we promote new governance structures
The Open Co-op is working to promote new governance structures, which provide democratic methods to steward our collective endeavours. Cooperatives, and Platform Co-ops, provide a blue-print for democratic business in which all members get a say in how the business is run.
Our two main projects in this area are Co-op Data Club and Meet.coop, which are both member-owned.
A co-op of co-ops that flips the standard data model
via inter-coop marketing and promotions.
Open source meeting and conferencing tools,
powered by renewable energy
Read more about our work on governance in the posts below:
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...
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...
Resonate is a music streaming co-op and a great example of a platform co-op which is changing the way business works. In the run up to the OPEN 2018 Platform Co-op conference we interviewed Peter Harris, Resonate Founder and CEO.
OSB: I love your #stream2own...
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...
Brianna Wettlaufer is the CEO and Co-founder of Stocksy, a platform co-op which offers a highly curated collection of royalty-free stock photography and video footage.
In the run-up to OPEN 2017, where Brianna will be speaking, Oliver Sylvester-Bradley...
If you’ve ever wondered about how a new, collaborative, sustainable, democratic economy might work the new book ‘Ours to Hack and Own – The rise of platform cooperativism, a new vision for the future of work and a fairer internet‘,...
The following post presents a vision of an open source operating system, which we at The Open Co-op believe would help create a collaborative, sustainable economy. See the video at the end of this post for an introduction to the concepts and ideas behind...
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...
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...
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...