Business model

What we call business models in this context are transitionary models, hybrid models that can interface with the traditional economy. In times of transition, these hybrid models assure the subsistence of OVNs, i.e. help generate fiat currency that is used to acquire goods and services that are available on the market, purchase equipment, rent a physical space or deploy digital infrastructure, among other things. Thus some ventures operate in pure p2p mode, others operate in hybrid modes. For a more general overview of the p2p economy see: economic model and peer production.

Example of business models

• Offer DIY kits that provide required parts (non-digitally manufactured components) to build a particular tool (Zimmermann, 2014; Gibney, 2016).
• Offer specialty parts / components, hard-to-find, custom (ex. BackYard Brains or OpenQCM both sell the most specialized and hardest to source components for their respective open hardware tools).
• Help with calibrating and validating (scientific) hardware (can be transactional service) to provide security to prosumers who build their own tools. This provides prosumers with the confidence that their measurements or functionality are acceptably reproducible, accurate and precise.
• Education / Training (ex. Open Source Ecology), include support. This can also follow the consulting business model (Fjelsted et al., 2012).
• Ecosystem services: provide trust, validation, discoverability, help, a place to discuss and collaborate, etc.
• Consultancy services offered to traditional organizations, firms, academic labs and even government, related to open innovation and open science. See OuiShare Paris, back in the early 2010's and Sensorica for examples.
• Interface with the crowd (pioneered by Sensorica), helping traditional organizations to crowdsource R&D.

See also open business models patterns.

From Sensorica's experience

Sensorica was launched as an OVN focused on designing open source scientific instruments. In the early days, it focused mainly on product development. The intent was to design and sell and service open source scientific instruments. But the reality was other. Sensorica's first revenues were generated from R&D and research grants in collaboration with academic institutions. Towards 2014, it became clear that a good niche for Sensorica was to provide innovation services to private companies and academic labs. Sensoricans coined the phrase crowdsourced R&D on demand and the first implementation of this service was with Robco Inc, under the Sensor Network] project. The second was with a consortium between a software consulting company, an innovation consulting company and a governmental agency, funded by the Government. In essence, Sensorica's role was to accompany traditional organizations in their first explorations of new and disruptive technologies, such as IoT and Blockchain. The service went go as far as exploring potential benefits of these technologies by prototyping applications (proof of concept) that may fit the business model of the organization and explore new business models with the partner organization. Later, Sensorica was commissioned a few projects by academic labs, with the added value of increased dissemination and adoption of open source hardware, through the social mode of development of Sensorica.

The key idea here is to position OVNs in innovation, which is "the new gold" in high tech markets. Thus, Sensorica was "sold" as an interface with the crowd through which traditional organizations can engage in open source development.

Interfaces between open and traditional organizations the Sensorica experience