Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to report on an action research project with two emergent micro-businesses that explored how their business model connected with the principles of open source. Design/methodology/approach-We first gained initial qualitative data to establish the core values of each micro-business, which we then explored in the context of open source and business models in two design workshops with each organisation. Findings-We developed the open source guild business model, which has the elements of: building a focal micro-business with resources secured through the guild, promoting learning and development through apprenticeship, promoting shared values through a commons of experience and capturing value by protecting key intellectual property. Research limitations/implications-This research was undertaken with two emergent microbusinesses in the North West of England. Further research will be needed to establish the wider applicability of the open source guild model. Practical implications-The open source guild model can be a mechanism for an emergent microbusiness to create a community around their values and grow their business without conventional external investment of resources. Originality/value-This research contributes to the literature on business models based on open source and how these models can be sustainable in terms of the quadruple bottom line, which extends the triple bottom line to include personal values and meaning.

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In the context of a rapidly growing broadband market, it is critical to understand the expectations and quality of service requirements of a changing population of end users, in order to make informed strategic decisions. Although a number of technologies are available to fine-tune bandwidth allocation and ensure various forms of 'fairness', the performance, cost and marketing implications of choosing one regime over another are not always obvious to decision-makers. In this paper, we present the broadband broker (B-Cube) simulation tool and demonstrate how it can be used as a strategic planning tool to identify and evaluate the advantages and shortcomings of a wide variety of broadband products, bandwidth management schemes or changes in usage patterns. The main difference between B-Cube and other tools is that using it only requires an understanding of the top-level principles governing the distribution of the limited broadband resource.