First you might want to create your profile. You find it on the member list page under "My profile" in the left sidebar.

Also on the member list page you find the profiles of other members.

If you have a specific project in mind already for which you look for cooperation partners, you can describe it in the projects area. You may also look for an appropriate project to participate.

If you want to implement a project with newly found partners or alone you can work out a detailed concept.

Click in the member list on the member whom you wish to contact. In the profile you find a link to a contact form.

Click in the member list on the member with whom you wish to enter a project partnership. In the profile you find a link to offer a project partnership. If your offer is confirmed you become project partners.

You can give feedback to a member on the profile page. You find the Profile in the member list

A sophisticated feedback is possible in eight different categories. You can allot 1 to 5 starts per category. Click on the star which resembles your evaluation.

If you change your mind later, simply reevaluate in the desired category. This will update your previous evaluation. If you wish to delete your feedback, click on the red symbol to the left of the stars.

About copying and protecting of ideas

Open Syndicate's multistage concept: tailor made openness and protection

Open Syndicate's cooperation platform offers you a variety of strategies to find cooperation partners for a project and to collaborate with them:

1. In your profile you can briefly describe your project in the section "Professional activities / What I would like to do in the future". Thus you can be found by other members who are interested in your project. Or you search actively in the profiles of other members for possible cooperations. This way you have a high protection of your idea. On the other hand, this gives you limited chances for a cooperation, compared to the other strategies.
2. You can describe your project in the projects area. Write as much or as little as you feel comfortable with. More information increases your chances to find somebody suitable but also increases the possibility that somebody takes advantage without your consent. Consider carefully where you find the best balance between this two poles.

3. You can develop a concept. It can only be read and edited by you and by project partners whom you invite. You can also decide whether your project partners can only read or edit too.

   The more you disclose the higher your chance to find qualified support but also the chance that parts are copied. This should be considered carefully. A closed circle offers the highest security. On the other hand, you can not receive support from outside this circle anymore. And you need a detailed concept in order to convert a business idea into a real business. You should balance the risk of loss by someone copying from your concept and the higher chance of success through additional support and ideas.

Advantages and risks of disclosing business ideas

Really successful business ideas are the result of intense work and therefore difficult to copy. Few business ideas are unique inspirations which turn into money literally by themselves.

Many times it is possible to get inspirations from other business ideas without copying them. You too can do that with other peoples ideas. It is a mutual exchange. If you allow others to be inspired by your ideas, you support the development of a pool of knowledge and impulses from which you and others will profit. Up to a certain stage this profit usually exceeds the risk of copied ideas.

Technical protection at the different stages

The risk to suffer a damage through a copied idea is highest when your concept is far advanced. The aim is to find a way to protect the business idea sufficiently, but to allow the exchange of opinions and inspirations at the same time.

Open Syndicate offers technical protection of your ideas to different degrees.

• Your profile, in which you can briefly describe your project, is only visible for members.
• Likewise, projects are visible for members.
• You develop concepts in a protected space, to which only you and your invited project partners have access.

Considerations about the choice of the appropriate security level

• The best protection from a copied business idea is to realize it swiftly.
• Even the most sophisticated documentation of a concept does not contain the full know how which is required to realize it.
• Between an idea and a successful business stands intense work. Idea thieves often dread this effort.
• Someone who is able to realize an idea has own ideas and does not need to copy them.
• Someone who has no own ideas is usually incapable to realize foreign ideas.
• If the idea is really good, there is usually room for more than one supplier in the market.
• To develop a new market is very costly, because new offers require a lot of advertising. Therefore it can even be an advantage if competitors advertise an idea. And maybe a cooperation develops...
• If you can not develop an idea alone, is it better,
  • to grasp the chance of a mutual development, connected with the risk that somebody else picks up the same idea
  • or if nobody realizes the idea?

The forum is meant for discussions among members about a variety of issues. You can participate in existing discussions or create a new one.

This is also the place to give Open Syndicate feedback, suggestions for improvement and other impulses. It is important for Open Syndicate to learn about your viewpoints in order to improve Open Syndicate for you.

The SyndiQuette sets the frame for the cooperation between the members of the Open Syndicate self-employed network.

It is particularly applicable for the following fields:

• for projects,where members can describe and comment them
• the forum,where members can discuss a variety of issues
• the cooperation in mutual enterprises which result from business concepts

Please obey this rules for mutual success!

