Open Assembly, the global authority on open talent and open innovation, announces the merging of Re-source, one of Europe’s leading open talent and human cloud advisors, into the organization.
PURPOSE
Q: Who is Open Assembly?
Open-Assembly is the world’s leading learning resource and consulting marketplace for the future of work and open talent economy. As employment models shift to greater use of freelance talent from open talent expert marketplaces, Open Assembly provides enterprise clients executive briefings, workshops and consulting to help companies transform themselves by creating the right culture and organizational structure to allow for the adoption of new digital tools, processes and platforms.
Founded out of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) Open Assembly is a network of the world’s leading thinkers, innovators and consultants that help companies transform the way they work. In alignment with research pioneered by Professors Karim Lakhani and Michael Tushman, the team brings more than 30 years of experience in thought leadership, entrepreneurship and advising on the study of transforming organizations using digital tools and platforms.
Q: Who is The Center for the Transformation of Work?
Born out of the Open Assembly community, The Center for the Transformation of Work (CTW) is a trade organization dedicated to co-creating and setting the standards for an equitable and vibrant ecosystem for freelancers. With a vision to transform work for a billion people by 2025, the CTW aims to create common industry terminology, tools, educational resources, and playbooks in order to help individuals more easily benefit from using open talent platforms.
Q: Who is Re-source?
Re-source is a leading European independent consulting company that advises companies on open talent. With a previous 20-year history of helping companies learn how to match talent needs to the right resources by acting as an intermediary to outsourcing firms, Re-source brings the ability to recontextualize and replicate this matching of resources to strategy in the digital age using open talent, and help companies work through the accompanying change management, cultural and operational challenges.
Q: Why are Open Assembly and Re-source merging? What are you trying to achieve?
Momentum for open talent is building across the industry. John Winsor of Open Assembly has been looking for the right partner to add fuel. As a valuable contributor to the Open Assembly community, and a key consultant in Open Assembly’s Open Talent Professional Certification Program (OTPCP), Barry Matthews and his team at Re-source bring consulting expertise to clients of all sizes, helping to match their strategic needs with the right talent solutions.
The addition of Re-source’s consulting expertise allows Open Assembly to expand outside the United States and accelerate its ability to support enterprises, managed service providers, and talent platforms. You can expect to see Open Assembly focus on the demand side of the industry, with a core foundation in consulting and increasing energy towards research, training, and digital products.
The merger will boost Open Assembly and help them continue to fund and staff the non-profit Center for the Transformation of Work, which will have a sharpened focus on the freelancer or supply side of the industry. CTW will continue to be the place for conversation and advocacy for the industry as a whole under the mission of transforming work for 1 billion people by 2025.
Q: Who does the merger impact and how?
More than 1,000 platforms and companies match demand for skilled labor to the global freelance workforce. But supply of freelance talent far outweighs demand, and companies are still either unaware, unsure or struggling to adopt and integrate these new operating models within their organizations. Re-source’s expert talent consulting team plus Open Assembly’s 30+ collective years of open talent and crowdsourcing research, reports, playbooks and consulting in connection with Harvard and the Laboratory for Innovation Science will combine to accelerate the adoption of open talent as a component of organizational staffing solutions one company at a time.
Q: Why does this matter?
The world of work is changing. Prior to Covid we knew that there was an increasing talent gap, and a significant uptick in workers seeking independent, freelancer status. Since Covid, both trends have accelerated, and been augmented by the untethering of employees from physical offices in virtually every industry. Companies are evolving their operating models to both reach a skilled labor force that has chosen to become independent, and to accommodate revised worker expectations such as geographic freedom and flexible schedules.
LEADERSHIP
Q: Who will lead the company with this new merger?
Under the new merged company, John Winsor, CEO of Open Assembly will become Chairman, focusing on thought leadership for the business and open talent industry. Barry Matthews, CEO of Re-source, will become Open Assembly’s CEO. Barry brings with him his team which includes Bryn Barlow and Eleanor Matthews. The merger brings more fuel to Open Assembly, but we will remain a lean and open organization.
Q: What does this mean for Open Assembly and Re-source clients?
Open Assembly clients will continue to benefit from Open Assembly’s consulting, research and training programs. With the addition of Resource’s consulting expertise, we expect to see these services become more extensive and research-driven given the team’s depth of experience helping companies find talent solutions that suit their complex needs.
Q: How is this being communicated to Open Assembly clients and community members? How will it impact the current client projects underway?
