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Open source has been with us for ages, but the concept of an Open Company is brand new. One small software firm, e-text editor, is converting itself into an Open Company in what looks like a very interesting experiment. The idea is basically to allow people to get compensate fairly for work they are passionate about with any of the politics, systems , etc that come with typical corporate entities.

It's a brave and bold experiment that clearly has some ways to go before wide scale adoption, but in a age where the basic fundamentals of a corporation are being challenged from a number of angles, this looks like a worthy effort.


Posted by Ed Cotton At http://cola.trnd.com members of the word-of-mouth-network trnd (Munich) are re-developing Open Source Cola. It's a soda designed to work like Wikipedia.

Everybody can be part of the process just by adding ideas and comments. All participants take part in the final recipe, decide which ingredients will be used and how the new product will find its way to the consumer. They discuss the different ideas for the recipe as well as a strategy to launch and sale the Cola online.

Originally Open Cola was an experiment to explain the principle of Open-Source software. The Toronto-based Open Cola Company became better known for the drink, than the software it was supposed to promote. Up until 2004, it had sold about 150,000 cans of Open Cola. Since the company's demise, the Open Cola recipe is now under GNU General Public License, which means everyone can modify, produce and sell it.

The trnd company have turned Open Cola into an open source project, providing a wiki, a blog and the FAQ site. It started by analyzing the German Cola market, then moved on to setting up goals and a timing plan.

At the moment, visitors to http://cola.trnd.com prefer a Cola with organic ingredients and alternative sweetener (like honey or maple syrup). There are also a couple of other ideas around, including the suggestion that the Cola should be sold as a concentrate with a variety of flavors and a number of different suggestions for a brand name.

Written by Claudia Dolle, who's currently interning at Influx.