crowdsourcing – nextny
nextNY has always been a bit of a fascination for me in terms of organizational structure. It has no “leader” or “organizer.” There is no real group moderator, event planner, coordinator. All it has is a creator – Charlie O’Donnell, and members. How does it stay running and relevant?
I ask myself this regularly. I’m not an overly structured-centric person, but I do find that I need to know how stuff works. Normally, that involves examining and understanding its structure. In the case of the very organically grown nextNY, it’s more of a simple organism like a hydra – no central brain, just a collective of cells that coordinate with a basic network to thrive.
People ask questions, people propose and organize events. Small sub-groups form to accomplish tasks (in which some structure forms). Nowhere is there to be found a clearinghouse or a board of directors, so how does the group determine direction?
Businesspundit talks about this kind of innovative organization in terms of startup culture. If you have a very anti-conformist startup that uses entirely unconventional structure or titles, you’re conceivably *less* likely to receive the startup funding you seek, because potential investors may not understand what everyone does in the company. This is true also of M&A discussions, etc.
Perhaps the overall need for organization is dependent on there being a longterm goal or endpoint for the group. I’m not sure that there is one for nextNY. The group accomplishes its goal on a daily basis – providing a virtual and actual forum for the next generation of tech companies in New York. There is no plan for growth or monetization. There is no point at which the group goes “good work, we’re done.”
To relate to the Cathedral and Bazaar analogy, this is the classic bazaar. No more, no less. It’s a consortium of people in pursuit of the same interest, who all participate at the same level, and who gather collectively to better themselves as a group. The interest is fundamentally simple, so there’s no real guidance needed to keep it on track. It will remain relevant as long as the members of the group deem it to be relevant. It’s some kind of organic, natural selection, laissez faire critical mass of individuals – a mirror and a barometer for the technology scene in New York.
If the borg were happy and had day jobs, I think they’d look something like nextNY.