An Open Source Social Enterprise
The Academy of the Impossible is an open source social enterprise. I love that sentence, but what does it mean? Let's break it down.
Open source is a concept that helps define a relationship with transparency and intellectual property.
Open is one of the primary virtues of the internet, an embrace of transparency and the desire to share. The hope that through openness new people and ideas will emerge to make any project better.
Source generally refers to source code, but also implies where you're coming from, and what you use to build your project. It speaks to the role of intellectual property, and in this context the lack of secrecy or exclusivity when it comes to the ideas that are being tested and employed.
A social enterprise is a fusion of non-profit and for-profit business models that leverages the benefits of either entity to achieve a broader social goal.
Social, like open, is a primary virtue of the internet, and speaks to what motivates us, but also where technology and education are best focused. Social metrics and goals define us as an organization above and beyond any economic ones.
Enterprise speaks to the desire to boldly go where others have dared not. To venture into the domain of hope and potential and find a new means of sharing prosperity and discovery.
As an open source social enterprise we mix all sorts of organizational and operational elements that we feel best match our desires to achieve and share the impossible. We embrace transparency, so others may learn and do differently. We want independence and autonomy so will seek multiple revenue sources, focus on sustainability, and have a mixed bottom-line, defining ourselves as a social enterprise.
For example the Academy is incubated by Metaviews.ca, a for-profit corporation, but is also supported by and includes the Street Writers, who are a not-for-profit. Some of the students of the Academy will focus on the development of their professional careers or businesses, others will focus on campaigns, and community organizations.
We feel that this mixed approach matches our embrace of mixed media and our desire for diversity.
We all stand on the shoulders of giants as we reach for the stars.
