# TO Platform / Co-ops Reading Group

📅 Time: Bi-weekly, 5:00-6:30pm ET
🎯 Location: https://bbb.hypha.coop/b/hyp-dpa-tpz
📔 Notepad: https://hackmd.io/pyS5mn7tQ5qXMkg5aq0dOg?view
📂 More resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ozg73h9gGhgwAR29G6BAt-_foLhYNZTH
Cultivator: any takers?

[TOC]

### Jul ~16~ 23

Readings:
- Rob to send a selection!
- One of:
- 📚 The Cooperative Moment by Doug O’Brien http://online.fliphtml5.com/caqv/dlan/#p=28
- 📚 Building the Next Economy by Doug O’Brien https://ncbaclusa.coop/journal/2019/fall/building-the-next-economy/
- 🔉 Inequality and Precarity in the Platform Economy By Juliet Schor (90') https://soundcloud.com/harvard/hbs-digital-seminar-with-juliet-schor-inequality-and-recarity-in-the-platform-economy

Optional material:
- Case Study: Stocksy.coop https://start.coop/case-study-stocksy-united/
- 📚 Humanity at work. MONDRAGON a social innovation ecosystem case study. The Young Foundation https://agirrecenter.eus/eu/dokumentuak/txostenak/mondragon

## Notes

### Personal Check-ins

- Ushnish:
- why are consumer coops kind of shutting down? (e.g. westend food co-op)
- Rob:
- Foodsters coop, early stages of forming a coop. taking the course at mondragon. couple of weeks left. struggling to keep up. no way to keep up with all the readings. no lack of resources. currently defining details of business model (offerings, value proposition, who the customers are). Rob's working on the technology side, working with Open Local (open platform for delivery coops) with Richard and Nirvana
- Ushnish:
- Teaching at York while completing PhD at UofT
- Interested in development of co-ops, sustainability, inclusivity
- Thesis:
- Organization serving folks with disabilities
- Common Ground is an org that needs to researched
- Interview with U of Saskatchewen
- Physical co-ops are not equipped
- Mutual aid networks?
- Folks gatherning around commercial platforms (nextdoor)
- Internet Governance Forum: solutions coming from the top, from existing incumbents
- Udit to connect Ushnish to TCN folks
- a video interview with me on current situation of coops and social enterprise in the pandemic https://lnkd.in/enKxnfy Hypha is mentioned!
- Rob:
- This is an opportunity to push in the direction we want

### Readings/Viewings

Juliet Schor
* Task rabbit
* Dependent vs supplemental income
* Offer to entrepreneurial motivations
* Algorithmic control, opaque
* Uber lawsuit
* How does transparency be different in a worker coop?
* Rob mentioning Trebor Scholz, cases where open-source are stolen are small
* How do we overcome the network effect?
* Federation?
* Open Local looking in to this
* Coop Cycle is an example of this, offer software for free
* Transparency in governance
* Ridesharing started off as community models, coopted by tech platforms
* Example: Big grocery stores replaced the neighbourhood delivery groups
* We didn't have the setup to meet the needs
* Diversity of workers
* Schor says diversity comes flexibility
* time banking experiments have failed
* aim to have diversity at the start
* Rob: what are the limits to diversity? What if extractive ideas are present?
* Ushnish: Black North - agree on values and processes
* In the social economy, diversity can be challenging because of limited funding. also how do we incorporate other views and knowledge bases around decision making and workflows.
* Federal government has AI principles
* Palantir is on the approved list
* But are they signing up in good faith?
* Perhaps only follow in letter not spirit
* Saskatchewen coop
* Labour relations are fraught
* Quebec examples are inspiring, but a bit of a mystery
* Seems utopic from the outside
* Do they have the same challenges? In diversity?

Stocksy reading
* Complex model and layers of members
* Rob:
* Relating it to their coop
* Transitition from worker coop to multi stakeholder coop
* Foodsters united is the union

The Cooperative Moment
* Rob thinks its an opportunity
* Rob feels like folks are skeptical
* Scalability
* Failure rate

Next meeting: August 6th
Rob will share some readings dealing with more practical aspects of setting up a cooperative business

## Upcoming Sessions

### Jul 30

???

## Previous Sessions

### [Kickoff] Jun 18 Inequality and Gig Labour

Readings:

- 📚 Platform Capitalism by Nick Srenicek, chapters: “The Long Downturn” and “Platform Capitalism" https://mudancatecnologicaedinamicacapitalista.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/platform-capitalism.pdf
- 📚 It’s Not Technology That’s Disrupting Our Jobs by Louis Hyman https://resources.platform.coop/resources/its-not-technology-thats-disrupting-our-jobs/

Optional material:

- 🎬 Reclaiming Work: The Cycle Couriers Subverting The Gig Economy (8') https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Z5PBgwu60&feature=youtu.be
- 🎬 AWAKE Manifest - MTA-LEINN call in the mist of COVID19 #YOUTHinCHARGE (3') https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0CBgUTZEcg&t=4s
- 🎬 W1 Lecture (50'): https://archive.org/details/pc-course-platform-coop-gig-economy-inequality-week-1

## Jul 2 - Co-ops and Platform Co-operativism

Readings (Watchings):
Case Study of Cataki by Luciana BrunoLinks to an external site. (10 minutes)

- 🎬 Case Study: Up & Go (11'): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QnB_jwcl3E&feature=youtu.be
- 🎬 Welcome to MONDRAGON Co-operative Experience (14'): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw6Kbx6x1c8

Optional material:
- 🎬 Case Study: Cataki (7'): https://ia902802.us.archive.org/29/items/platformcoop19/21-05%20Luciana%20Bruno%20--%20Waste%20Pickers%20in%20Brazil%20%E2%80%93%20Cataki%20Case%20Study.mp4
- 🎬 W2 Lecture (50'): https://www.loom.com/share/9b37daf6571745bea2cba580920ea6a4
- Presentation: https://www.slideshare.net/jmluzarraga/cooperative-entrepreneurship-the-case-of-mondragon-19562019-235135879

---

## Facilitation Notes

_Adapted from Data Together reading group: https://github.com/datatogether/reading_datatogether_

Here are some guidelines about preparation in order to facilitate a session:

- Before the session:
- Have read and thought about the texts
- Identify and write 2-4 "themes" or questions you are interested in from the readings
- We use the same [shared notepad](https://hackmd.io/pyS5mn7tQ5qXMkg5aq0dOg): https://hackmd.io/pyS5mn7tQ5qXMkg5aq0dOg
- During the session:
- Arrive on time (call should auto record as the first person enters)
- Ensure the call is recorded (it should auto-record as the first person enters, but always make sure someone presses the record button if not)
- Ask for someone to take notes
- Keep time and gently wrap us up
- After the session:
- Copy the notes and share in: https://github.com/hyphacoop/organizing/issues/303