Where open meets co-op
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 … [Read more...]
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 ultimate tool to help reorganise society and facilitate the … [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 CRISIS" banner in 2011, it felt like protest had reached … [Read more...]
Platform Co-op Support The Open Co-op welcomes the support for Platform Cooperatives outlined in Jeremy Corbyn's Digital Democracy Manifesto (pdf). Recent Deliveroo and UberEats strikes highlight the importance of "the inalienable right of trade union membership" and the growing need for a "cooperative upgrade of the sharing economy". Support for Open Source We're also very … [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 … [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 how awesome it was that #rainbowunicornkittens was … [Read more...]