of our team Mobozi is definitely interested! I told him to jump in on this chat but may have to resort to evil email if he doesn't have a Git account yet ;)

[jmathai]

@getbiz pinged me and I'm interested. I'm behind OpenPhoto / Trovebox.

[chadwhitacre]

@gitbiz @jmathai Sweet! May I add the two of you to the list of panelists, then?

[gitbiz]

+1 for me. Can you share the location (more specific than 5th & Mission ;) and based on this thread, can we plan for 6:30pm - 8:30pm? :) thanks!

[gitbiz]

Also, is this the link we should share with people? Given not everyone uses Github my suggestion would be to create an Eventbrite or other form to track RSVPs/estimated attendance, etc.

[chadwhitacre]

@gitbiz Yay! Thank you! :D

The location is the Balanced office at 965 Mission Street, suite 425.

I'll let @jkwade speak to the time. If we don't hear from him tomorrow I'll probably give him a call, to keep this rolling. :)

I think we want to use Eventbrite and/or a page on Balanced's site to promote the event. I don't think we want to direct people here who are just interested in attending the event (though of course anyone is welcome to chime in here re: planning).

[gitbiz]

perfect! Pls just pass on the Eventbrite link when it's ready and we'll do our best to get the word out on our end too. Maybe we can have a planning session via phone with the panelists and moderator when that gets settled too.This will be fun!

[chadwhitacre]

I went ahead and tweaked the time and location at the top of the thread.

[gitbiz]

Awesome! We can talk format too - if we go 75 mins we def want to include lots of audience participation - which is a good thing. Very 'open' :-)

[jkwade]

I'll get our designer to create a flier and host that on our site, but the main link should be an Eventbrite link. I'd like to track attendance since im sure we're going to have to abide by fire codes or something.

I haven't had a chance to ping Yishan yet, but will do so tomorrow or tonight.

-Jareau

On Mar 6, 2013, at 7:53 PM, gitbiz notifications@github.com wrote:

Awesome! We can talk format too - if we go 75 mins we def want to include lots of audience participation - which is a good thing. Very 'open' :-)

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/balanced/balanced.github.com/issues/18#issuecomment-14541747 .

[jmathai]

@whit537 Happy to be a panelist. I wouldn't mind having someone on the panel that isn't in the midst of a startup but has taken a business to sustainability. Perhaps @m or similar.

[chadwhitacre]

@jmathai Sweet! :D Do you know @m? Can you get in touch with him? Your point re: having someone on the panel who has taken a business to sustainability is well-taken. My own network in SF is somewhat limited, however, so I'll have to rely on you all to find someone.

@jkwade Let us know when you hear from Yishan and when you have the Eventbrite and flier links.

[ipmb]

Hey guys, thanks for the invite. I'd love to attend, but I'm leaving SF on the 18th so it won't work for me.

[chadwhitacre]

@ipmb Ah, bummer! No sprints? ;)

Next time ...

[jmathai]

@whit537 Not well enough to matter :)

[chadwhitacre]

@jmathai Okay. It'd be great to get someone like @m on board. I don't think we want to block on that for this time around however. If we find someone, great! :)

[chadwhitacre]

Sounds like Watsi co-founder @chaseadam17 may be interested in rounding out our panel. Do I have that right, @chaseadam17? May I add you to the list of panelists?

[chadwhitacre]

Yes! Chase is in. Unless @m pops up, I think we're topped up on the panel. Next steps I see are:

• lining up the moderator
• Eventbrite
• flier
• getting the word out
• drinks and such

[chadwhitacre]

So @jkwade is swamped with SXSW, and I'm flying out tomorrow for PyCon.

I just texted @jkwade and hopefully he's going to pin down Yishan soon.

@gitbiz @jmathai @chaseadam17 Is there any chance one of you could set us up on Eventbrite?

[gitbiz]

The organizer should absolutely create and manage the Eventbrite. Trust me.

[chadwhitacre]

@gitbiz :)

Basically, @jkwade is swamped with SXSW this week. Less than ideal. What slack can we pick up for him?

Jareau and I did communicate this morning via text. Yishan isn't available. Plan B for a moderator is to reach out to journalists. Jareau mentioned Ryan Lawler at TC and Tomio Geron at Forbes. I thought I had a connection with Ryan Tate from Wired, but that seems to be falling through.

@gitbiz @jmathai @chaseadam17 Do you know any journalists you can reach out to to moderate the panel discussion?

What's our point of no return past which we won't have enough time to promote the event successfully? I'm thinking tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday.

If the panel discussion is too complicated, can we find a simpler format that would still be worthwhile? My primary goal is to get together and talk about open business practices with like-minded entrepreneurs out here in SF. Even if it was just the few of us going out for dinner, I'd consider that worthwhile.

Let's not force something that isn't here. What's everyone else seeing at this point?

[gitbiz]

how many panelists at this point? I'd take a stab at moderating if you have enough panelists - It hink it'd be fun :). Agree that 8 days is slim to promote though. Consider moving out later?

[jmathai]

@getbiz perhaps meet at Moz SF or MV and get some drinks during the day?

I'm all for simple!

[gitbiz]

I'm confused - are we saying just have a mixer instead of a panel?

Regardless of what we do, doing it on 3/20 is a bit tight. And lots of people I know want to go to Balanced HQ anyway :)

[jmathai]

Sorry, I was replying to @whit537

Even if it was just the few of us going out for dinner, I'd consider that worthwhile

I'm indifferent to location. Might have missed that folks wanted to go to BalancedHQ. That's fine too :).

[gitbiz]

well, we can always have dinner :D

[chadwhitacre]

how many panelists at this point? I'd take a stab at moderating if you have enough panelists - It think it'd be fun :).

Sweet, thanks! :D We have four others on the panel so I think it would work well to have you moderate. I've made the change up above.

I also heard from @jkwade, and he is back from sxsw and is digging out.

As far as timing goes, I fly back to Pittsburgh on Thursday morning. If it doesn't work out this trip, that's fine. :)

[jkwade]

Hey all, sorry for my absence. SXSW got the best of me, but I'm back at it now. Really excited about this event!

I say we go for it! A week isn't a ton of time, but Balanced will use it as an office warming event, which should increase attendance.

I'll create a new blog post on the Balanced blog. This will be the link to pass around advertising the event. It will include a flier and the Eventbrite link.

@gitbiz, I'd love it if you moderated. I saw you speak at a Moz/Black Founders event, and think you'll do great keeping the event moving. Plus you have expertise in the domain, which the other moderator candidates seemed to lack.

[jkwade]

Also, @whit537 I propose changing the event title to "Open" House vs. "Open House" this will put more emphasis on openness and be less confusing since Balanced could host an open house just to show off our new office.

[jmathai]

Now that you mention it, any combination of Open House might be a little confusing. Especially if it's at an office.

[jkwade]

@jmathai that might increase the attendance, right ;)

[chadwhitacre]

@jkwade Huzzah! Back in the saddle! :D :horse_racing:

"Open" House

Sounds good. I've modified the ticket title.

I'll create a new blog post on the Balanced blog. This will be the link to pass around advertising the event. It will include a flier and the Eventbrite link.

Fantastic, thank you. Let me know what else you need from me.

Glad to see we might pull this off after all! :D