Thanks to all PC(J) friends and Nithin from Shareable!
Tag Archives: platformcoop
Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ): The Future is Now
See also the embedded clip. As we concluded … Let’s cooperate! 🙂
Implementing the Co-operative Digital Economy
When presenting Platform Cooperativism as a fairer user-/worker-owned model of running online platforms, I often hear answers like “that’s a great idea, but it’s too difficult to realize.” However, technology to implement the co-operative digital economy is emerging. Solutions become available to sustainably crowd-source, share value, and govern democratically. Hexalina.io is one such example.
(from hexalina.io website)
It is now generally admitted that income inequality is one of the biggest problems of our world and a peril to the fabric of our society.
A few years ago, the rise of the “sharing economy” gave great hopes to change this: soon everybody would be self-employed, and benefit from the new opportunities unlocked by the internet, technology and platforms.
Today, unfortunately, the reality is bleaker: millions of people have indeed become self-employed and provide the services that increase –sometimes dramatically- the value of these platforms thanks to the network effect they create and the customer adoption they generate.
However, neither the contributors, nor the customers of the platforms have the opportunity to own a share of the value they create.
A lot of people realize this is counterproductive and eventually unsustainable. However, there seems to be no easy solution that can address the problem and scale to match its rate of expansion.
What we propose is a technology that can be integrated into platforms, allowing them to adopt a more collaborative approach where interests of owners, customers and contributors are aligned, because a fraction of the created value is shared fairly between them.
Think of it as the “Fairtrade” label for a platform. We call it the “sustainable network effect”.
Industry adaption of Platform Cooperativism is the goal of the Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ) Consortium. Although awareness and motivation for the co-operative way is crucial, if there is no easy way to act upon, good intentions don’t get realized. That’s where technology solutions come into play.
The PCJ Consortium supports the cooperative digital economy through research, experimentation, education, advocacy, documentation of best practices, technical support, the coordination of funding, and events.
Connect with us:
Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ) Consortium
Website: www.platformjpcoop.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/platformcoopjp
Loomio: www.platformcoopjp.loomio.org
Artooba: We’re building a co-operative platform to help artists showcase and sell their art in public places (Connect!)
We are coloring the world. Be part of the community already now and connect with us: https://www.facebook.com/artoobacommunity
We are also looking for partners and further team members. Contact us for any inquiries.
Videos:
(Platform) Worker Co-ops as a Solution for Business Ownership Successions. The Context in Japan.
Introduction
The percentage of employees employed by small and medium enterprises (SME’s) decreased from 80% to 70% in the last 20 years. Issues regarding the ownership succession of businesses are essential in the light of an aging society and the need for sustainable socio-economic development. The SME Cooperative Act of 1949 is for small and medium enterprises that lack financial resources in the conduct of joint businesses based on a spirit of mutual-aid to raise their economic status. The creation of a worker co-operative law would allow the further formalization of the opportunity of business conversions into worker cooperatives in any business sector. Business successions to employees would create a fairer economy where the trinity of ownership (investors), management (managers), and value creation/utilization (workers, users) is balanced for the benefits of its active membership.
Number of SME’s in Japan has fallen by 1 million during the last 20 years
It would be great if we could already discuss co-operative ownership succession of large organizations. However, I’m not aware of a “buy-twitter-initiative” in Japan so far. So, the more immediate opportunity for Platform Cooperativism may lie with small and medium businesses. Over the past 20 years, the number of SMEs in Japan has fallen by about 1 million and the number of SME employees decreased from 80% to 70% percent of overall employment (White Paper on Small and Medium Enterprises in Japan 2016). I am not sure how much the demographic challenges of the aging society would be the cause of such a decline in the digital sector especially, as increasing eliminatory market dominance of the big corporations is an inherent feature of many digital platforms.
Opportunity for ownership succession to employees
I experience that Japanese observers are regretting the disappearing of SME’s due to a lack of successful succession management. A similar issue represents the continuing rural exodus. There is mentioning of that when the business successions among SMEs are becoming issues, business successions to non-family persons, such as employees, are increasing (Kubota, 2010). So, I feel there are lots of opportunities to promote the co-operative way, although the predominant family business succession models are to the family or third parties other than employees and are separating ownership and management. Japan is currently still one of the few developed countries without a worker coop law, which is certainly not helpful.
For example, in agriculture, the succession and inheritance aspect is (globally) less researched because there is a view that family farming is heading towards extinction anyway. However, as still many farms are owned and managed by families, there may be renewed interest in intergenerational and intra- and inter-family cooperative solutions such as worker co-operatives.
