Defining the sharing economy continues. An inspiring event took place at the Goethe Institut in New York, January 21st. In previous entries I wrote about Platform Cooperativism, that took place in November. This was a follow-up event with a gifted panel of experts questioning the current “sharing economy” and what it could be.

Artwork for Platform Cooperativism a concept penned by Trebor Scholz including events at The New School and the Goethe-Institut, New York

Panelist Trebor Scholz who coined the term Platform Cooperativism has again convened thinkers and solutions that spread wealth and  ownership to workers. Following the November event Trebor wrote an educational and inspiring report, Platform Cooperativism, published by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. It describes the reality of the “on-demand economy” we have today, often described as a sharing economy, where “companies like Amazon, CrowdSpring, and Taskrabbit” are creating more damage to society and workers than their supposed innovation. The result is “Platform capitalism” coined by Sasha Lobo and Martin Kenney. Scholz writes: “platform capitalism, so far, has been highly ineffective in addressing the needs of the commonwealth. What initially looked like innovation, eventually cranked up the volume on income inequality.” Uber and CrowdFlower are other examples.

The solution is building equality into alternate platforms that serve similar functions. Trebor wants to make clear that it’s being done. Blockchain technology was discussed at length in the November conference as one approach. Trebor writes: “Convincing tools based on blockchain technology have emerged over the past few years. Loomio, Backfeed, D-CENT, and Consensys.”

Other panelists at the Goethe-Instiut were Brendan Martin, Felix Weth, Chelsea Rustrum, and Emma Yorra.

Brendan Martin, founder of Working World gave some great perspective on what we’re confronting with ownership in today’s sharing conversation. Class warfare has repeated itself, and we are facing an age-old problem, he said. This puts discussions of ownership into perspective. Common grain storage in ancient times, for example, may have been stored for the common good, however, eventually ownership consolidates to fewer and fewer owners. Then the disadvantaged seek ownership again from the wealthy few, and the process repeats itself. This cyclical pattern reminds me of Saul Alinsky’s observation in his book Rules for Radicals where those that lack power may eventually get it, then conversely fight to keep it. This yin yang pattern in both ownership and power should be kept in mind.

Panelist Felix Weth is the founder of Fairmondo, mentioned in my last post. The German-based co-op  is spreading into the UK. Hopefully there will be expansion into the US.

Chelsea Rustrum had a great message that sharing can actually be an advantage. She is a co-author of It’s a Sharable Life. In an earlier blog post I show that co-ops can outperform traditional capitalistic business models. Sharing of wealth at co-ops could exemplify this kind of advantage. At the Platform Cooperativism conference the term stigmergy was presented as a model studied by Joel Deitz and others. If groups have superior ways of coordinating then competitive advantage could result.

Panelist Emma Yorra has an impressive resume working with co-ops in New York and Working World in Nicuaruagua. She also mentioned collaboration with the oft mentioned financial co-op in platform cooperativism: Robin hood.

Sharing is a topic I believe all businesses should take seriously for practical reasons. I write this blog because co-ops share ownership, wealth, responsibility, and advantage. Cooperative platforms are no different.