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Lastwear Kickstarter Project needs your support

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Wed, 07/21/2010 - 19:43 — Jake von Slatt

I'm backing these folks and you should too!

"Because we support maker culture, we will release our production patterns on our site for download so that people can sew their own versions of our garments. In addition, we will be documenting our progress so that others can learn from our mistakes and improve on the model.

We want to prove that the current paradigm of competition in business is not the only way to make a living. We believe that small businesses can thrive through collaboration and resource sharing . . ."

Click though and pledge to support these fine folks, I truly believe they are onto something and that it is something worth supporting! - Jake

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Comments

Thom B. - Wed, 07/21/2010 - 19:50.

Woohoo!
Many thanks for posting this and supporting our project, you're a true gentleman sir!

Jake von Slatt - Wed, 07/21/2010 - 19:54.

My pleasure! and I shall be taking a detailed look at your store in preparation for my next trip to Seattle for Steamcon II!

Jake.

Telecrylic - Thu, 07/22/2010 - 10:25.

I sincerely applaud their sincerity about their willingness to strive for total transparency in their business model. I wish them great success at it.

But I also wince a bit at the idea that in so doing, they are fighting a "current paradigm of corporate colonialism". With such statements come an unspoken implication that those do not want to make their business totally transparent are somehow doing something wrong or at least inferior to those who do, and that they would then be implicitly *supporting* "corporate colonialism", whatever that really means.

This way of thinking - that everything should be "open source" and accessible to everyone - has been fueled by the internet, which has been ushering in a new age where, in the words of William S. Burroughs, no one has the right to mind their own business.

I don't want to know somebody else's business accounting information and I don't want you to know mine. I don't want to know your trade secrets and I don't want you to know mine. The idea that there's something "corporate" or "colonialist" about private ownership of proprietary information is largely post-internet thinking.

As a Steampunk/Dieselpunk enthusiast, I am more interested in pre-internet thinking, and I embrace the Victorian spirit of unchecked and rampant capitalism, a la the Industrial Revolution and those over-the-top hucksterly advertisements from the period that I presume we all love.

(And I certainly support "Maker Culture" at the same time as I espouse this view - I mostly make my own clothes, and have done plenty of pro-bono free sewing work for friends.)

Jake von Slatt - Thu, 07/22/2010 - 11:12.

I think life is better if co-operation is what you strive for and competition is something you seek to avoid. As a society I think we generally get that ass-backwards. 

I don't think that your views are necessarily incompatible though, but if you need to compete in a marketplace where the customer values that very openness you'll find that you'll need to do likewise. I think "shareware" software is a good example of a closed model being less successful than an Open Source approach in a free market.

As an aside, I am curious that you invoke Dieselpunk. I am starting to notice something of a divide in the personal politics of Steampunks versus Dieselpunks. Steampunks tend to be very egalitarian and often identify as anarchists (as I do myself, philosophically at least) and Dieselpunks tend towards a more libertarian, Ayn Randy sort of stance. Have you noticed similar trends or do I simply have a vivid imagination?

BJ Becker - Thu, 07/22/2010 - 15:22.

I always assume that if people hear “Unspoken Implications” they are hearing something in their own heads, not what I or others have said.

Thom B. is right in suggesting that there is a world of difference between the forms of free market / free enterprise capitalism of the late Victorian Era and the Corporate Capitalism of today. The one dealt in development of resources, technology and inventiveness, which produced goods and services valued by the end consumer. Corporate Capitalism moves money around and produces the boom and bust cycle resulting in our present economic malaise. What is more, as is implied buy the expression Corporate Colonialism, it imposes a world view of a particular value set on the colonized culture which it presents as superior to the “native” values. The which “native values” I would suggest are the values of the Maker/ Open Source/ Steam Punk and Dieselpunk movements. Or am I now reading between the lines?

Thom B. - Thu, 07/22/2010 - 11:44.

Firstly, I define "colonialism" in this sense at the extraction of wealth by military or economic means, from one group, by another, to the detriment of the first.

Second, I draw a clear distinction between the capitalism of the industrial revolution (a period of economic growth which was driven almost entirely by small businesses which went on to become household names, and later became corporations) and corporate capitalism which we have now.

I believe our current system is inherently flawed because it used an incomplete set of metrics. We only measure growth in fiscal terms. We need to create metrics that asses human and environmental well being.
I don't know what those metrics look like yet but it's my firm belief that by being as open and transparent as possible, we are more likely to be able to find answers.

I make no apologies for thinking that the open source model is a superior one. While I wish to explore a model of business that supports co-operation over competition I do not suggest that competition is inherently bad. Only that it is less efficient. I intend to prove this by out-competing it.
If this approach implicitly suggests that businesses that are not open and transparent may have something to hide and are perhaps less deserving of peoples patronage, well so be it. I call that a tactical advantage ;)

Thom B. - Thu, 07/22/2010 - 11:45.

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Florence - Wed, 10/13/2010 - 09:35.

Hi I'm at uni and I'm writing my dissertation on subcultures, I've been looking at your website and you've got some really cool stuff on here so I was wondering if anyone would be interested in completing my survey, I would be very grateful. Just follow this link Click here to take survey Thanks

Jake von Slatt - Wed, 10/13/2010 - 09:46.

I enabled your SurveyMonkey link (we block by default) Good luck with your research!

You should probably post over at the Brass Goggles forum if you'd like a bigger sample.

 --Jake.