See the shared notes from this session too.

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Alexandre Bigot-Verdier, Lieza Dessein and Thomas Doennebrink: The past year has been an exciting one for the platform coop movement. In December 2016, Nathan Schneider launched the “Buy Twitter” campaign. Twitter was for sale and he suggested that its users buy it and to change its legal structure into a cooperative. This would allow the redistribution of the value created on the platform among its community of users. The idea got more attention than expected and the campaign was even presented at the Twitter stakeholders’ annual meeting in May 2017. In the end the campaign failed but it had managed to question very publicly who controls the tools we use daily. Why are we accepting that the value we create on platforms is extracted and distributed to private stakeholders? Would we be willing to invest in the technology of tomorrow to ensure more ethical surroundings? How would we govern the platforms if we were in charge? And how could we reconnect the digital economy to the local communities?

During the Ouishare Fest 2017 many speakers addressed those questions in their presentations. The city of Barcelona invests very proactively in new ways of connecting citizens, encouraging a bottom-up approach. A former Twitter employee is currently building a co-governed platform to facilitate the construction of resilient digital collaboration tools by social movements. And freelancers are developing networks and tools to create resilient ecosystems of entrepreneurs.

The platform co-op movement is only two years old. Slowly but surely the movement has grown and it is now looking into ways to get organized. Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider did a tremendous job inventorying existing coops and advocating their actions throughout the world. They are connecting people with one another in an effort to ease knowledge exchange. Through this movement, coops, academics, policy makers and people involved in social economics found a communication channel to spread their ideas. In all corners of the world the notion of platform cooperativism is being promoted and debated. Nevertheless, the community is aware that if it wants to compete with the Silicon Valley’s mastodons there is still a long way to go.

Every year, Platform Coops enthusiasts gather at the Ouishare Fest. This year they decided to set up a spontaneous workshop. Their objective was to gather the main learnings and challenges encountered by their community. The rest of this document will relate the exchanges that took place among the participants during and after this encounter.

How to fund the platform co-ops?

Building platform co-ops implies patience. The coop business model is a patient one, it is built for long term benefits. A coop is a company that is nurtured and this is the main difference with the short term vision of the startup world. Private stakeholders invest heavily in startups hoping to be betting on a “unicorn” and to have a quick return on investment. This creates a hyper competitive environment that makes it very difficult for holistic companies to emerge and compete. Investors quickly lose interest when business models are not build towards fast and high profits. To make platform coops emerge quicker there is a need for regulation and funding.

Local authorities start to question and to regulate the digital economy. They realize that it is in their best interest to keep a close eye on these companies because they have a direct influence on their communities. The challenge for them is to look into ways to reconnect the digital economy to their local communities. For communities to thrive, the digital economy needs to be inclusive and not extractive. City policymakers from all over the world are taking measures to avoid invasive platforms and encourage local initiatives.

The harder challenge to tackle is funding. Private foundations and investment funds are starting to partially fund ethical digital compagnies. For example, Nesta (UK) and the city of Barcelona or Brussels are investing in this field. CoopVentures (FR) is a 16M euros fund dedicated to fair digital initiatives. We also see the emergence of alternative models such as crowdfunding platforms. Opencollective (US) and Startnext (DE) are exploring new ways to propose crowdfunding solutions to their communities. But is this a viable strategy to compete with the classical start ups?

The attendees of the workshop wonder how to involve bigger coops. Do traditional coops have the money to fund fair platforms and would they be ready and willing to invest in those companies? How can we create the necessary incentives? Some of them seem to be ready. Maif (FR) is investing in the broad specter of the collaborative economy. The “Conseil québécois de la coopération et de la mutualité” launched a lab on the sharing economy in Montreal (CA). So it seems that there is an ability and willingness to fund initiatives. It would be interesting to verify which initiatives are funded and if they are part of the fair-side of the sharing economy.