Open Assembly has announced the merger with its community of Open Assembly Collective members, Center for the Transformation of Work members, and clients through community phone calls, company newsletters, social media, website blogs and direct outreach to clients. We do not expect any disruption to current client projects.
Q: How is this being communicated to Re-source clients? How will it impact the current client projects underway?
Re-source has announced the merger with its clients through direct client outreach, on social media and through its Future of Work podcast. Existing Re-source clients should expect a seamless experience, with minimal disruption as Re-source transitions its operations under the Open Assembly brand.
Q: Who’s brand will you operate under? Open Assembly, Re-source, both?
Re-source will transition its operations under the Open Assembly brand.
THE CENTER FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF WORK
Q: How will the merger impact the Open Assembly Collective members?
We don’t see any immediate impact on membership in the collective. John has created a vital group to share thought leadership and a slate of benefits for our companies that doesn’t need to change. But we’re always open to ways to improve that membership.
Q: How does the merger affect the mission of the CTW?
You can expect to see Open Assembly focus on the demand side of the industry, with a core foundation in consulting and increasing energy towards research, training, and digital products. OA will continue to fund and staff the CTW, which we think will have a sharpened focus on improving the experience of the freelancer side of the industry, which has been the passion of many of the participants from the beginning. CTW will continue to be the place for conversation and advocacy for the industry as a whole under the mission of transforming work for 1 billion people by 2025.
Q: Why a token? Why blockchain? Why now?
After discussing for many months, we think the time is right for CTW to create a clear reward and governance system using Web 3.0 blockchain technology. Tokens are beginning to become the standard for forward-thinking and decentralized communities such as ours. Open Assembly would be one of the early adopters of a CTW token.
Web 3.0 is the future and fits the culture and goals of the CTW community. We’re helping to move people from analog to digital in talent, and if we want to be the future of work, we need to be here. CTW in large part already functions as a fairly decentralized and autonomous organization and we believe that its potential will be unlocked by making the full transition to a DAO structure.
Q: Where does accreditation sit?
CTW defines the standards that matter for the industry. Implementing those standards into an accreditation program is Open Assembly’s (or other organizations’) responsibility.
Q: How will members of the community be compensated for their time and ideas/I.P.?
CTW will remain a non-profit, community-driven, organization. We’re excited about a CTW token as a way to reward contribution and energy across CTW, and if it is widely-adopted, perhaps across the broader ecosystem. Any work done on behalf of CTW should be considered open source and available for anyone in the community to use.
Open Assembly is a business, and anyone participating in consulting, speaking, and training under Open Assembly engagements can expect to receive compensation — financial or otherwise. Right now those engagements are case-by-case, but as we grow, we imagine a transparent and clear marketplace for consultants.
Q: Who is in charge of the Center for the Transformation of Work (CTW)?
John Winsor is the founder and Chairman. John is eager to build the token and DAO structure to more clearly distribute and make transparent the leadership outside of himself.
Q: What is the timeline for creating a token?
We see 3 main stages for a token to be created with the following, estimated timeline:
- The Open Assembly team needs to draft the tokenomics and general structure into the first draft of the smart contract. This work is underway.
- An initial CTW council will be selected. This council will ratify the tokenomics and structure, and begin to set the strategy for CTW. We anticipate this happening by early 2022.
- Under the council’s leadership, the token will be created and then distributed. This should happen by mid-2022.
Q: How will past work be rewarded?
The creation of the token will govern how the community interacts going forward. The “tokenomics” will start from a clean slate.
Q: How will the council be selected?
A fair and democratic process will be followed to select the council. As founders, there will likely be a number of seats for Open Assembly and the remainder of the seats will be available for the community to select. Over time, the full board and operation of the council will transition to the community.
Q: How can we participate in the creation of the DAO/Token/etc.?
Open Assembly will present the initial draft of the smart contract for consideration. The CTW council and broader community will consider and ultimately approve the smart contract. The details surrounding the tokenomics, governance structure, roadmap and more will be presented in the first draft of the smart contract.
Q: What does this mean for the current CTW workstreams?
The current CTW workstream/team leads will help decide this in the coming month. We’d like to merge any governance- and business model work streams into the creation of a CTW council and token. We hope to identify a couple key projects for the ecosystem while that structural work is underway. This will also allow leads time to consult with their organizations to consider their broader interest in membership and level of participation.
Q: When will the merger be finalized?
The merger was finalized by October 1, 2021.
COMMUNICATION/PRESS
Q: Where can anyone interested go to learn or read more about this? Who can they contact with questions?
Send us an email with your questions and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
