A new style of ‘hybrid’ technology organisation taking shape
Steve Wozniak built the original Apple I for sharing with his friends based at the Homebrew Computer Club. However, it was Steve Jobs, his business partner, who had the knowledge that there well might be a huge market for such a contraption. For decades, Silicon Valley has been identified and defined by the tension existing between the technologist’s urge of sharing information and the industrialist’s urge of profiting. Now, a new style of ‘hybrid’ technology organisation is emerging, which is trying to tread the middle ground.
These new firms are often referred to as ‘social enterprises’ since they pursue social missions instead of sheer profits. But unlike a majority of non-profit groups, these organisations generate a sustainable source of revenue and do not always rely on philanthropy. Earnings are retained and then reinvested. They typically begin as tiny groups of intensely motivated people who are dedicated to the goal of building a service or product. The best-known examples are Mozilla, that maintains and develops the Firefox Web browser, and TechSoup, an organisation started two decades ago to connect non-profit groups with technology experts. President of Benetech, a social enterprise incubator, James Fruchterman, said, “There is an intense discussion happening right now regarding a whole new organisation formed around social enterprise.”
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