Hi! I’m working with Stirchley Co-operative Development in Birmingham, and we’re exploring best practices for internet design within co-operatives. We’re looking to connect with someone experienced in the tech/co-op space who can share insights, examples, and lessons learned from existing co-op models. Our goal is to understand how different approaches to digital infrastructure, online collaboration, and web presence might be adapted to support our new co-op. If you’re open to a conversation or can point us to relevant resources, would love to connect!
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Hi, Mikaela! There’s a lot to unpack there for sure. When it comes to co-operatives I like to go back to the cooperative principles and map them onto projects.
First and foremost is that a co-op is built for the benefit of its members. With this human centric lens you get a big perspective shift versus the Silicon Valley ideals. No more extraction, no more dark patterns, no more hockey-stick growth, etc.
I see these things codified in some of these great resources:
When it comes to business: platform co-operativism is still rapidly evolving. I particularly like the work from the MEDlab including their Exit to Community work:
- Nathan Schneider | Media Economies Design Lab | University of Colorado Boulder
- [https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/sites/default/files/attached-files/virtualcoop.pdf](https://VirtualCoop paper)
I’d love dive in further on mapping the principles to tech. What are you exploring with your work?
Autonomic has lots of experience in the area of infrastructure for co-ops.