Why Business is Suspicious of Giving

I have just had the most extraordinary experience. I know some of the people at iCommons and at the request of someone interested in what we were doing in SA re the Business Acumen for Artists came up with the idea of creating an open source on-line learning log for what we were learning on the programme. So I posted a link to the blog and invited anyone interested to check out what we were doing and to comment or at the least, give their insights from other countries. I also thought it would be an amazing way of linking in the aritsts from 15 different disciplines to other like-minded individuals. This evening I saw a post that someone had made which said that they were suspicious of this and that it may well smack of self-advertising. What's in this for me in terms of my career is beyond me but still it made me think about why Business remains suspicious of entering this open source arena. And I think perhaps, that it may well be for the exact same reason that after reading this I thought, what is the point of sharing if people are only going to look for the underbelly. At least with a going concern, you can be measured on tangible profits and realisable shareholder value. No wonder Big Business is wary of the amorpheous place of giving freely - if the repose is suspicious and laden with undirected, unsolicited vitriole. If the Open movement is really going to succeed, perhaps more care needs to be taken with understanding how to embrace the gifts that those in organised environments give freely. Until then, it will remain a place of watching uneasily from both sides. Here is the link to the post:

http://www.icommons.org/articles/business-school-course-for-artists-to-succeed#c460