<div class="gmail_quote">Mr. Winberg:<br><br>Greetings! I'm Nick Farr, an Accountant & Consultant based in Washington, DC.<br><br>I'm writing to you in regards to the group currently occupying your building at Lövholmsbrinken 4 in Stockholm. I'm writing today not necessarily to voice my support for the actions of these tenants or their methods, but as a fellow Businessman and, in a global sense, a Stakeholder in the activities of a subset of this group.<br>
<br>I believe you have a unique opportunity to constructively engage this group, a segment of whom are operating a unique laboratory and creative space similar to many others that are emerging around the world. My colleague Hellekin O. Wolf, who wrote you earlier today, described these spaces far better than I when he said they, "...fill the gap and setup bridges between academic knowledge
and corporate research, between the scientist and the artist, between
engineers and the public. They can help discover new talents and seed
innovation."<br><br>I refer to these laboratories as "Hackerspaces", and I am a founder of my local Hackerspace, HacDC[1] and a member of the C-Base[2] in Berlin, Germany. While each of these Hackerspaces have varying organizational forms and political orientations, we all share the common goal of forming spaces to learn from each other and make what we imagine a reality.<br>
<br>If you look back on the histories of corporations that innovate, you'll see incredible similarities between the activities of their founders and the activities of those in Hackerspaces. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first Apple Computer in a space they shared and collaborated in. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started the company that bears their names in a similar space. What many people don't realize is that both of these companies were founded in bad economic times, in 1976 and 1939, respectively, and all four men carried their ideals, once considered incredibly radical, into business success.<br>
<br>Even though the OECD Economic Outlook for Sweden[3] predicts output will recover in 2010, unemployment is expected to continue to rise beyond 11%. Throughout the industrialized world, the "jobless recovery" is creating an increasingly tense political climate. It is becoming clearer to me that in these times of increased joblessness, actions by governments to protect the rights of property owners are being met with disproportionately hostile responses.<br>
<br>I offer the rise of the Pirate Party as an example of this phenomenon. The jailing of the founders of the Pirate Bay[4] in Sweden set off a wave of concrete political action and activism. Pirate Parties, directly inspired by this arrest and conviction, have created a viable political force in several EU countries and the EU parliament itself. It's becoming increasingly clear that hostile action towards the Pirate Bay and corresponding global media attention has increased overall public awareness and acceptance of anti-copyright methods, thereby accelerating the erosion of the value of Intellectual Property.<br>
<br>In a sense, the government of Sweden may have missed an incredible opportunity. Instead of engaging and exploring the shifting realities in our world, of attempting to understand the global phenomenon in play, they did what governments typically do and put a stop to it. It's interesting to note that one of Sweden's most successful businessmen, Ingvar Kamprad, once faced a similar problem. Threatened by the revolutionary business idea of being the lowest cost provider of furniture, suppliers caved to pressures of IKEA's competitors and boycotted Kamprad. In response, Kamprad began designing his own furniture in 1955 and in turn, created one of the world's most successful brands.<br>
<br>While I believe it somewhat unlikely that the Anarchists in your building are currently planning the next great global brand, I do believe that those involved with the Abbenay HackSpace are in the same kind of situation. They are innovators, pioneers and at the forefront of the technology that is rapidly changing our world. Citing the examples of history, I argue that it is more profitable and a better long-term strategic investment to negotiate an amicable lease and engage this group and their ideas. Granted, I don't necessarily agree with their politics, but as the examples I cited show, great ideas have come from unusual people innovating in interesting times.<br>
<br>I believe those occupying the building have the best interests of the property itself and the community at heart, though their methods and rhetoric may not reflect this. While they may not be able to pay market rates today, I suspect that your property rights are best served by respectfully negotiating a proper lease with this group. If you extend a certain level of respect for this group and an understanding of their situation, I do believe they will respond in kind. While I am unfamiliar with the tax laws in Sweden, there may be an opportunity for you in allowing this group to officially organize in a manner similar to groups that have rehabilitated properties in East Berlin. At the very least, allowing them to become financially viable protects the value of your property and wins you a new customer in the process. <br>
<br>However, I believe that engaging this group allows you to become a unique investor in the kind of people like Jobs, Wozniak, Hewlett and Packard--pioneers and innovators with a radical spirit. What you can learn from them and what they can learn from you has the potential to create an incredibly positive economic impact. Even if the next Ingvar Kamprad isn't among the squatters in your building, you would definitely be buying a great deal of goodwill from a very large international community and help to show that Capitalism isn't the evil that Anarchists make it out to be.<br>
<br>I thank you for your time and hope I've done something to explain what I believe is a wonderful opportunity you have the choice to participate in. I am more than happy to do whatever I can to facilitate an amicable resolution to this situation and offer you whatever credibility I have in this community to achieve such an end.<br>
<br>Respectfully yours,<br><br>Nick Farr<br><br><br><br>[1] <a href="http://haccdc.org" target="_blank">http://haccdc.org</a> <br>[2] <a href="http://c-base.org" target="_blank">http://c-base.org</a><br>[3] <a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/5/53/20213258.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/5/53/20213258.pdf</a><br>
[4] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay</a><br><br>
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