Francesca Pick

Decentralized technology has a lot of potential, but it’s important not to get too distracted and overlook the need for strong human organizing practices.

Welcome Power

A story about the power of invitations and welcomes, from the Happy Bern Lab.

“How can we use the power of welcome to strengthen the sense of co-ownership at work, in teams, and even geographical identities? How could we use the right invitations as a tool when addressing global challenges.”  

Reinventing How Organisations Deal with Money

Francesca’s speaks about her venture Greaterthan at the launch of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, of which she is a member of the inaugural cohort. 

Maximum viable chaos: a recipe for emerging organizations

How are decisions made in a distributed organization?

Cut the bullshit: organizations with no hierarchy don’t exist 

"Blockchain : comprendre ce que pourrait changer cette révolution numérique"

How to slowly lose control: decentralization experiment 2 

 Decentralizing a project is easier said than done. But no matter what, it will teach you a lot about your psyche, group dynamics and the value system of your team.

Decentralizing (part of) OuiShare: experiment 1

It’s been a long night, you’re at a pub, and you want nothing more than to get home quickly. Finding a cab this late at night in London is nearly impossible, but luckily you have the Uber app on your phone and can order a car right to the pub’s doorstep without leaving the comfort of your seat. You quickly choose between Uber Black or Uber X (the cheaper version of the Uber black car service that runs with “drivers like you and me”), tap the “request car” button, and you’re ready to go. Two minutes later a black Renault driven by a young man in his 30s pulls up. You will not even have to talk with him to pay the bill because the app takes care of that for you. Uber, the on-demand taxi app, has been a hot topic in the media over the past months. From the regulatory issues and bans the company has recently faced in various European cities to growing criticisms of its aggressive expansion strategies and sales tactics, to protests being staged by its drivers, Uber is capturing the public’s attention. Interestingly, The Guardian, Time, Salon, der Spiegel and many other prominent media sources participating in the discussion surrounding Uber have been describing the company as one of the key representatives of the so-called “sharing economy.” This is an unfortunate misnomer.

Community, network, non-profit or think tank: trying to explain what OuiShare is often leaves people puzzled. After having been part of this ”collaborative experiment” for over 2 years now, it’s clearer than ever to me that every person needs to define for himself what OuiShare is. So here is what it means to me.

When I joined OuiShare in mid 2012, everything was small and simple: there was a tight group of people from different countries that was working together online and organizing events about the collaborative economy. The active members of the group called themselves Connectors, even though nobody really knew how you became one. Most communication and decision making was informal, and everyone who wanted to be “in” simply was.

This spontaneity and trust in human relationships to regulate the group is what first drew me in to OuiShare. The absence of structure and the seemingly endless potential for learning and exploration with a fun group of people was exciting and inspiring to me. And so as the community has grown and we have had to begin to structure our organization, it has been one of our highest goals to be able to grow without losing this energy.