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  • Software and Co-ops

    In early August members of the web development cooperative, Agaric, presented to two Boston area audiences on platform cooperativism. Platform cooperativism brings cooperation and collective control to platforms built for connecting people, services, and products. Ben Melançon from Agaric presented to the first audience, a group of web developers in Boston that meets regularly to… Read more

  • A Reformer’s Legacy

    Bernie Sanders officially dismantled a social reform movement last week at the Democratic National Convention. But there’s another guy who made history with social reform by changing the very system that made him successful. A predecessor to socialism, his name has come up in the news lately: Robert Owen from Wales who lived from 1771… Read more

  • Uber-contradiction

    Sharing might not be sharing. A major rebuke of the sharing economy kicked off last November with Platform Cooperativism in New York. The event brought together thinkers and builders of a more cooperative internet and was described as taking back the internet by Co-operative News. Since then, a defining factor of whether you see the… Read more

  • Using a Cooperative Digital Platform

    My excitement grows for cooperative platforms on the web. They can bring actual democracy and equality to the web by establishing diverse stakeholders as owners. And the movement is growing (See my earlier blog post: Platforms for a New Economy.) But we’re all wondering how they will be built, and be influential. We can start… Read more

  • Connecting co-ops in North America

    As a network of co-ops builds in the US, redefining economics is resulting as well—a topic I’ve mentioned in several previous blog entries. There’s a mandate to develop an economy that includes solidarity. Other terms on the topic are: a sharing economy (which is defined differently depending on who you ask), or a generative economy.… Read more

  • Sustainable Energy and Co-ops

    There are 3000+ energy co-ops in the US and Europe. In both parts of the world co-ops are addressing the renewable energy challenge. In the US, some energy co-ops known as electric co-ops, are working toward 100% renewable energy use and analyzing the realities of getting there. Energy co-ops exist across Western Europe using exclusively… Read more

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