It’s not Microsoft knockoffs I am talking about. This is a speculation on how one might translate the Open Source concept to physical objects – in this case office space – OSO. As this is one of the activity ideas for pointReturn to explore, it will be laid out here with reference to implementing it at pointReturn in the future.
There will be a number of independent office suites around a courtyard. These will be offered to NCOs [Non Commercial Organisations] working in any of the sectors that pointReturn sympathises with. These will be offered to users after due screening – there will be no open and free ‘downloads’! That’s a major difference to start with.
A resident of OSO therefore has to conform to many basic requirements. There are broad analogues of what happens with OS products and these are discussed within […].
♦The fit must be synergistic. The resident gets nearly free space and pointReturn gets a kindred spirit who helps out in furthering the mission of pointReturn. [This is analogous of a developer’s role in the OS movement. He may or may not be a user of a software but he helps coding, debugging, adding features etc]
♦An OSO is not free but nearly free. It will definitely be way lower in cost than rented spaces. [After all a software even if it’s free or OS, resides in a bought-in computer]. An OSO resident gets an exhilaration similar to using and supporting OS. How? The ambience at pointReturn will be calm, green, open and non-commercial.
♦Just as for a piece of software, there will be many physical ‘plug-ins’ available: wi-fi connection, electricity, canteen, meeting place, guest rooms and a small market-front for books, small produce and the like. All these will have to be paid for. Clean air, water and silence will be free. [Are all plug-ins free? Or some of them, even for OS software are priced? I don’t know. Would like to know.] There will be a fixed monthly for services [much as a overhead exists even in OS use], and variable charges for use of meeting place, guest rooms, market space and canteen.