Have you ever wondered why the world works like it does? Why things seem skewed in favour of the rich and the powerful and why our so called ‘democratic’ systems seem so inherently unjust? Why we have rampant inequality, poverty, hunger and accelerating species extinctions and runaway global warming? The answers are not simple because …
The changing narrative – A new ontology for the progressive movement? Read More »
This article is the second part of our interview with Matthew Schutte, Communications Director at Holochain, which covers their plans to build a “Commons engine” to help provide co-ops with the tools they need to communicate, coordinate and cooperate at scale. In part two Matthew explains how Holochain enables “protocol” rather than “platform” cooperation, by …
Holochain – The commons engine for cooperation at scale Read More »
Holochain is a new technology project with huge potential for the cooperative economy. Members of The Open Co-op have been promoting the idea that new software could, potentially, revolutionise both our failing democracies and our predatory capitalist economies, since 2004. Back then we weren’t quite so clear on exactly how the required information architecture should …
Holochain – the perfect framework for decentralised cooperation at scale Read More »
Co-owned web infrastructure is a clear goal for the co-op movement. As well as ensuring our data is not abused by big corporates a co-owned ‘cloud’ of services like email, docs, spreadsheets and calendars could do wonders for collaboration. A cooperative cloud would also provide a clear stepping stone towards the open source, collaborative working …
Co-op coins are not a new concept but the days of trading locally minted coins for a pint of milk or a loaf of bread are long gone. Instead, the rising interest in digital currencies and rapid increase in the number of Initial Coin Offerings looks set to make 2018 “the year of the crypto currency”. But …
This superb discussion about Platform Co-ops entitled “What happened to the future?” was the plenary at the recent event “The People’s Disruption” at the New School in New York on the 10th of November 2017. The panel session features an introduction from Camille Kerr (Associate Director at The ICA Group) and is moderated by Douglas …
“What happened to the future?” video from NY conference Read More »
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 »
Open Value Networks are very similar to Bettermeans’ Open Enterprise ideas and variously described as “people creating value together, by contributing work, money and goods, and sharing the income” a “framework for many-to-many innovation” and a “model for commons-based peer production”. The idea is probably most clearly outlined by Sensorica‘s Tiberus Brastaviceanu in his TEDxMontreal talk above. …
