Information Technology

An interview with Andy Bowling of comp.coop and Co-op Cincy.

I want to share a framework that explains the different varieties of tech worker cooperatives. This framework helps us understand the various pathways tech workers can take to join the tech worker cooperative movement.

Co-founder of two worker co-ops, Yochai Gal, joins us to talk about his co-op's recent merger with another tech worker cooperative, and how the new co-op incorporated the best of both of the worker co-ops that formed it. Then Yochai shares his (rather critical) thoughts on the trajectory of the USFWC over the last several years, and why he thinks it has largely failed to fulfill it's original goals.

Data management and work in nonprofit and social service agencies is generally less developed than the big data storage and analysis systems of platform capitalism. Data work in nonprofits is increasingly central to their operation, however, and the sector is experiencing rapid adoption of corporate data platforms. Given the value commitments of the sector, and this unique moment of development, the sector also presents strong opportunities for cooperativization.

Tech worker cooperatives have the potential to provide particularly crucial infrastructure for the communication and coordination necessary for a liberatory movement and a robust and just economy.

The Fediverse, as Jakob Sitter Midttun writes, is an ensemble of interconnected – yet independent –  free, open source social media platforms utilizing federated protocols to seamlessly integrate with one another.

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.

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

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