Another question raised by attendees is whether we should invest in a series of initiatives or consolidate existing ones. The reason behind this question is that money in the platform coop movement is scarce. So wouldn’t it be more sustainable to invest in initiatives such as Stocksy (CAN) or Fairmondo (DE/UK)? Those platforms have shown traction, enjoy a certain visibility and have an active community. Wouldn’t it be wiser to invest in these companies to ensure sustainability and help them become known worldwide?

This proposal was counter argued by other attendees who value local impact more than worldwide deployment. Should all platforms seek global domination and is that the only way to be sustainable? Should coop models scale, and if they do, how can they keep in touch with their community? And how can smaller coops get real traction if nobody knows that they exist?

Maybe Loconomics (US) will manage to bring a solution to the issue of smaller coops. Loconomics is a cooperatively owned app on which you can find transportation, child care and other services that are all cooperatively owned.

SMart (EU) on the other hand managed to scale and implement their business model into 9 european countries, respecting existing legislation and adapting the model to the local communities. They provide services to freelancers with whom they share a company. The value created is redistributed through the development of services for the community.

All attendees agree that funding is an issue and that there is a real need to develop and raise awareness on the social benefits of the (platform) coop movement. If we manage to highlight the positive social impact of cooperative entrepreneurship we might find more traction amongst ethical financiers and policymakers to invest in this sector.

How to transfer knowledge and know-how?

Raising awareness about coops seems central if we want this movement to grow. The coop model is not well known. It’s a model that is not often studied in business schools where students are introduced to more liberal ways of entrepreneurship. This is even more true in the startup culture where business models are very capitalistic and dehumanized. It looks as if the digitalization of the economy is obliterating the human aspect of entrepreneurship. The quest towards efficiency seems endless and the main purpose is way too often monetary benefits for private external stakeholders. The immediate collateral damages are the impact on the working conditions of the platform workers and the disappearance of much needed local tax money.

The good news is that the digital economy is fairly new and people still remember the internet of the nineties. An internet that was fairer, where our data was not yet outsourced and exploited at our expense. Patronizing companies took over huge chunks of the digital landscape but today people start to get organized and look into ways to regain control.

Movements like “Occupy Wall Street” and “Nuit Debout” revealed the growing concerns about social and economic inequality. Appetite for change also emerges with what we like to label “the Y generation”. A growing part of the population is showing interest in social economics. Schools start designing masterclasses studying alternative business models. Academics and journalists such as Trebor Scholz, Naomi Klein and Nathan Schneider encounter considerable attention. Think-tanks gather knowledge around holistic organizations. Cities are surrounding themselves with specialists of the P2P movements to better understand the needs of their local communities. Governments are looking into ways to regulate the digital economy to prevent the disappearance of local tax money. And entrepreneurs are (re)discovering the coop model and its benefits. In return, the coop sector is surprised to find itself scrutinized.

There is a real opportunity detected by the attendees of the workshop between the old bigger coops and the new emerging ones. The “old” coops have an expertise in holistic entrepreneurship and developed a set of tools required to operate in democratic ways. They also invented sustainable business models that are serving their communities. The newer coops are eager to benefit from that experience. Attendees would also love to experiment with digitalization in the coop sector. Digitalization could ease processes and collaboration within the coop sector. Open sourcing appropriate technologies could ease scaling and reduce operational costs.

One of the seven principles of the coop sector is “Cooperation Among Cooperatives”. Everyone agreed on the fact that solidarity amongst structures is needed. This solidarity could take different forms: financial, service oriented, consuming products of other coops, P2P exchanges, …

This topic brought us back to the educational part. How can the new sector learn from the old one and vice versa? How can we make the coop model and its benefits better known amongst entrepreneurs? According to some attendees, the best way for coops to transfer knowledge is by being involved in incubators or even by creating their own. They could mentor entrepreneurs and give them insight in their operational knowledge. By doing so, they would gain an insight in the visions of the younger generation and could integrate these in their own companies. The young entrepreneurs would benefit tremendously of the expertise of the older coops. For the attendees of the workshop, this could be a first concrete goal to advocate for.

