Reflective Portfolio1

Case Study: Enspiral Foundation (Enspiral)

Enspiral is a New Zealand based social enterprise started in 2012 by Joshua Vial, a computer programmer who was alarmed at the rapid pace of change, especially around social and environmental degradation. Leaving corporate life behind he opened a co-working space in Wellington New Zealand to channel his skills and expertise on “stuff that matters”. Before he knew it computer coders, accountants, lawyers and designers who were also driven to work on things with a social purpose joined him. To his surprise and the surprise of others the space became much more than a shared working space, it became a place where start-up businesses would congregate, sharing their skills, expertise and experience to seed new ideas.

However, there was more that was happening in the space, it wasn’t just a co-working space or an incubator. The power of Enspiral is the community ethos it fostered. Instead of power and influence residing in a select few, people began to help each other by negotiating work in exchange for revenue share arrangements. Enspiral had created a new form of working, where revenues were negotiated, shared, agreed and transparent by all participating parties. This also created a new operating model where power and influence were distributed across the whole network rather than residing in a select few. It meant that everyone involved in the start-up focused on the success of the business as everyone had ‘skin in the game’.

Enspiral support has resulted in the establishment of new start-ups such as:

· Loomio – an online tool for collaborative decision-making

· Bucky Box – an online software to power local food distribution

· Chalkle - reinventing community education

· Volunteer Impact – an software application making it easy for environmental volunteers to track their impact

· LIFEHACK - supports the creation of breakthrough digital solutions for youth wellbeing in New Zealand

· Dev Academy - qualifies digital developers in an intensive 9-week course

· Metric Engine – software application that enables similar organisations to benchmark and compare their performance

Now Enspiral is described as a social business rather than a co-working space. Enspiral promotes itself as a social innovation ecosystem providing “a virtual and physical network of companies and professionals working together to create a thriving society” (Enspiral Network 2014).

The network is not without structure, there are three key sections: (1) The Enspiral Foundation which holds the intellectual property and provides the infrastructure that enables members to communicate and make collective decisions. The Foundation is what holds the people and companies within the network together; (2) Service companies bring together teams of professionals that offer a range of business services under the one roof. These include web design, communication, accounting, legal and financial services; (3) Start-up ventures and potential collaborators, service providers, mentors and funders. The start-ups typically provide digital solutions that create a positive societal value whilst at the same time enabling those involved the opportunity to earn a living.

Enspiral Foundation is a limited liability company with a charitable constitution. The Foundation is collectively owned by the Enspiral members (a collective of sorts). The shares are non-dividend bearing and all income is re-invested in the network and achieving their social mission. The Foundation is governed by its constitution, stewarded by its directors and intended to provide a platform for distributed leadership, experimentation, collaboration and interdependence, where, the sum is greater than in the individual parts.

This way of working (sometimes referred to as a holocracy or peer to peer networks) is opening up new and alternate ways of working, beyond the capitalist regimes and organisational bureaucracies of the past. Working on stuff that matters, aligning work with your passion and values while earning a living is the new measure of success.

To learn more about Enspiral, you can follow these links:

https://enspiral.com/

https://vimeo.com/125088390

https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Enspiral

Other examples of commons:

https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Category:Post-Corporate

Read this article on the peer-to-peer production principles:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/michel-bauwens-vasilis-kostakis/new-post-capitalist-ecosystem-of-value-creation

References

Grant, S. (2015) “Social Enterprise in New Zealand: An Overview”, ICSEM Working Papers, No. 01, Liege: The International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project.

Kostakis, V., Pazaitis, A. & Bauwens, M (2016) ‘Digital Economy and the Rise of Open Co-operativism: The case of the Enspiral Network, Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn, Estonia pp. 1-23

What is peer to peer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ1l556Gpjk P2P Politics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXrrUnk0_mo p2p Economics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbEeiq58B6E Copy Fair License https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsr0gmahj1E

INTERNAL USE Page 2