Hi Bader,
thanks for sharing this.
It brings me back to something that our friends over at Las Indias have pointed out about the need for communities to be able to do commerce. It’s hard - but only once you manage to do it are you really independent and don’t have to waste time chasing funders or whatever.
In the context of building the OpenVillage it could be very interesting to experiment with different ways in we can do commerce as a collective. It gets especially interesting if they are situated in economically lagging regions. How can we go about building it in such a way as to foster an entrepreneurial culture of community driven and owned commerce? How can we make use of our presence in the many countries where individual members of this community live and work?
Im not thinking about coworking spaces - 60% end up bleeding money. And of the ones that do actually generate revenue most don’t make a margin of more than 10% (source). I’ve heard about some examples that work (@iriedawta) because they charge exorbitant fees - which is neither realistic nor desirable a.f.a.i.c.
More something along the lines of what Galgael has done in Scotland ( @gehan, is one of the founders and may be able to share some experiences ).
Curious to hear what others think about this?