Does the juridical status really matter?

A major debate between the activists of the platform coop movement is the one concerning the juridical status of the coop. Is a coop the unique way to implement decentralized governance and a fair redistribution of created value?

One of the founders of Affinity.works (US) indicated that they are a for-profit company operating in the same way as a coop. They were strongly inspired by the coop model but chose not to be one because it would have made their funding opportunities a lot more complex. Some attendees think this is a risky bet, as the collective ownership and the distributed governance are not principles linked to that particular juridical status. Others argue that it is not the juridical status that is the unique token of responsible ethical entrepreneurship.

The founder of Open Collective (US) pointed out that some initiatives are not even looking for a juridical status. The complexity of administration often is a disincentive to community driven initiatives. Not every initiative is willing to constitute a juridical entity but they do need a legal structure to be able to raise funds and redistribute gains. The situation is even more complex for transnational or international communities.

SMart does not have solutions for volunteers, but it is tackling this problem for “regular“ workers. Indeed, not every freelancer wishes to set up his individual company so SMart is sharing theirs. Every member can use the company as their own. By doing so, they mutualise a part of their revenues which in return gives them access to services designed to ease their entrepreneurial activities.

Attendees seem to agree that, when possible, the coop model should be favored, but that it is important to remain open to hybrid and alternative solutions. There is a strong attachment to the distributed governance and the social impact of the companies. There was a consensus about the fact that we should be inclusive in an effort to learn from each other and by doing so to better our entrepreneurial endeavours continuously.

Context :
This document has been initiated by Alexandre Bigot-Verdier, Lieza Dessein and Thomas Doennebrink after the workshop held at the 2017 OuiShare Fest. This workshop was a spontaneous gathering of platform coops enthusiasts. The next Platform Cooperativism conferences in Toronto and then in New York will be occasions to challenge these orientations.

Lead image copyright: © www.StefanoBorghi.com. Used with permission.

The post Platform Coops Looking for the Next Steps appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Albert Cañigueral: You were in London working for the U.K. innovation agency Nesta. Why did you accept the offer from the Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau?

Francesca Bria: I was working for Nesta and had already done a lot of work on a European level and with movements around open access, democracy and technology for social good. I was excited to come work for the new government in Barcelona because they have a very new approach to the city. They were making it clear that you cannot have a digital revolution without a democratic revolution. It was the start of my mandate to rethink the smart city, not just in technological terms, but in ways that put citizen needs and the city’s (political) questions at the core.

What have some of the key actions been on the Barcelona agenda since then?

One key point is access to housing. The government is not only tracking down big banks that leave apartments empty but also confronting platforms like Airbnb whose business model has a negative impact on affordable housing.

Another big theme is energy transition and renewable energy. Barcelona wants to create a municipal energy company to fight the current monopoly. We are also looking into more distributed energy models, like smart grids, models that are more affordable and which allow citizens to be in control of their data.

We are also rethinking urban planning with projects like the SuperBlocks(Superilles). Aimed at giving back public spaces to citizens, they were created in a very innovative process with a digital democracy platform for large-scale citizen participation. Opening the debate brought many great ideas, but it also showed us the complicated aspect of participation. There were many conflicting interests and it was learning by doing in an iterative way.

Finally, instead of working only with big companies as governments typically do, we are also rethinking the economic model to support new economies like the solidarity, collaborative and digital economy. This also helps us fight corruption since often a lock-in of the public administration with big companies leaves little space for other players.

Sounds like there are some real challenges ahead. How did you start to address them and what’s the role of technology here?

Over the past year, I created a Barcelona Digital City plan to address how technology and data can help solve urban challenges. It’s divided into three main areas.

The first is digital transformation of the government through technology. This involves aspects like procurement -how we purchase technology — avoiding lock-in by working with smaller companies and ensuring that public money is invested in open technologies. To increase transparency, the city hall is also testing an open and participatory budgeting system in Barcelona neighbourhoods with the Gracia projectfor example, which then can be scaled up.

