Can we Manage Open Source?

Some of you might know that I moved from Belgium to South-Africa, just some months ago.
Plenty of reasons, business & personal. On another moment, I'll talk about my new surroundings. It just seemed like a pretty good idea: giving my family the possibility to get inspired and discover another culture, and at the same moment taking some distance from the Belgian creative scene. About 9000 km, that is.

I've forced my self to speed up my strategic thinking about addictlab.com. Where do I guide this ship to? How do we go on , and more. What mistakes are we making? And above all, how do we learn from that?

It is now 10 years since I started Addict. and I did learn a lot. It doesn't help feeling dissapointed when someone doesn't see the bigger picture or your own vision on things. I used to think it was all the other's mistake or lack of open minded vision.
Now I know that I have to do all possible efforts to solve that. That's why we learn to communicate.


One of our own communication tools is the website. The addictlab site has been running for over 10 years, and , as all things with addictlab, it had its up and downs. I choose partners who I payed a lot of money , and then they went bankrupt. I had to restart with a simple database structure. Just like other things at addict, it was a roller coaster.
We had people registering, and then the site would stop working. We had people working with addict, but not registering.
If I add up all the names of the people that have been working with us on the 27 issues and other projects, I think it 's about 6000 people.

Today the database has been working with a remarkable stability. Today's database counts over 2600 registered people. And yes, we should communicate to the others to come join again.
The content of the homepages was already adjustable, so the changes these last months were noticable.
Based in South Africa, I've been updating the site. Apparently it worked, since the month of May will go up to 800.000 hits and about 16.000 unique visitors.
That is an all time record.

But there is more.
Today's new site allows us to do a couple of things more. My core team of Addict lab researchers can work on our communication. On making things clear. Pages for Labbies, pages on the publications, hell, finally pages for the industry to see that my view on design innovation and more really works.
After 10 years people can actually come and buy stuff...

But I wanted to take it a step further. To throw it all open. I hate it when people tell me that I am addict, that I'm the bottleneck and the driver at the same time.
Addictlab should be about collaborative processes. So I need to give the stage to others then me.
Today, with this wiki-system, anyone who we give a password can start creating their own pages.
I'm feeling a little boy with a new toy...... Someone once said I had succeeded in Managing open Source. A contradiction in terminis, sure. But that 's really what I 'm experimenting with.

Give an individu the possibility to express, to create, to support others.
That is a form of freedom we humans value too less.
The fact that you actually can SUPPORT others. ACCELERATE TALENT, unbiased.
I believe that is a very sustainable way of working on a prosperous society. Ethical and constructive creative processes, I could write a book on the matter.

Yet I believe that needs to be done in a certain canvas. So that the bigger picture remains, the bigger story keeps growing in the desired direction. Of course, individual opinions and expressions count, and are the main point of gravity. Yet it needs to be in some sort of system, that works as a clear framework within the surrounding society. We need to find a balance between that freedom, our respect for the individual and the sustainability of the overall process.
I believe it is actually a good theory for our society of tomorrow.

The site, now, besides everyones possiblity to create their own labfiles, can being updated via Labambassadors per country or city , and via labresearchers per discipline.
I' m curious to see if we can marshall people to work with us. To open up their minds and their business networks to attract more ideas, people and business.

Am I 'm making sense? Shall I explain more? Or shall I drink my glass of South African Stellenbosch wine, eat the last piece of a Belgian chocolate bar, and go to sleep?

Tomorrow is another day. Yet setting this up is something I would have liked to finish yesterday.

Jan@addictlab.com