Talk on <2023-07-16 Sun> at FOSSy
The only business model w/ stated values that everyone who has that business models follows.
- formed to meet a common need
- democractically owned & controlled by its members
- designed to benefit members
7 coop principles:
- volunary / open membership
- one member, one vote
- member economic participation
- Autonomy & independenc
- education, training & information
- cooperation among coops
- concerns for the community
- maintains 1-member, 1-vote
- still allows you to define different “classes” of membership (ceo, management, staff) or (consumers vs employees)
Platform Cooperativism
- turning a platform into (or replacing with) co-ops
tech coops: https://github.com/hng/tech-coops not outside of capitalism, but hopefully a “gentler” capitalism?
they do exist within the capitalism framework, but they are unique in that they CAN exist out of them.
Open questions
Q: How do you take on new folks? Do they pay in to join? Tax their output?
Q: Have you heard of companies converting into a coop? Or is it basically all founded as coop? A: You could basically never get it past shareholders.