Japanese business cooperation
Japanese small businesses are typically strongly cooperating and sub-contracting between companies, also for the rehabilitation of (struggling) small enterprises. There is a system of Small and Medium Enterprise Cooperatives based on the SME Cooperative Act from 1949, facilitating small and medium enterprises that lack financial resources in the conduct of joint businesses based on a spirit of mutual-aid to raise their economic status. The joint business cooperatives are, e.g., joint store associations, chain business associations, joint investing companies and voluntary groups.
The Japanese business system, also described as “co-opetition”, a mix of severe competition and collectivist Japanese culture, may be a fertile ground for #platformcoopjp. On the other hand, tendencies of specializing employees to contribute to a collective raise the question of how easily employees can assume initiative and more active (intrapreneurship) roles in case of becoming part of an employee-owned/managed organization.
https://www.facebook.com/platformcoopjp
The Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ) Consortium is continuing to collaborate and research for the exploration of opportunities in applying co-operative (platform) solutions to business successions and share the lessons learned also outside of Japan.
For an overview of Japanese socio-economic situation and the #co-operative landscape, please see the following articles (https://mathias-sager.com/2017/10/19/cooperatives-in-japan-article-series-overview/)
References
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (2016). White Paper on Small and Medium Enterprises in Japan 2016. The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency
Kubota, N. (2010). 非親族承継における所有と経営の分離. 日本経営診断学会論集, 9145-151. doi:10.11287/jmda.9.145
[Net Neutrality] (Cyber) Territory Development: Owned by Landlords or by the People?
The king has, in the struggle of defending his crown, given the virtual land to the landlords. Now the peasants pay the tolls to the privileged class who rules the online territory for the maximization of its own financial profits and influence. How will the insurgency look like? Time for (re-) new(-ed) alliances for effective and hopefully non-violent rebellion.
Part of the solution:
Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ)
Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ) connects key stakeholders of the emerging platform economy ecosystem to create synergies in the pursuit of increased shared value, ownership, and governance. The PCJ Consortium supports the cooperative digital economy through research, experimentation, education, advocacy, documentation of best practices, technical support, the coordination of funding, and events.
Inspiration from the History of Switzerland:
The Old Swiss Confederacy began as a late medieval alliance between the communities of the valleys in the Central Alps, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, to facilitate the management of common interests such as free trade and to ensure the peace along the important trade routes through the mountains. With the rise of the Habsburg dynasty, the kings and dukes of Habsburg sought to extend their influence over this region and to bring it under their rule. The foreign landlords collected tolls from bridges. Anti-Habsburg insurgences sprung up, but were quashed quickly. This time of turmoil prompted the Waldstätten to cooperate more closely, trying to preserve or regain their Reichsfreiheit. On August 1, 1291, an Everlasting League was made between the Forest Communities for mutual defense against a common enemy. The three founding cantons of the Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, as the confederacy was called, managed to defeat Habsburg armies on several occasion, and ensured a de facto independence from the empire. The Freibrief, or freedom charter, to “the people of the valleys,” recognized and formalized in law the independence from the Habsburg that they had gradually won in fact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_of_the_Old_Swiss_Confederacy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_neutrality
Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ): Intergenerational, Multidisciplinary, and Cross-Cultural
Toot, no tweet anymore! Mastodon: The co-operatively run Twitter alternative
Social networking, back in your hands
The world’s largest free, open-source, decentralized microblogging network
How awesome is that!
For more information, check: https://joinmastodon.org/
Find your perfect community
Mastodon isn’t one place and one set of rules: it’s thousands of unique, interconnected communities to choose from, filled with different people, interests, languages, and needs. Don’t like the rules? You’re free to join any community you like, or better yet: you can host your own, on your own terms!
Take control of your content
With powerful tools to control who sees your posts and a 500-character limit, Mastodon empowers you to share your ideas, unabridged. The best part? All posts are in chronological order, not “optimized” to push ads into your timeline. With apps for iOS, Android, and every other platform imaginable, Mastodon is always at your fingertips.
Putting the user first
You’re a person, not a product. Mastodon is a free, open-source development that has been crowdfunded, not financed. All instances are independently owned, operated, and moderated. There is no monopoly by a single commercial company, no ads, and no tracking. Mastodon works for you, and not the other way around.
Feel safe in your community
Mastodon comes with effective anti-abuse tools to help protect yourself from online abuse. With small, interconnected communities, it means that there are more moderatorsyou can approach to help with a situation. This also means you can choose who sees your posts: friends, your community, or the entire fediverse.