Behind every contributon - be it good or bad - is a human being. It is easier to agree to this than to live up to this maxim. But this is especially in a collaborative project of essential meaning. Concepts and contributions have authors. They are hurt if somebody comments the content of their texts or forum contributions in to rough a tone. On top of that it brings the discussion from the factual level to a personal level. This creates disputes - which is not in the sense of a common project. A polite tone supports a professional cooperation.

This page illustrates the focal principles of the mutual communication in the Open Syndicate self-employed network.

1. Coordinate with the initiator of a project where the initiator wants support and where he or she wants to realize own ideas. Mutual respect means to edit a business concept not without the consent of the initiator, but also not to revert it without giving a rationale. Try to resolve different viewpoints through direct contact.
2. Assume good faith. Except for a few exceptions, people who contribute here have the same goal like you, to make a business concept successful. Assume that the members have knowledge resources at their disposal and want to contribute them here. Maybe somebody else had good reasons for an action which seems unreasonable to you on first sight.
3. No personnel attacks:Remain businesslike in case of discussions or criticism and try not to hurt you counterpart. Criticism can be issued in many forms - choose the most gentle.
4. Be polite. Politeness shows professionalism. It fosters the exchange of information and therefore the mutual construction of knowledge. Say something nice when you read something you like. It is not costly to leave a user a short message, but it motivates tremendously. Friendliness also means to leave no inquiry unanswered.
5. It is better to speak face to face. Get in contact with your counterpart through the contact page of the profile or use the forum. In the forum you find friendly networkers whom you can ask for their opinion, if you are insecure. An administrator will also take a look regularly, who can moderate. And you can explain issues to you counterpart quickly which might otherwise lead to serious conflict.
6. Help others. Welcome newcomers and help them to find their way in the Open Syndicate self-employed network. Answer when you are approached and say thank you if you have been helped. Communication attempts which run into nothing are frustrating.
7. Stay calm! Everybody has bad days and is impulsive and irritable - breath deeply and try coziness! hen you have no stress, have better reactions and are less fulnerable.
8. If you want something, ask for it. You are not entitled that somebody immediately answers or attends to something - maybe he or she just has a networking pause. We are a network - you are an author and can take charge yourself; be brave! If others do not like your work you can discuss and find a compromise or finally revert an action.
9. Refrain from open conflict. If two members argue publicly the whole community suffers - and it does not foster a solution. Who wants to lose face publicly? Therefore: Use email, Skype or any other means of communication which allows a businesslike form of solution. If you can not resolve your conflict, ask an administrator for a mediation.
10. Forgive and forget. Whoever has been long enough at the Open syndicate self-employed network will certainly someday have a conflict. Being offended, sulking and grumbling is ok. in such a case, but don't be resentful: forgive insults, be ready to apologize or to forget and burry conflicts after a reasonable time. Not everything you understand in a certain way is also meant that way - maybe it was a misunderstanding?
11. The Open syndicate self-employed network thrives on the fact that in principle everybody may do anything and goodwill is assumed. This way the largest potential of creativity can be developed. Without this basic trust there would be no Open syndicate self-employed network. But that we assume goodwill does not mean that bad actions are tolerated. If somebody obviously does not want to contribute, there is no reason why the time and energy of other members should be tied. If somebody vandalizes, indicate it to him or her; if he or she keeps vandalizing report it to an administrator. Unfortunately, this is necessary too: violations of the Syndiquette can be sanctioned according to the seriousness of the violation from a warning up to exclusion.
12. Mutually working out a business concept works only if people are brave. Here we go! Make this or that change, correct a spelling error, add an aspect, make an expression more precise and so on. It is ok.! It is exactly what everybody expects. And it really works, even if a certain degree of politeness or even better, friendliness in necessary. You will soon realize: the instinctive and understandable wish of an author to own and conserve written text can be counterproductive. It is valuable to get rid of this emotional attachment by being open to changes, because the results can only improve this way. Consider: maybe you do not know all aspects of an issue even if you work very thoroughly. And you can not take a neutral viewpoint if you are attached to your text. Therefore be courageous if others change your text. But do not be to radical: substantial changes at texts should be agreed beforehand.

Please note: the content of this page is based on the Wikiquette from Wikipedia and therefore subject to the GNU Free Documentation License