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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Information Technology

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February 19, 2024

May First Movement Technology: Digital Radicalism

Summary

Resistance in the digital environment demands that we center our values, intentions, and dreams, focusing on other ways to live, be, and know. May First Movement Technology is a cooperative (primarily based in the United States and Mexico) that aims to put these values into practice: digital media that supports social struggles and grassroots movements working to create the world we know is possible.

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January 29, 2024

Scaling a Co-op Beyond 100 Members

Summary

A look at how a worker co-op with 140 members, a flat pay scale, and no hierarchy functions.

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January 25, 2024

How ‘Chamas’ and Mutual Credit are Changing Africa

Summary

Today I’m talking with Shaila Agha of the Sarafu Network about ‘chamas’ and mutual credit, and how they’re changing Africa.

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January 23, 2024

Doubts About "DAO Tooling"

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Summary

DAO tooling is a poor fit for co-ops (and everyone else too).

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January 8, 2024

Creating a Support System for Platform Cooperatives in Thailand

Summary

In Thailand, several traditional cooperatives are offering products and services through digital platforms. While these may be considered Platform Co-ops, their primary revenue does not stem from the platform but from conventional business operations. This differs from the focus of this blog article, which refers to businesses that operate online through websites or mobile apps and are characterized by democratic decision-making and platform ownership by workers and users.

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December 4, 2023

Digital Solidarity in the Sharing Economy

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Digital solidarity and the sharing economy may seem like natural companions. To be sure, the sharing economy with its melding of community and commerce has the potential to be a key contributor to digital solidarity in developing economies.

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September 1, 2023

Accelerating Worker Ownership

Summary

An online panel facilitated by co-op researcher-practitioner Emi Do that brings together presenters from several such projects: CoTech, Exit to Community Collective, Platform Cooperativism Consortium, SPACE4, Start.coop, UnFound Accelerator, and Union Cooperative Initiative. These projects advance democratic business formation and co-op theory-building, and they offer valuable lessons on the promises and challenges of accelerating worker ownership today.

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March 13, 2023

Building a More Equitable Internet

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Summary

Last week’s Platform Co-op School event highlighted ICDE’s approach of recognizing the valuable contributions of scholars, technologists, artists, community organizers, and cooperators toward a more just and equitable digital economy. This is a recap of that event.

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February 20, 2023

Platform Co-op School Community Assembly Highlights

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Summary

Relive the excitement of a packed Community Assembly!

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July 18, 2022

Beyond Platform Cooperativism

Summary

Platform cooperativism is the union of technological potential with the strength of the cooperative organization. Worker-owned platforms can be laboratories, building local experiences to challenge the dominant dynamics of gig work. They can reinvent local economic circuits of production and consumption through platforms and improve working conditions while promoting mobility policies and improvements in public transportation, care services, and integration into the health system. This is both a promise and a potential of platform cooperativism.