Idea is great. However, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to predict value creation. The OVN model tries to model value creation.
Critique
This has great potential, however, the concept would benefit from using open source, OSHWA and OSI compliant licenses. Open source licenses were created to address the attribution issue: voluntary attribution, without contribution-accounting overhead.
Value acconting must be evaluated for each project. This imposes significant overhead to any project, and consitutes to Collaborative Waste. This is a problem resolved by choosing open source licenses.
Value accounting is a fundamental problem that is addressed via exchange relationships: ie, value is negotiated prior to any exchange. Value cannot be determined a priori. Thus, emphasis on an a-priori value accounting system is a fundamnetal impossibility, and fair exchange of value is not possible.
System is based on innovation of corporate form. That is good. But OVN is not the only way to a non-hierarchical system. Free enterprise (free as in freedom, ethical, and inclusive of humans and nature) is the way, if cheating is eliminated. Thus, the next economy must revolve around dismantling mechanisms of power imbalance, not trying to create more exclusive networks.
While the aim is noble, the execution is impossible because of a contradiction of terms between 'open inclusion' claim, and 'proprietary exclusion' reality. We cannot beat the system of inequality by using the same types of mechanisms that create the inequality in the first place.
OVN is fundamentally exclusive. Without open licensing, it creates 'outsiders' - those who do not join the network. This form of coercion is avoided in permissive open source licenses such as MIT License or CC-BY, and is partly avoided in non-permissive open source licenses such as GPL or CC-BY-SA.
OVN accounting system - what is the formula? Can it be gamed? How much effort does it take? How is it adapted to each new project?
Platform for production/distribution - this should follow the creation of the OVN, not precede it. It needs to be built out based on reality, not theory.
OVN is still a proprietary consortium, as its IP is not open source.
"You own the value generated by your efforts" - how do you define 'your efforts'? I don't think it's fair to say you own the value, becuase you have 'vendor lock-in' to operating within the network only. You cannot leave. If you leave, you are no longer allowed to use the IP. Is that so?
Conclusions
Given this extensive critique, why is this model so compelling? Because it is selling a promise, and it can provide some elements of execution.
How do we revisit the model to allow for both open source inclusion - and the contribution-accounting that this system offers? Can we use the accounting system in other open source projects? Is the accounting software itself open source?
