Today, when people call something “bureaucratic,” they usually mean that in a negative sense, but bureaucracy didn’t always have this negative connotation. About 100 years ago when many professional bureaucracies were being built, they were seen as a means of bringing quality control, predictability, and integrity to administrations. But bureaucracy has taken on a life of its […]
Category Archives: Collaborative Economy
When Platform Co-ops are Seen, What Goes Unseen?
If you’re involved with the “cooperative community” on social media, you’ve probably heard a lot about platform cooperatives in recent years. The vision is simple: what if Uber or AirBnb were owned by its users, who could share decision-making responsibility and profits among themselves? Instead of being exploited by platforms, users could and should be […]
Introducing the Internet of Ownership Project Council
The social movements of the last decade demand democracy beyond the ballot box. If we want a more democratic society, we must model transparency, collaboration and collective decision-making in our own organizations, projects and networks. We are chartering the Internet of Ownership Project Council (IOPC) to create a democratic space for people working on concrete […]
Open Data for the Collaborative Economy
The collaborative sector is growing in New York City and around the world. More support, including funds from the New York City Council to promote cooperative development, means new opportunities for entrants into the new economy — an economy that promotes social justice, workplace democracy, and sustainability. We want to see this sector grow bigger, […]
reRoute Panel: FLO & the New Economy
On Sunday, July 21st, I participated in a panel at reRoute: Building Power for a New Economy, hosted by the New Economics Institute. reRoute’s tagline was “Building Youth and Student Power for a New Economy,” and it brought practitioners, organizers and students together for panels like “Financing a New Economy,” “Possibilities for Participatory Budgeting,” “Food Justice […]
FLOing the Nonprofit Sector
Information technology is transforming civil society, but into what? There are many people in the nonprofit world who want to see organizations define success metrics and pursue them with the same intensity that corporations pursue profits. This approach is advocated by some of the world’s largest foundations and is being hailed as a major step […]