The Entrepreneurial Free Agent and Dejobbed Small Business R&D Lab
TechSIG Sponsor Challenge
The Great Game of Applied R&D
Making 'Small is Good' Real in the New Economy

[ The Sponsor Challenge ] [ How It Works ] [ Get Involved ]

The Sponsor Challenge - Free Agent and Open Source Marketplace Partners Welcome

This is an Open Letter to Prospective Interested Parties at Free Agent and Open Source marketplace solution providers such as, but not limited to, elance.com, FreeAgent.com, Guru.com, Monster Talent Market, SourceForge, etc.

Sohodojo is an independent applied R&D lab, originally envisioned as a lab owned and operated by a federation of nanocorps chartered as a non-profit corporation to better support our lab's social action mission, serving nanocorp-based solo and family-based entrepreneurs in rural and distressed urban communities.

We are interested in the problem space of developing innovative business models and associated Open Source software technologies to help 'elastic networks' of entrepreneurial free agents (AKA solo entrepreneurs and nanocorps) and dejobbed small businesses compete effectively in the New Economy. We are NOT about competing as solution providers within the Free Agent and Open Source services marketplace. Our problem space, however, should be of considerable interest to you, the solution providers in these markets.

Our lab's service constitutents are a proactive subset of your customers banding together to identify and develop the collaboration technologies we need to succeed and to continue to be your good customers. Through this collaboration, we'll be winners by ensuring we get the technologies we want and need. And you, our sponsor partners, win through market expansion, by helping to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of us, your customers who are determined to lead dynamic, dejobbed, portfolio work lives.

How it Works - The Great Game of Applied R&D

Highly Recommended
Jack Stack's The Great Game of Business, an inspiring and practical read. Find out more. Don't have time to curl up with the book right now? Drop by the Great Game website.

The TechSIG Sponsor Challenge is a 'Win-Win' Game... the Great Game of Applied Open Source R&D. Yes, we're taking our inspiration from Jack Stack's The Great Game of Business which popularized the Open Book Management approach to effective, high-performance, participatory management.

The Open Book nature of our Sponsor Challenge program will be embodied in the public reporting of all Challenge finances. We'll post details of where sponsorship funding comes from as well as where and how the funds are spent on TechSIG projects.

We'll take the 'gaming' aspect of Stack's 'Great Game' a few steps further by creating the TechSIG Challenge League! Here's how it works...

How the Challenge Works

• A Free Agent or Open Source service provider accepts the Sponsor Challenge by making a minimum $25,000 USD contribution to the TechSIG R&D Fund.

  The projects undertaken by the the TechSIG will be determined and undertaken by the TechSIG. Sponsors are welcome to designate a Sponsor Stakeholder contact. However this relationship is for mutual support and marketing coordination. The Sponsor does not control the selection and evaluation of TechSIG projects. Active peer participation in our open community is welcome.

• Sohodojo guarantees that 80% of each Sponsor's contribution will be spent on contract projects proposed and managed through the Sponsor's own Free Agent or Open Source marketplace service! Each project team will be showcased as a Sponsor-affiliated team within the TechSIG's Sponsor Challenge League.

• The remaining 20% of a Sponsor's contribution will be used to offset the management and marketing expenses of Sohodojo as we build the TechSIG Sponsor Challenge into 'friendly competition' tackling an important Free Agent and Small Business R&D agenda. It is our goal to create sufficient buzz with this Challenge Program that Sponsor participation in the program will become a routine, strategic outsourced R&D expense with significant marketing and public relations impact.

Are you ready to play the game? Do you see the 'win-win' in helping us to help you serve us better? Will you see it before your competitors do? The ball is in your court. Consider starting a Great Game with Sohodojo.

Get Involved - Next Steps

Players large and small are welcome to get involved in the TechSIG Sponsor Challenge:

• If you are a business or market developer for a Free Agent or Open Source Marketplace solutions provider, please drop us a note to start the ball rolling.

• If you are an Open Source developer using one or more of the Free Agent and/or Open Source Marketplace services, you are welcome to start a self-organizing, grassroots 'team development' effort. We will gladly work with you to develop your interest and to collaboratively pursue sponsors to support your TechSIG contribution. Drop us a note and tell us your ideas.

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