It has spawned an industry that specializes in the IRS-speak of unrelated business income tax or UBITs. But the nonprofit but taxable cobbling fails to fully unleash the possibilities of a public business model. They could be a niche for the informed community conversation, community information utility, or community heritage site, or a customized hybrid of all that and more. Community networks work as public businesses because, by definition, they are networks, working across borders. What will thrive in a digital signature-enabled smart cards, electronic commerce environment will be the networked, partnered ventures.
Public businesses organize to partner business enterprise for a public good.
The distributed, networked, ecosystem of the Internet world complements the sense of community envisioned in the healthy communities, sustainable communities, and smart communities movements. America needs public businesses to move beyond the confusion of the nonprofit seeking sustainability via business ventures. Civic netpreneurs need to become public business executives, leveraging to do the public s business. Instead of looking for the next grant opportunity, they will look for the next public business opportunity. Continue the conversation here .