we promote new forms of ownership

The Open Co-op is working to create, test and promote new ownership models, which provide equitable access to the organisations and resources we rely on. We have organised several events on Platform Co-ops, which provide a blue-print for a new type of business that is owned and managed by its members.

Our two main projects in this area are Open Web Systems and Meet.coop which provide collectively-owned, surveillance-free, open source tools for collaboration.

Open Web Systems

Open source email, messaging and collaborative tools powered by renewable energy.

Open source meeting and conferencing tools,
powered by renewable energy

Read more about our work on ownership in the posts below:

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OPEN 2018: Platform Co-ops
See also the videos from the Main Hall, Workshop space and Open space. What happened at OPEN 2018? Nathan Schneider kicked things off with an excellent introduction explaining some of the history of cooperative ownership. Nathan also questioned where...
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OPEN 2018 Videos - Main Hall sessions
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...
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OPEN 2018 - Questions
Here’s the list of questions that were asked via Slido at OPEN 2018 on the Main Stage… a lot of them were answered (see the videos and collaborative notes), but a lot were not, so if you want to chip in and answer any of them feel free to...
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OPEN 2018 Videos - Workshop Space sessions
DAY 1 The workshop space at OPEN 2018 featured a range of session covering many different projects and approaches to building a more collaborative, cooperative future. We’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone who contributed and especially...
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OPEN 2018 Videos - Open Space sessions
DAY 1 The Open Space sessions at OPEN 2018 were a chance for attendees to put forward their own discussion topics. People put forward proposals on Loomio in the run-up to the event, others voted and the most popular sessions took place over the two days...
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RChain - a blockchain 3.0 framework for 'glocal' cooperation
In the run up to OPEN 2018, Oliver Sylvester-Bradley from The Open Co-op interviews Claire Tolan, a developer at Resonate, the music streaming co-op, about RChain, a new framework for scalable blockchain applications, which aims to enable ‘glocal’...
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Holochain - The commons engine for cooperation at scale
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...
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Holochain - the perfect framework for decentralised cooperation at scale
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...
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Resonation - An interview with Peter Harris
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...
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Riverford boss to speak at OPEN 2018 about converting to employee ownership
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;...