Additional features
- Robust anti-abuse tools
- Flexible post filtering
- A huge audience
- Easily deploy your own
- They’re called toots
- Embed media in your posts
- Built on open web standards
- Spoiler warnings
- You decide what’s relevant
Satodigi(tal): The Vision of Co-operative Platform-Enabled Sustainable (Digital) Production Landscape Management
Platform Cooperativism: Democratically Run Digital Organizations
The People’s Disruption: Platform Co-ops for Global Challenges (November 10-11, 2017 / The New School, New York City)
The People’s Disruption: Platform Co-ops for Global Challenges
November 10-11, 2017 / The New School, New York City
The first platform cooperativism event in 2015 popularized the #platformcoop concept, and the conference a year later brought together co-op and union leaders to push the model forward. This third event will zero in on ways that platform cooperatives can help to address some of the future’s most urgent challenges. The fairer digital economy we need is already emerging, but it won’t happen on its own. That’s where you come in.
- Learn about new platform co-op projects that are shaping this emerging ecosystem, from blockchain-based financing to user-owned clouds
- Reflect on research about platform co-op experiments in recent years
- Confront growing challenges from artificial intelligence to global governance
- Join leaders from co-ops, industry, labor, and social movements—from Associated Press to Black Lives Matter—to raise the scale of our ambition
Platform cooperatives are poised to be a dynamic, transformative force in building a more equitable economy for people across various income, race and class strata, starting with the most vulnerable populations. This is a political and economic movement that can disrupt Silicon Valley’s disruptors by shifting the focus toward fundamentally fairer forms of ownership and governance. Over the past few years, the burgeoning of platform co-ops, community currencies, worker’s tech, the solidarity economy, and B Corps have shown us that alternative economies are not only necessary but possible. Come help us make platform cooperativism part of the new normal.
Convened by
Trebor Scholz, Camille Kerr, Nathan Schneider, Palak Shah
Featuring
Alicia Garza / Felicia Wong / Brad Burnham / danah boyd / Joseph Blasi / Pia Mancini / Yochai Benkler / Juliet Schor
And many more: platform.coop/2017/participants
Sponsored by
CCA Global Partners, Cooperatives for a Better World, Eugene Lang The New School for Liberal Arts, Robert L. Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies at The New School;
Febecoop Unionen, Vancity, SMart, Stocksy United;
Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, National Cooperative Bank, Sharetribe, Hexalina, Freelancers Union, Institute for the Future, Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals, Shareable.
Presented by
Also, don’t miss:
Platform Coop 2017: Technology Afterparty
(November 12, New York, NY)
An after-party for #platformcoop-obsessed tech developers and platform designers to come together and learn from one-another, connect, and co-create.
Register here —it’s free.
DazzleCon ’17
(November 15-17, Portland, OR)
Still accepting applications! If you’re a post-revenue founder interested in learning more about creating a more inclusive and ethical type of funding, be sure to visit www.zebrasunite.com.
More Information and Apply
Tenerife Colaborativa 2017
(November 23-27, Tenerife, Spain)
An opportunity to discover the keys that encourage economic paradigm shift and to explore initiatives that lead to practice.
Platform Cooperativism: Securing People’s Stakes and Shares in the Rapidly Evolving (Digital) Economy
It’s possible now to support the Platform Cooperativism movement to help secure peoples stake and share in online platforms and the digital economy.
Be it as an educator, as an IT expert, Executive MBA, or from a psychological point of view; I’m always arriving at the same conclusion. It is now the time we have to push further the awareness and application of feasible alternative cooperative economic models, in contrast, to ruthlessly extractive capitalism that a few shareholders and investors impose on us. People actually can claim back the ‘lost land’ and almost lost virtual world (buzzword internet neutrality, democracy, and freedom) from the ‘self-coronated landlords’ and Internet tycoons who are relentlessly increasing their fees while reducing social protection of their rent payers, users, and workers. Example companies, cases, stories, and approaches to the “old” and “new” world can be found here.
One answer and I think a historically critical opportunity to contribute to a fairer future, is Platform Cooperativism, which connects key stakeholders of the emerging cooperative platform ecosystem to create synergies in the pursuit of increased shared value, ownership, and governance.Platform Cooperativism supports the cooperative digital economy through research, experimentation, education, advocacy, documentation of best practices, technical assistance, the coordination of funding, and events.
The movement is relevant for any individual and organization that is valuing sustainable online platform solutions. Cooperative values ensure that the prosperity and decision-making can be shared between value creators working together for mutual benefit and the transition to a more equitable platform economy.
What you can do:
- Subscribe to the website/blog and follow the social media
- Get active yourself by involving or sharing your work with us or start local engagements/advocacy groups
- Promote #platformcoop and #platformcoopjp
- Join the Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC) or the Platform Cooperativism Japan (PCJ) Consortium
Thank you!