Who Makes up the Team?
The Proposing Organization: DigitalSpace

The proposed Intercommons has been in the mind of several of us for years. It was only when we found ourselves part of a company, DigitalSpace, which innovates in the creation of unique virtual communities, that we became motivated to start thinking seriously about the future of Cyberspace. DigitalSpace is an idea factory and developer of just about any kind of experience that connects people through the digital medium: from avatars living in 3D worlds to chat and instant messaging, to voice over the internet. We have built technologies from scratch, acquired others, and collaborated on yet more in open source partnerships.

So what is Our Self Interest in the Creation of the Intercommons?

Every motivated team has to have some kind of self interest to keep it going and ours was simple, to find new and innovative ways to propagate DigitalSpace's inventions to a wide usership while supporting open source distributed stakeholdership of the inventions both to protect them from IP challenges and to enhance their capabilities. We knew that we wanted to keep our company as an idea factory and not a sales and marketing organization, so it struck us that an independent outside organization, of which we could be a member, might provide the best venue for our company and others like it to deposit their wares. Having a lot of cool stuff available and supported by developers might attract those who are interested in packaging, support and services, as well as direct buyers of products. Centering around the existing open source community seemed to make sense to us as we are already an open source developer and are in tune with the philosophy of that movement. We are also a business and interested in propagation of our inventions. We were never interested in venture capital or "professional" money/management as history has shown that innovative companies that went that route did not end up where they intended. So our interest in a vibrant, successful Intercommons is based on a mixture of self interest, no better options, and a true desire to be part of something that ensures an open digital commons acting in the public interest.

Hey, we believe so much in this we are willing to put all of our best stuff in it! And.. if it works for companies like ours, it should work for many more in a similar position.

Other Free Thinkers Drawn to this Vision

Over time, others were attracted to the concept of the Intercommons, and we are adding to our team as we reach out with the idea. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you feel you have something to contribute to the team.

Locations and Roster of Team Members

The founders and staff and collaborator network of DigitalSpace Corporation, located around the world in Santa Cruz California USA, Phoenix Arizona USA, Los Gatos California USA, Maffra Victoria Australia, Seattle Washington USA, Amsterdam Holland, London UK, San Diego California USA.

Others not directly part of the DigitalSpace network include independent free thinkers for whom the design of markets for the benefit of the public commons is a passion.

• Bruce Damer (DS), Idea Promoter and general Task Gopher
• Stuart Gold (DS), Community Infrastructure
• Galen Brandt (DS), New Concept Marketing
• Jake Bowman (JB Market Architecture), Market Architect
• Jan Hauser (Independent), Organizational Design and Principles
• Bruce Campbell (U Washington), Open Source Chief Technologist
• Merryn Neilson (DM3D Studios), Webmaster
• Dave Rasmussen (DM3D Studios), Worldmeister

DigitalSpace is also collaborating with the Creative Commons, especially Lawrence Lessig's Stanford Cyberlaw team. The Creative Commons is in turn interested in the Intercommons concept and has been involved in discussions on it since the Spring of 2001.