Ours To Hack and To Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet by Nathan Schneider and Trebor Scholz

Author:Nathan Schneider and Trebor Scholz
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Bisac Code 1: TEC052000, BUS044000, BUS069000
ISBN: 9781682190630
Publisher: OR Books
Published: 2016-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

22. HOW CROWDFUNDING BECOMES STEWARDSHIP

DANNY SPITZBERG

Crowdfunding can seem ideal for building cooperative platforms on the Internet.

Intuitively, this makes sense. Desperation and necessity inspire many of us to form co-ops. And because co-ops can only accept non-extractive investment, crowdfunding can look like a great way to start—a digital barn-raiser that builds community without tapping it out. In practice, however, many co-ops struggle with crowdfunding. I believe this is because marketing has skewed our view of crowdfunding by influencing how we think and feel about community.

What does “community” really mean here? Community is collective action with a shared story. We join clubs, co-ops, and campaigns that offer material benefits—things that matter to us on a daily basis—and we stay because of solidarity with our peers and a purpose we can achieve together. The more we act collectively, the more we strengthen these incentives.

Incorporating as a co-op is a long way from building community. While there is a grain of truth to the idea that co-ops are the original crowdfunding, people experience co-ops through organizing and campaigns, not bylaws or business plans. More important, we can’t extract generosity. That is what marketing tries to do in platform capitalism. However, we can form relationships rooted in reciprocity and generosity through cooperative arrangements.

I learned these lessons last year, when I partnered with Loconomics to crowdfund their platform and grow their membership. On paper, Loconomics had a beautiful model: a local services co-op owned by the freelancers doing the work. The user-owners get tools for booking clients, a growing marketplace, and a dividend based on the co-op’s performance. But the appeal of joining a co-op needed as much validation as the platform itself.

To research needs, I interviewed a representative group of a dozen freelancers—some with their own client base, and others finding odd jobs on platforms like TaskRabbit. Nobody felt misinformed, much less exploited, with what they get through on-demand service platforms. However, they craved the feeling of belonging to something bigger. A part-time plumber with a philosophy degree described the ideal as “less a client base, more a partner base”—in other words, a co-op. But would anyone pay to join one?

People give endless feedback on ideas, but only commit if they see value. A sure way to make this shift is through opportunities for people to test a prototype and express their emotions.

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