Technology is disrupting outmoded industries at an unprecedented rate. As the gyroscopic effects of the neoliberal model wobble out of control Paul Mason suggests the end of capitalism has begun and even the IMF is questioning whether their capitalist agenda was a 30 year long mistake. This article analyses how platform businesses disrupt industries and …
Douglas Rushkoff is a writer, documentarian, and lecturer whose work focuses on human autonomy in a digital age. He is the author of fifteen bestselling books on media, technology, and society, including Program or Be Programmed, Present Shock, and most recently Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. He recently authored a chapter of the new …
Re-writing the core code of business: A Q&A with Douglas Rushkoff Read More »
In 2015, Nathan co-organised “Platform Cooperativism,” a pioneering conference in New York, which kick started a wave of global discussion about online democratic platforms. He recently co-edited the book, Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet. In the run …
Democracy spreads like a virus: A Q&A with Nathan Schneider Read More »
Just like traditional co-ops, platform co-ops are organisations that are owned and managed by their members. While traditional co-ops are normally based around a physical community of members, platform co-ops live online and are normally populated by online communities of members. The word ‘platform’ is often used to describe an internet service which brings together suppliers …
What are ‘Platform Co-ops’? Platform cooperatives are online organisations which are owned and managed by their members. Platform co-ops follow the principles of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA). They are democratically governed and support the development of informational and material commons. They provide a viable alternative to the standard internet model based on monopoly and …
Platform co-ops, and the burgeoning movement behind them, are big news. For the first time since the inception of the internet a consensus is forming around a new model of economics and governance. At The Open Co-op we have been working on this concept since 2004 and continue to advocate that the internet provides the …
Introducing Open 2017 – what are platform co-ops? Read More »
In 2010, when Transition Towns started growing into the hundreds in the UK, with another 250 worldwide, it felt like something was really happening. Like ‘the people’ might me about to start taking control of their town’s futures. When the Occupy movement camped up on the steps of St Pauls with that huge “CAPITALISM IS …
The murmurations of a collaborative, sustainable economy Read More »
Saturday night is not the time most people chose to meet to discuss disrupting democracy. But that’s what happened at the Platform Co-ops event in London on the 21st of May 2016. Whilst most of Brick Lane was quaffing vast quantities of craft beer and sipping organic low-fat soya lattes with tofu sprinkles whist discussing …
