Welcome to The Open Co-op

Our purpose is to build a world-wide community of individuals and organisations committed to the creation of a collaborative, sustainable economy.

We are part of a wider movement towards 'Planetary Citizenship', a radically changed world based upon:

• Active care for/stewardship of the natural world.
• Active care for people: a social structure based upon co-operation and mutual support.

We focus on the economic side, on practical projects using ICTs to create the infrastructure to make the social vision a reality. Imagine a peer-to-peer network with a blend of trading software, chat and social software to create a virtual social economy over the internet. Communities would be able to chat, swap best practise, sell goods, get ratings for trades, have meetings...! We are committed to the principles and use of Free Software.

See The Vision for a description of the future we are trying to create, and Our Principles for a summary of what we believe in and what has influenced us.

See The Present for an outline of our current work, including:

• Open Food Co-ops
• Tools for Change resource pack
• Virtual Open Organisational Platform
• Creative Regeneration

Join now to be able to participate in our projects or contribute to our wiki.