WESCOOP

An Alternative organizational structure for futuristic software development organizations

Author(s): Aravind S

Published: December 18, 2022

Version: 1.1

First draft: December, 2022

Abstract

WESCOOP is an alternate organizational system proposed to enable faster software production cycles, meet self actualization needs of younger workforce, address side effects of profit maximization and foster progress of humanity.Problem statement

• Decentralized, algorithmic and shared economy is driving results at unprecedented pace. To enable faster production time of software products, an alternative organizational and production structure is required.

• With increase in awareness and demand for jobs enabling self actualization or sense of purpose among younger generation, the traditional VC funded, profit driven, top down companies are failing to meet the demand.

The solution

Web3 Enabled Software development Coop (WESCOOP)A cooperative organization which members includes those who conceive, develop, produce, maintain and consume the software the organization produces, facilitated over web3 technology.

How it works

WESCOOP’s primary function is to build and maintain software products. Cooperative members form the core of the WESCOOP. Members include producers, maintainers and consumers of all the software products produced by the COOP combined.Below life cycles illustrates how a WESCOOP and its products work.

Lifecycles

Lifecycle of the COOP

A WESCOOP can be incorporated as normal Cooperative but will function according to the implementation plan depicted in this paper. A WESCOOP starts with a root fund to produce its first line of products. Each product is its own autonomous sub COOP but, contributes certain percentage of profit to the root fund when it starts generating profit. The root fund is used to fund further project proposals submitted by the members. Any member of the COOP can submit a blue paper aka a proposal with a pitch about the product which he/she wants to produce utilizing WESCOOP’s members time and root fund money.

Life cycle of the WESCOOP

Any member can contribute their time to the production of any newly accepted proposals and if the product succeeds in generating revenue, all the members involved in production will be remunerated with a percentage of royalty distributed according to the time contributed by the members. The royalty definitions and the split of royalty itself will be determined by the WESCOOP during its incorporation.

Lifecycle of the product

Conception and development

The life cycle of a product starts with the conception. The person who conceives the idea of a product is called conceiver. Following conception, either conceiver alone or conceiver along with others, develops the idea into a functionality and implementation document called blue paper. The developer(s) publishes the pitch and the primer from the blue paper within the COOP. Alternately, the conceiver can choose to publish the idea itself without much implementation details as a white paper.

Production

If the pitch manages to get enough votes to pass the voting threshold for production, the product enters production phase and the primer will be distributed to all the members for production time contribution. Monetary funding from the root fund will be allotted to the project if the pitch’s votes meets the funding threshold. In case if the product meets both the thresholds and if enough production time contribution is not available, the project can proceed to hire or award time contributions with bounties, utilizing the monetary funding.

Revenue model

Products produced by WESCOOP can have the following revenue model(s). The product developer(s) can choose one or both depending on the market.

1. 1.Lifetime license sale (Royalty) + continued maintenance subscription (Maintenance)

2. 2.Optional Tips (Royalty) + Ad supported free usage (Maintenance)

Consumption and Maintenance

If the product succeeds to acquire customers after release, the consumers of the product will automatically become members of that product’s sub COOP and thus will also become members of the WESCOOP. Royalty will be distributed among developers and producers according to the split defined during incorporation of the WESCOOP. Any profit that the product manages to generate after meeting operating costs will be redistributed between root fund and sub COOP membership. Operating costs may include any cost of product maintainers time, server and infrastructure costs.

Membership and Voting

All the voting related infrastructure is constructed using web3 technology. Processes like member enrollment, contribution, identification and rewards are all taken care using web3.