Academic

Our business model is highly innovative in several respects, and for this reason is worthy of examination by the academic business community. We welcome and encourage such examination.

We are departing from the traditional business model in a number of significant ways:

• Libre Services revenue model. Our revenue model is based on providing Internet Services in the Libre model.
• Open-source revenue model. Our revenue model is based explicitly on the use of open-source and free software.
• Patent-freedom. We are strongly opposed to software patents. This is in sharp contrast to prevailing business practices, in which software patents are used as an aggressive instrument to stifle competition. Given the current status of the U.S. patent system, it is no longer possible to guarantee that any particular protocol or software system is fully immune from patent attack. However, we have taken every possible measure to ensure that our software is and remains patent-free. To the best of our knowledge, none of our protocols or software is subject to patents of any kind.
• No copyright. We are rejecting copyright as a mechanism for exerting control over software usage. While our software is copyrighted, it is copyrighted under terms which allow highly non-restrictive copying and redistribution—a form of copyright that is sometimes referred to as "copyleft." All our products are based on 100% open-source and free software, subject to the General Public License (GPL) or similar open-source licensing model.
• Business transparency. We are adopting a policy of openness and transparency throughout our business practices. This is in sharp contrast to traditional business practices of trade secrecy and confidentiality.
• Open investment model. We are rejecting the conventional model for early-stage investment. As we describe in our investment philosophy, we consider the existing model to be inherently problematic and corrupt. In its place we are adopting an Open Investment Model, and in what we believe is a first in the history of business practice, we are publishing an Open Business Plan.

We are thus rejecting some of the most fundamental precepts of traditional business practice, which historically has been based on various types of closed or proprietary models as instruments for the creation and defense of sustainable market advantage.

Though a radical departure from the norm, this new business model is an entirely appropriate way to achieve business success, given the nature of what we are doing. The rationale for this is that our business plan is not based on a conventional product or service, in the usual sense of those terms. Instead, it is based on the creation of a new industry: the Open Mobile Messaging industry, in turn leading to the creation of another industry: the Libre subscriber services industry. The success of these industries, like that of the Internet itself, is based on openness, freedom, free and fair competition, and unrestricted choice at all levels.

Traditional business strategies based on IPR (intellectual property rights) mechanisms such as patents and copyright may be effective methods for defending revenue derived from conventional products or services, but they are not effective for attempting to control an industry. Any attempt to limit participation in an open, protocol-based industry will in fact diminish the business opportunity, not augment it.

We are applying this new business model to our own venture, but we believe it has much broader and more general applicability. We are at a watershed moment in the evolution of business practices, characterized by a shift of emphasis from material capitalism (based on material objects) to non-material capitalism (based on non-material constructs such as software). We believe there are many other business and ventures with similar characteristics, that can make use of the same business model.

This is all very new, and it can benefit greatly from academic analysis and commentary. We encourage this, and we are happy to engage those in the academic business community who are interested in what we are doing. If you wish to interact with us in this way, please contact us directly.

We have already had some communication with the academic community. The following is a summary of our previous business school interactions:

Washington Law School Foundation

April 6, 2000
Seattle, WA

Our Business Plan was used as a case study for a mock Term Sheet negotiation.

University of Washington Business School

BPOL 471, Entrepreneurship
Winter quarter, 2001
Spring quarter, 2001

Dr. Karl Vesper of the University of Washington Business School was intrigued by our ideas, and has used Neda Communications as a case study for two class projects.

In one of these our Business Plan was used as the basis for students to create a five-minute "Elevator Story." Quite a challenge for an industry-building venture!