When I was studying law on the french riviera (sounds weird huh?)...I became really interested in one particular concept in commercial law: Affectio Societatis. After a bit of research to find the english equivalent, I found this document (ctrl+f' it) that describes it as the "spirit of cooperation". It goes:
The combining of contributions and the sharing of profits are not always enough to distinguish a contract of partnership from other juridical acts, such as association and indivision. The courts and legal authors have therefore added an indispensable subjective criterion: the intention to be involved in a partnership or affectio societatis, which is enshrined in the new Civil Code by the expression «spirit of cooperation». 
In means that to create a company, there is more than capital, paperwork and ideas. There is a genuine commitment to making it succeed, to working together. Literally, a company devoid of it could be annuled. At the time, we were studying this concept and comparing it to Pensions Funds and their unquenchable thirst for profits. I, naively, was arguing that it was impossible for those funds to have any affectio societatis since short term profits was the only motivation.

Fast forward to today.

This concept came back when I was reading a recent thread on memeorandum about reforming the venture capitalism industry. Dave Winer started the whole thing, arguing that VCs were no longer needed. That a company could be funded by its users. I like this idea.
I have virtually no personal experience in the VC world, almost have a positive image of them when reading guys like Fred Wilson or Jeff Clavier but too many times have i read stories of burnt entrepreneurs...It certainly means that, in general, this business lacks affectio societatis and Dave, by proposing a fund made up of users, that would fund companies in a democratic fashion is touching on something very important.

the For Us By Us (or FUBU) of venture capitalism. Where users pool knowledge, cash, contacts and, most importantly, a spirit of collaboration behind several ventures. I will watch this closely.

personomies, communitism, vc, venture capitalism, dave winer, affectio societatis