Where open meets co-op
The original calling question, developed for the OPEN 2020 in Conway Hall no longer feels perfect in this post-covid world. We were going to ask "How can we co-create a new economy which puts people and the planet before profit?" which we expanded on for the OPEN 2020 About page. But clearly everything has changed now... and a new calling question seems required. Working … [Read more...]
The following blog is a guest post from Daniel Heery, from Charge My Street - a platform co-op that installs and operates community chargepoints for electric vehicles, which is currently raising money through community shares. An the first Open Conference back in 2017, I took part in the #DigiDen session with 2 other putative Platform Co-ops. We all pitched our ideas, … [Read more...]
The main challenge we need to solve in the platform co-op community is how to reach critical mass… and how to pass users from one platform to another. Fairbnb.coop is a platform co-op whose name precedes it. Everyone’s heard of the venture-capital-backed alternative that’s putting hotels and traditional B&Bs out of business, and Fairbnb.coop is the antithesis of that - a … [Read more...]
In my previous post on making groups work I argued that a centralised, cooperatively owned platform could be one of the most effective ways to catalyse the co-creation of a new economy, right now. My argument for centralisation is based wholly on practicalities - and the urgency of the need. The climate emergency, coupled with the other systemic challenges we face (debt, … [Read more...]
There is a growing consensus that enabling groups, and networks of groups, to work together, is essential to delivering exponential impact in collaboration and solving humanities multiple challenges. The Magical Number Seven, ideas about committees, decision making, teams and productivity all suggest that small groups are the most effective… whilst Hagel suggests that … [Read more...]
The Open Co-op is pleased to announce we will be hosting OPEN 2019 at a new venue, in between Angel and Old Street in London. It has been extremely hard work to secure a new venue this late in the day but we are very proud that OPEN 2019 is joining the IWGB Boycott of University of London in solidarity with out-sourced workers. This year the OPEN 2019 Community Gathering … [Read more...]