The principles we are building upon

Fundamental principles of a collaborative, sustainable economy

We look towards a radical alternative to today's competitive market, where everyone is out for their own interests at the expense of everyone else, and economic activity is driven by private economic gain:

• A relationship of trust and personal connection, with reputation as a stabilising force.
• Economic activities driven by service to people and planet.

For this to be possible requires that economic activity is guided by information:

• Extensive feedback (ratings and reviews) to provide stability and synergy
• ‘real costs’ (social and environmental) to guide consumers

Organisational principles

The Open Co-op is a co-operative of a new type, but builds upon the traditional co-operative principles:

A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.

1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independance
5. Education, Training and Information
6. Co-operation among Co-operatives
7. Concern for Community

We have been particularly influenced by two approaches to organisation, Stafford Beers' Viable Systems Model and Open Organisation, the methodology that made Linux and Firefox so successful.

The Viable Systems Model

The Viable Systems Model looks at an organisation interacting with its environment.
The organisation is viewed as two parts: the Operation which does all the basic work (production, distribution, earning the money) and the bits which provide a service to the Operation by ensuring the whole organisations works together in an integrated way (scheduling, accounts, strategic planning ...) These bits are called the Metasystem. (See Jon Walker's book for a clear introduction.)

Open Organisation

An 'Open Organisation' is a functional structure for people to work together. It is open to anyone who agrees to abide by its purpose and principles, with complete transparency and clearly defined decision making structures, ownership patterns, and exchange mechanisms; designed, defined, and refined by all members as part of a continual transformative process.

Where this leads us

Our current projects are guided by these principles. We see them as the first steps towards a global network of self-organised Local Open Co-ops which we hope will eventually become entirely self funding as an ethical trading network with unique features including reputation and trust feedback mechanisms, flexible (user-definable) group-based policy/decision making rules, and complementary barter and micro-credit currencies.