Together with the activist group X-Net we have also created — and this is pretty unique- an encrypted infrastructure TOR that is integrated into the main city infrastructure. It functions as a whistleblower tool for public workers to denounce cases of corruption and help us open up the public administration.

In terms of procurement, we are also integrating clauses that address sustainability, gender and the solidarity economy. The goal is to get citizens more involved in how their money is spent and make them part of the procurement process.

We are also focusing on digital innovation with the new socio-economic innovation activity line inside Barcelona Activa as well as an incubator and accelerator for tech companies. However, most innovative are programs for digital social innovation (associated with https://digitalsocial.eu/) that acknowledge the impact of open technology on the economy, democracy and manufacturing. The Barcelona MADE project for example (Maker District in Poblenou or hosting the MakerFaire) is aimed at rethinking the future of production in cities and urban manufacturing in a circular economy way. It’s important that cities regain some industrial capacity to make them more sustainable again.

The third aspect addresses digital empowerment and collective intelligence. We are expanding this to many areas like city planning, cultural activities and citizens initiatives with experiments like PAM. But above all, the digital education project is aimed at rethinking education and the future of work. We not only need new skills to be able to transition to the digital society — or should I just say future —  but in a time of extreme automation, we also must invent new jobs. Along these lines, we are piloting a basic income scheme related to digital currency infrastructure as part of an EU-funded project. Barcelona also recently hosted an international  conference about alternative currencies.

A core topic in this tech strategy is “city data commons.” Why is data so important?

The question of data ownership and sovereignty, or “City Data Commons,” is particularly important because it raises the question of how we can make the most out of data by putting the digital right of the citizen at the core. In a world where machines are doing more and more, it’s important to acknowledge that this data belongs to the citizens, not governments. Cities should act as the intermediary and as custodians of these new rights.

What are the mechanisms you can put in place to progress in this direction?

One way to go is by changing the regulations. Another way is through decentralised and encrypted infrastructure that makes citizens aware of how the data is used. At the moment, when you use a digital service it’s not necessarily clear what happens to the data and how it’s monetized. People sign some terms of contract but it’s all very opaque.

DECODE is a new 5 million euro project we are currently working on together with 14 partners across Europe. We are experimenting with encrypted decentralized data management architecture using blockchain and distributed ledgers to make these data commons clearer.

There is no lack of technical tools. But are we, both citizens and adminstration, culturally ready for it?

Tools are not just technical devices, but regulation, economic models, technical infrastructure and cultural organizational change. Making them align is the difficult part, The problem is definitely not the tech, but the culture and the institutional boundaries. Even though at the moment there are citizens in the government who don’t think like bureaucrats, they still have to work within certain boundaries. Institutional hacking is great, but to truly expand these it must come from the bottom up. Sure you also need the right people in power, but if society can’t enter and do things, monitor and track activities, nothing will change.

For all these ideas Barcelona has been named a Rebel City, but you are not alone in this, right? What are the best practices to connect with like-minded cities? What cities are interested in Barcelona’s developments?

It’s interesting to see how in hard times cities are coming together to solve problems that governments are not (such as immigration, access to water, energy and affordable housing). These solidarity networks are important because they empower people with the feeling that you can actually transform something. Although we need to keep the big vision in sight, what we are doing institutionally are small but irreversible changes. Barcelona just hosted The Fearless Cities Municipalist Summit to strengthen links with like-minded cities as well.

Cities are also coming together to create a more local collaborative economic model that doesn’t rely on big U.S. corporations who dominate the market and take all the data. Regulation is one difficulty, but mainly we need to ensure that collaborative economy models that have a positive local impact can grow and flourish. We are collaborating with cities like Berlin, New York, Moscow and Amsterdam on this and demanding that big platforms give us their data. We need algorithmic transparency to regulate and understand the business model. Currently, it’s a black box.

But let’s be realistic. Cities have a lot of limitations in terms of creating regulation and fiscal leverage.

