Here at Dojo4 we have been and continue to be committed open-source contibutors. For example, there's a tasty pantry full of contributions to be found by any of the Dojo4 members:
Perhaps lesser known are our business documentation contributions. The fundamental open source principles of transparency, participation and collaboration run in rich veins, not only through how and why we write code, but in how and why we do business. Working in isolation to solve the same problems as other people working in their own silos to solve the same problems is wasteful and makes no sense. A fragmented, proprietary strategy does not allow creative solutions to be built off of eachother, nor does it support one solution being easily applied to solve more than the problem it was originally aimed to relieve. On the other hand, an open source system magnifies the impact of collective action and the inventive applications of myriad approaches to solve real world problems. Whether we are building technology or building businesses to address the world's many gnarly and complex challenges, sharing resources, insights and solutions is what will make solving those problems possible. Why require someone who is starting their own small business to spend time, energy and money on coming up with their own legal agreements when they can use ours, for instance? That way they can use that time, energy and money on building their business to solve societal or environmental ills instead. And, of course, that's good for everyone. We have lost nothing by sharing and have gained lots by contributing to their efforts.
So far our contibutions are mostly in this public repo: https://github.com/dojo4/policy, including:
- Agreements / Contracts
- Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement
- Master Services Agreement
- Scope of Work / Engagement Agreement
- Contractor Agreement
- Policy
- Family-Friendly Workplace Manifesto
- Enviromental Policy
- Ethical Marketing and Client Engagement Policy
- Human Resources Policy - this is an extensive handbook!
Dojo4's operating agreements for our cooperative are also open sourced at https://github.com/dojo4/policy/tree/master/co-op, including our Bylaws, Membership Agreement and Term Sheet.
As it says in the README:
It took us a while to get all our HR info in order and it continues to be a work in progress. It would have been much easier to do if we'd been able to access the similiar work that other small companies have done for this type of thing. So we've decided to open source all of it.
Please feel free to use in full or part. We hope it offers a helpful model.
Looking forward to pull requests and contributions...
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