Bringing movements together with developers and growing the Platform Cooperativism movement to encompass activist communities around the world.

1. A Role for Drupal in Movements,A Role for Drupal in Movements,
Communities and PlatformCommunities and Platform
CooperativismCooperativism

2. Movements

3. What is Drupal?

4. What is a Cooperative?

5. What is Free Software?
You cannot build a successful movement for freedom on a foundation of proprietary software.
~ FreeScholar

6. Free Software
Free software is software that gives you the user the
freedom to share, study and modify it. We call this free
software because the user is free.
http://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software
Richard Stallman explains free software at TEDx Geneva:
https://audio-video.gnu.org/video/TEDxGE2014_Stallman05_LQ.webm

7. What is Platform Cooperativism?
Platforms connect people with each other.
Online platforms—from Google to Uber and thousands more in between
—are transforming our workplaces, our relationships, and our lives. A lot
of this is great. But there are some big-time problems:
Tools that appear to be “free” often come at the cost of selling our
valuable personal information
Huge monopolies are capturing important markets like search,
transportation, and social networking
Labor platforms are managing to bypass worker protections like sick
leave and insurance
Users have virtually no control over the platforms that affect their lives

8. Cooperatives put people in charge.
Rooted in internationally agreed-on principles, such as Rochdale, successful companies
like R.E.I. (a consumer-owned co-op) and Equal Exchange (a worker-owned co-op) show
it makes good sense to share ownership and control. What if the Internet were more like
this?
There are some big-time benefits:
● Co-ops are more likely to pay living wages and promote community wealth
● Democratic businesses experience lower failure rates and more sustainable growth
● Cooperation tends to empower those on the margins of society
● By serving people before profits, co-ops put us in control of the economy

9. Platform co-ops bring democracy to the online
economy.
● Platform Cooperativism is a movement spreading around the
world. It’s already creating a fairer kind of Internet:
● If users owned their own social media, they could set terms of
service in which they keep control over personal data
● If gig-workers controlled their own apps, they could combine
flexible schedules with the rights and benefits they need
● New Bitcoin-powered “blockchain” technologies create
possibilities for platforms with no central company in charge
● Co-op platforms can cooperate with each other by building
open-source software for common use

10. What does this look like in practice?
Stocksy is a stock-photo platform with multi-million-dollar revenues owned by its photographers
Fairmondo is an online marketplace for goods owned by its vendors
Loconomics is a gig platform that connects employers with worker-owners
Robin Hood Minor Asset Management is an investment fund whose members support commons-based projects
There are many more platforms than those, and an ecosystem to support them, which we’re gathering in our
Directory.
How can I take part?
Learn about the Platform Cooperativism conferences and explore the resources in our Library
Contribute to our Directory to help share knowledge about the platform co-op ecosystem
Take part in the R&D efforts of the Platform Cooperativism Consortium
Organize people with legal, technical, and financial expertise to support platform co-ops in your area and
coordinate globally through our

11. Drupal Friendly Hosting

12. Development environment

13. Drutopia is an initiative to revolutionize the way we build online tools.
We're combining the principles of software freedom, community
ownership and intersectional politics to co-develop technologies that
meet our needs and reflect our values.
Tools such as Squarespace and NationBuilder have lowered the cost
for launching a website. However, these tools are limited in
functionality and push people getting into web development for a
cause into the dead end of proprietary services.
Drutopia.org

14. Platform for Group Decisions

15. Organizing Campaigns

16. We use free software to build things

17. If we do not own the
platforms, who will?

18. Upcoming events

19. Get Involved
Fsf.org
Drupal.org
Drutopia.org
Usworker.coop
Platformcoop.net
Internetofownership.net
Techworker.coop

20. Useful online directories
InternetOfOwnership.net
Find.coop
Alternativeto.net

21. Founders of the Platform Cooperativism Movement:
Trebor Scholz, New School professor, NYC. Digital labor,
learning, and global media activism.
Nathan Schneider, scholar in residence of media studies at the
University of Colorado Boulder

22. Handbook for a Revolution
A new handbook is being published on Platform Cooperativism, a movement building platforms and
tools owned by the people.
I am excited to have contributed an essay in the upcoming book on my experience in a worker-
owned web development cooperative and how it relates to the larger picture of our future work.
Ours to Hack and to Own
Edited by Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider:
The rise of Platform Cooperativism, a new vision for
the future of work and a fairer Internet.
Order a copy now from OR Books:
http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/ours-to-hack-and-to-own

23. FreeScholar
My name is Michele Metts, I am called Micky and I am known as FreeScholar
in many software communities.
I am a member of Agaric, a web development technology cooperative. We
mostly work with Drupal, a popular and free content management system, but
we also build platforms and tools using free software.
I am a public speaker reaching out to groups explaining the value of FREE
software, raising awareness of issues and disseminating knowledge to people
so that they can make informed decisions when defining their own cooperative
business models. I facilitate discussion on building worker owned
cooperatives and collectives. I am a Drupal Hacker and an Industry organizer.
Agaric.com

24. Resources and Links
Articles about cooperatives:
● http://www.thenews.coop/
● The Guardian - http://bit.ly/1s83iyE
● The ecologist - http://bit.ly/1oaxYyt
● http://shareable.net/blog/how-to-start-a-worker-co-op
Video:
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpg4PjGtbu0 - The Sharing Economy – Janelle Orsi
● "Tech Cooperatives: A Better Way to Make a Living" http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9313 with Jack Aponte
of http://palantetech.com
Starting a cooperative:
● http://banyanproject.coop/starting-a-news-co-op
● http://npogroups.org/lists/info/tech-coop
● http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/workercoop/info
● http://www.techworker.coop/
Mailing list:
● tech-coop@npogroups.org - A tech-worker-coop-related mailing list