Absolutely. Cities have to solve all these challenges but they have neither the law-making power nor the fiscal leverage. This is a conflict that we see happening a lot in Spain, and it’s a complex dialogue between city and state.

One way European cities are circumventing this is by articulating themselves as metropolitan areas within a region. The European investment bank is working with cities and regions for example, and also the fact that cities are municipalization infrastructure is interesting. The example of the rebel cities shows that despite fiscal and law making limitations, governments are beginning to feel pressure from cities.

Nevertheless, I believe in federalism, as you need to be able to work at different levels, city, regional, national, global and European. And you have to make them work together.

Let’s fast-forward to the future. When citizens are fully empowered, what will be left for the public adminstration?

We will see after the mandate in Barcelona, but the fact that you can have a citizen movement enter the institution, govern and take power shows that there is already a new approach in policy in terms of political class. This is not a cyber thing, a purely digital model, but the opposite. I think we are going towards hybrid models where citizens will have a type of self-governance and be directly involved in things like allocating budget, taking decisions and managing projects. I really believe that the future will be more and more of these political movements and approaches that are based on the common good.

Meet Francesca Bria at OuiShare Fest, she will share a new exciting vision of where city governments start to think and experiment with what technology would look like if it served the people.

This piece has been re-published from OuiShare Magazine. All images courtesy of OuiShare Magazine

The post Building the Networked City From the Ground Up With Citizens appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Here’s a preview of the program of three days that will be like no other.

Donald Trump’s announcement this June 1st that the United States will be withdrawing from the Paris Accord has caused indignation around the world. On their side of the Atlantic, the fightback was launched by a handful of mayors of big cities, gathered together in an organization called Mayors National Climate Action Agenda. Whatever the mistakes of the White House, they declared, they will work to ensure that within city limits, the fight against global warming will remain a priority. It is city halls, therefore, that will be fulfilling a treaty concluded between nations.

An inconsistent situation some may say. Or could this be a sign of a decisive change to come? Big cities, which already hold substantial demographic, cultural and economic powers, might not be condemned to remain the second order of political actors that they are today. Conversely, in a context of democratic crisis, blurred frontiers, and crumbling Nation-States, our future could well be formed of networked cities that have risen up to the challenge.

THREE DAYS LIKE NO OTHER

As crazy as it may seem, the idea that networks of cities will shape our future is at the heart of the 5th edition of OuiShare Fest Paris. Taking place at the renovated Magasins Généraux in Pantin, this year the event will go far beyond your usual talks, workshops, participative formats and immersive experiences.

Novelties on the menu:

• the Tribunal of Future Generations: can we let robots keep destroying jobs? Should we write the right to laziness in the Constitution? This decision will lay in the hands of the members of the jury, chosen by lottery for this mock trial run by the Magazine Usbek & Rica (Wed, July 5th).
• Masterclasses: in the mornings of the 6th and 7th of July experts from 13 countries will hold 4-hour masterclasses.  Participants can sign up to take a storytelling course with the American publishing consultant Ariane Conrad, learn the A to Z of sharing cities with our Dutch colleagues from ShareNL, or even learn to manage a company without bosses with our New Zealander friends from the Enspiral network. And in the background? Each day is dedicated to a particular dimension of globalized cities
• 3 festive evening events (in comparison to one!)for more opportunities to connect.

DAY 1: REGAINING COLLECTIVE POWER FROM THE BOTTOM-UP

Today, it appears ever more difficult to build consensus at the national level; political identities are fragmenting; politicians are going through a grave crisis of legitimacy. It is at this point that the city can emerge as the stage for a renewal of collective action. From this perspective, it is noteworthy that from New York to Madrid, social movements symbolic of the last few years, have occupied public spaces. Because of its size, among other factors, the city is suitable for experimentation with new forms of participative democracy, fueled by the civic tech revolution.

