Earlier today, I met with two Babson MBA students interested in developing a plan to roll out the proposed Babson Mosaic Equity Research Club initiative.
The core MBA student management team discussed our possible roles. A detailed Microsoft Excel 2003 model of Level 3 Communications may become the first "kernel" to be shared with the open source community. Two more working professional offered to sign on as club advisors. Continuing progress is being made on acquiring a faculty advisor. We are exploring a variety of online collaborative alternatives. One suggestion was that start we a BMERC wiki discussion.
More details below.
On the MBA management team with me is a technology consultant and a financial services marketing professional.
I envision myself as providing the initial "kernel" to get the movement started. This kernel will be a better- and a more comprehensive-than-average Excel model that would be used by a sell side analyst to help forecast the company's financial statement's and the stock's valuation.
My preliminary belief is that the best model to begin this open source effort would be a model of Level 3 Communications:1) I've already partially completed a LVLT model; and 2) it will get us involved in all aspects of the bandwidth- and information-intensive economy. We are going to become the category killer in every aspect of the revenue and cost driver of Level 3. I am also considering using Verizon since Verizon is in no near-term danger of declaring bankruptcy.
Not at the meeting, but recently agreeing to offer their expertise and feedback, are Luca Lizzeri and Christopher Tozzo.
Lizzeri is a resident of Italy and has a background in telecom consulting and market research.
Tozzo, based in New York City, is a senior compliance officer at a major investment bank and a non-practicing lawyer. He is also the former associate analyst of a well regarded REITs analyst.
The first thing we have to do is decide on the collaboration platform to use. Weissman is looking into that. Lizzeri suggested we learn more about using wikis and that I contact Ross Mayfield at SocialText for advice. A number of other issues must eventually be figured out as well.
We are continuing to look for outside advisors. Please contact me if you have any ideas or suggestions.
Very interesting idea, and great thoughts on why/how this could work. One thing that is not clear, however, is the answer to the question "Who is the customer?" And, perhaps more importantly, what does he/she need that this model can deliver more effectively?
Posted by: Christopher Carfi | November 12, 2004 at 12:06 AM
Take a look at SeedWiki. May suit your purposes and has interesting features.
Posted by: Stuart Henshall | November 12, 2004 at 12:20 AM