Social networking and Community is all the blaze now. We make web apps to do that. We go to networking meetings to meet others, give our cards, and be ‘social’ because the fad is indeed social networking. But isn’t there a core to this, something that is a nugget that we can take away and apply not only to our websites, and marketing, but also to our daily lives, and to our own businesses? How does Social Networking not only effect how we engage in business, but how does it change the way we are a business?

As part of Calcedon’s leadership this question has been rolling around in my head for quite awhile. I was all about community before the word social and networking married each other. I love bringing others together not for a product, but to bring them together to work together and for them to find creative fulfillment together in producing something together that they all enjoy, and doing this again and again. There were a lot of "together"’s in that sentence. Also, just as valid, I feel obligated to work with someone and help them find their passion and if necessary, tell them to stop doing what they are doing and pursue something else. For either of these scenarios to work though, you must know the person, and they must let themselves be known. In a traditional employer-employee relationship you rarely get the honest vulnerability needed to truly find someone’s passion and help them achieve it. This requires real and true community.

It wasn’t until recently that I realize there is a word for this type of corporate structure. It’s called a cooperative. While there are many types of cooperatives, at the core a cooperative is "…an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations…"

The success of a cooperative is founded in the ability for the persons involved to work together, and to benefit one another and the cooperative itself. Only by doing this are they themselves benefited. Cooperatives also are very democratic in their response to the needs of those in the cooperative. In other words, the cooperative will only work when those in the cooperative feel like they have a voice.

In a great experiment, Calcedon is moving towards a cooperative mentality. While not taking on the full form of a cooperative, Calcedon is edging its way there, adding the adornments of a cooperative structure as needed. Consider this agile development of a cooperative.

This is how Calcedon is changing right now:

- Developer and designer freelancers or those with extra time are welcome to contact Calcedon about this idea. We’re forming this concept as we go, so get in early, help form the idea.

- Once passing a stringent interview process, the applicant becomes a team member.

- Members of this community can work on projects that you’re interested in and reject others. (You have freedom to work or not to work.)

- Members can bring projects to the community and get a sales commission if the project is accepted whether or not they personally work on it. (Great way to make money on projects you don’t personally have enough time to do yourself.)

- Members can do as little as management of a project, or actually do development/design on a project. 

- As the flow of cooperative membership starts to grow, and members get involved, a stream of projects starts to flow through the system creating a steady of flow for those who want it.

- Calcedon’s clients benefit because they are getting an experienced community to develop their product who are interested in the product itself.



I will write more on this, but if you’re interested check out our Coop page.