Nathan Seidle Where does transparency end?

Nathan Seidle

Where does transparency end?

Who? What?

2004 Univ. of Colorado @ Boulder

BS in Electrical Engineering Rower on CU Club Team RA in Dorms Worked 2002 Olympics Twenty Nine Oklahoma No other family business

What is it we do here?

The current state of OSHW

Group of ~30 people We’ve got a definition! 196 endorsements And a logo (fancy) And we seem to have

community traction Yay!

OSHW Definition v1.0

OSHW ‘plans’ must: Contain editable source files Allow for modification No discrimination:

groups/tech No –NC limitations Free rein + attribution

You can stand on my shoulders and even make money at it.




You can stand on my shoulders and even make money at it.Yay!




You can stand on my shoulders and even make money at it.Yay!

But when do the hugs end?

Limits to Transparency

Currently, SparkFun becomes opaque in three places:

1. Sparkle2. The Benjamins3. Iris Lee

We become more opaque with information that does not intrinsically help our users.

Limits to Transparency: Sparkle

How does SparkFun actually do stuff?1. ERP = ‘Sparkle’2. Manufacturing3. Kitting4. Shipping5. Customer service6. Tech support7. Engineering

How does disclosing our internal process help our end user? Not a lot. We want to share it but there is not a

big driving force, yet.

Limits to Transparency: Process ERP

Lemme just geek out for a minute: Sparkle ERP1. Ecommerce2. Inventory3. Purchasing projections4. Build schedule

Limits to Transparency: The Benjamins

Finance1. Top line revenue2. No margin3. No profit4. No salaries5. No nitty gritty details


Finance1. Top line revenue: (18.4M in 2010, up 75% over 2009)2. No margin3. No profit4. No salaries5. No nitty gritty details


Finance1. Top line revenue: (18.4M in 2010, up 75% over 2009)2. No margin: (we’re right in line with standard retail)3. No profit4. No salaries5. No nitty gritty details


Finance1. Top line revenue: (18.4M in 2010, up 75% over 2009)2. No margin: (we’re right in line with standard retail)3. No profit: (we’re in the black)4. No salaries5. No nitty gritty details


Finance1. Top line revenue: (18.4M in 2010, up 75% over 2009)2. No margin: (we’re right in line with standard retail)3. No profit: (we’re in the black)4. No salaries: (payroll ~$400k per month?!)5. No nitty gritty details


Finance1. Top line revenue: (18.4M in 2010, up 75% over 2009)2. No margin: (we’re right in line with standard retail)3. No profit: (we’re in the black)4. No salaries: (payroll ~$400k per month?!)5. No nitty gritty details:

Acct 60-1401: Janitorial Expense - $41,524Acct 60-1013: Bad Debt, Customer - $303Acct 60-1603: Reconciliation Discrepancies - $0


Finance

How does disclosing our internal financials help our end user? Not really at all. And it makes us a serious target for VC/Investor spam. We like being private.

Limits to Transparency: Iris Lee

Iris is the contact at one of our suppliers. She speaks very good English, is prompt, and over the past 2 years has begun to "understand" SparkFun.


Iris is the contact at one of our suppliers. She speaks very good English, is prompt, and over the past 2 years has begun to "understand" SparkFun. We’ve had lunch.



They are many suppliers available, but Iris is awesome. And only Merry knows how to kit LEDs. Allen will get me any kind of screw. We really don’t want to give up their email address. Why? Because we had to gamble and lose on many suppliers before we found people like Iris, Merry, and Allen.



How does disclosing our suppliers' contact info help our end user? Not much. Most of our

suppliers are reluctant to deal with our ‘small’ 10k pcs purchases. It will probably only help our

competitors.

They are many suppliers available, but Iris is awesome. And only Merry knows how to kit LEDs. Allen will get me any kind of screw. We really don’t want to give up their email address. Why? Because we had to gamble and lose on many suppliers before we found people like Iris, Merry, and Allen.

Limits to Transparency

Opacity begins with:1. Process (but we’re opening

up!)2. Finance (we’re sharing more,

especially with employees)3. Contacts (some held closely,

but datasheets get posted)

We become more opaque with information that does not

intrinsically help our users.

Questions!

What else can I share?

Nathan Seidle Where does transparency end?

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