Where open meets co-op
By definition our government should be decent. But it is not. Being decent requires ‘conforming with generally accepted standards of respectable or moral behaviour’ or performing to ‘an acceptable standard’. But, according to MORI’s Trends showing satisfaction with the government from 1997 to the present it is hard to find a single occasion in the last 23 years where the UK … [Read more...]
Below is a recording of a session from the OPEN 2018 conference about "When communities of practice meet the collaborative economy" featuring Dr Laura James, Mark Walton, Kate Swade, and Wouter Tebbens, presented by the inimitable Bernie from OuishareRadio. In this session on the second day of OPEN 2018, we ran a Q&A panel on strategies for bringing together the numerous … [Read more...]
OPEN 2018 - Welcome and reflections from day 1 Oliver Sylvester-Bradley provides an explanation of platform co-ops and a few thoughts from Day 1. OPEN 2018 - A shared social vision Gary Alexander presents ‘A shared social vision’ including a few instant polls to get a sense of where those present agree and disagree. What might our collaborative, sustainable … [Read more...]
The following post is transcript of a recent webinar on "Decentralized co-operation at scale. What patterns work? What are the main drivers and hindrances?" organised by our friends from the Digital Life Collective. The discussions covered many of the subjects which will be discussed at the OPEN 2018 conference and are a great intro to the challenges of organising decentralised … [Read more...]
The Solid Fund is offering members of worker co-ops bursaries to cover the costs of travel and tickets to the OPEN 2018 Platform Co-ops conference in London this July. Solid Fund is an excellent initiative which supports workers to own and control their own livelihoods. They want a strong, growing and self-reliant network of successful workers' co-operatives and are creating … [Read more...]
We're very excited to announce that Riverford Organic's boss, Guy Watson, will be speaking at OPEN 2018 about giving the company to the employees this summer. Check out what Guy has to say in the video below - this is the future of business; where people come before profits. … [Read more...]
There are now 7.1 million precarious workers in the UK. That is more than 20% of the UK workforce and the number is growing fast. Precarious workers now outnumber the 5.8 million members in trade unions (mostly in the declining public sector). A new report ‘Working Together: Trade Union and Co-operative Innovations for Precarious Work’ calls for increased protection for … [Read more...]
There's something exciting happening in the world of co-ops which harks back to the very beginning of the movement. Although Rochdale is normally credited as the "birthplace of cooperation" records show that in 1761, sixteen weavers in Ayrshire set up "The Society of Weavers in Finnick", arguably the first co-operative organisation of the industrial age. It was some 83 years … [Read more...]
This little 1 min video highlights what to expect at OPEN 2018, the Platform Co-op conference on "Collaborative technology for the co-operative economy" - as told by the voice of the future... Please share! … [Read more...]