ProjectVRM is a research and development effort here at the Berkman Center, working to create new Net-based business models in which customers lead vendors, rather than vice versa. VRM stands for Vendor Relationship Management. With ProjectVRM we are working to create tools that make customers both independent of vendors and better able to engage with vendors.

At ProjectVRM we have a substantial and growing community of open source developers and other interested parties, all working to liberate customers from vendors' silos and walled gardens -- and to create more open and productive markets in the process. VRM will make customers into platforms for business, by equipping them with tools that let them relate with vendors on terms that work for both sides -- rather than the current industrial-age system in which sellers work to "capture," "acquire," "drive," "control" and "own" customers.

There are a number of theses behind VRM:

- That a free customer is more valuable than a captive one

- That VRM can engage and improve CRM (customer relationship management) systems

- That customers can assert their own Terms of Service (ToSes), eliminating the need constantly to "accept" vendor ToSes that nobody ever reads

- That making the customer the "point of integration" for his or her own data has enormous benefits over the current system, where customer data is scattered across countless vendor-controlled systems and not integrated anywhere at all

- That patients can and should control their own health care data

- That customers can advertise their wants and needs -- with selective and minimal disclosure of personal information -- without going through intermediaries

- That a new business model for otherwise "free" media (such as music, blogs and public radio) can be built around easy and straightforward customer-initiated voluntary payment systems

- That economic growth can be caused by an Intention Marketplace that is far more efficient and far less wasteful than the Attention Marketplace in which $billions are spent on the guesswork we call advertising

Research is required to test these and other theses -- and to develop strategies for applying them in the marketplace. At ProjectVRM we are currently working on research programs that will involve the Law and Business schools, and perhaps others as well.

We are looking for interns and volunteers to help develop and carry out these research programs, and to help with ProjectVRM itself, which involves an increasing number of members, committees and meetings.

If you're interested in getting involved with one of the most exciting new developments in technology, business and law, please contact Doc Searls at dsearls[AT]cyber.law.harvard.edu. And visit our wiki at http://projectvrm.org.