OuiShare Fest will also welcome two pioneers of citizen technologies: Pia Mancini, co-founder of the platforms DemocracyOS and Open Collective, as well as the Argentine political party Partido de la Red, and Jeremy Heimans, Australian activist and entrepreneur, co-founder of the online petition platform Avaaz and of Purpose, which seeks an in-depth transformation of the very idea of power in connected societies. Alastair Parvin, the creator of the WikiHouse Foundation, which applies the organization methods of the famous online encyclopedia to architecture and design, will be discussing the reinvention of cities by citizens themselves.

And, because it is important to articulate the local and the global, this first day will be concluded with an unusual football match; Pantin vs. the rest of the world!

DAY 2: RETHINKING OUR CITIES AS PLATFORMS

How do we shift from a mass of lonely individuals to an organized and lively ecosystem? Will cities be reborn as platforms for the benefit of their inhabitants? Every local government in the world dreams of replicating Silicon Valley’s success story. But aren’t there other relevant examples to look for, other paths to follow? This topic will be debated between Nicolas Colin (The Family), Jennifer Clamp (Techweek NZ) and Rui Quinta (With Company). Professor and renowned management thinker Anil Gupta (Indian Institute of Management of Ahmedabad) will deliver a talk on what corporate innovators can learn from grassroots movements.

Juan Pablo Ortega (Innotegia, the city of Medellin) and Malik Yakini (Detroit Black Community Food Security Network) will share their stories, which attest to the fact that it is often in cities which went through the worst crises that the drive to innovate is the strongest.

During a “fishbowl” discussion – a OuiShare-favorite hybrid format, somewhere between a business-as-usual conference and a participatory workshop – participants will be invited to reflect on how local authorities can efficiently regulate global collaborative platforms.

DAY 3: BUILDING GLOBAL URBAN NETWORKS

Cities with more power and autonomy should by no mean be mistaken for a temptation to retreat. There is no point arguing with the fact that there is already a chasm between globalized metropolitan and peripheral areas. But how do we prevent it from widening?

To echo Mark Watts’ (Executive Director of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group) opening talk, day 3 will be all about global urban networks. Founder of the Fab City Global Initiative Tomas Diez will share his vision for a future of locally productive and globally connected self-sufficient cities. Dylan Hendricks (Ten-Year Forecast) will talk about the Internet of cities and the future of borders in the post-Brexit Europe. Another must-attend session: a discussion with the creators of the Darwin Ecosystem and Ateliers La Mouche about the role of alternative spaces in urban revitalization.

And to conclude this Fest in due form, you are warmly invited to a genuine Brazilian Festival on the banks of the Canal de l’Ourcq!

Don’t miss out on this one and explore the full program

Get your ticket at http://paris.ouisharefest.com

The post OuiShare Fest Paris: Cities of the World, Unite! appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Happy browsing!
Khushboo Balwani, Fest communications & OuiShare Fest Team

The post The OuiShare Fest Report and Toolkit is now live appeared first on P2P Foundation.

Even though it is almost impossible to transmit the atmosphere of an event after it has happened, here are some ways you can re-live moments from OuiShare Fest Paris and get in-depth insights into the discussions that took place.

WATCH ALL SESSIONS LIVE ON OUISHARE TV:

You can now watch all the sessions of this year’s edition on our Youtube Channel.

MOMENTS CAPTURED IN PICTURES:

Enjoy the beautiful photos taken by our photographer Stefano Borghi and the wonderful volunteers team.

DEBATES RECORDED IN LIVE DRAWINGS:

Take a look at the live sketches made during the sessions and workshops.

KEY TAKEAWAYS OF EACH DAY ON STORIFY:

• DAY 1 
• DAY 2
• DAY 3

Hope you enjoy browsing all the content and once again a big thank you to all of you!

Hungry for more? Then join our other OuiShare Fests taking place this year:

• OuiShare Fest Barcelona, October 26-27
• Colaboramerica, Rio, 17 -19 November

The post Re-experience OuiShare Fest 2016 appeared first on P2P Foundation.