Do we still want to attempt to buy Twitter

Not sure why stock ownership should be considered "conflicted." Employees who are also owners are more motivated. Combined with increased ability to participate in meaningful decisions, companies with employee ownership show substantially higher growth and profitability rates.

To a stock holder, everyone - staff, management, supplier, debt financier - is a cost, and a counterparty to be contracted with in an adversarially negotiated contract.

While employee stock ownership is certainly an advance on stock-holders with a purely financial interest, virtually all of the other conflicts remain.

As a matter of historical interest,the TwitCoin instruments I describe are in fact identical to the original form of stock, which predates modern finance capital by at least five centuries and consisted of promises/credits issued by people individually or collectively. Such promises/credits were typically issued at a discount in exchange for value provided by the acceptor/investor and were returnable (in addition to conventional payment) in payment for goods & services provided by the promissor.

The expression 'rate of return' derives from the rate over time at which promises/credits are returnable to the promissor in payment for value supplied, and the word 'stock' (from which 'Loan Stock' and 'Joint/Common Stock' sprang) was the name of the half of a split tally stick accounting record which was held by the acceptor.

In other words the use of TwitCoins as promises of future utility - rather than current (intrinsically worthless) proofs of past utility - offer a simple but radical funding option which is complementary to existing equity & debt, whoever owns it.

I still want to help to change twitter into a purpose driven organization and in that way

(1) democratize a mainstream social media channel

(2) demonstrate that a coop model (governance by purpose and people vs. mere profits) is not only better for society, but also makes economically sense and
(3) have a platform coop success story that is relevant beyond our bubble

I believe we have enough knowledge, resources and skills available in this group, to take significant steps into that direction. There are really good people on board here.

I think it helps to become more clear on who we are, what we want and what’s the best strategy to get there.

I love the enthusiasm here and respect all the work and thinking that has gone into this to date - converting a company like Twitter to become a more purpose driven / ethical / potentially member owned org is a valiant mission. But let's be pragmatic - what are the odds it will ever happen? Why, in this current neocon world we live in, would the powers that control and own Twitter effectively give up their power, control, and investments? Because they "should"!? There's not much chance of that. I would like to humbly propose that the time spent discussing Twitter and any future effort would be entirely better spent starting new cooperatives, or joining forces with existing cooperatives. I could be wrong, but that is how it seems from here - good luck and all the best - and if any of you are in the UK in July please do come and "meet the others"... https://open.coop/2018/03/08/find-others-open2018/

Interesting conversation - working on „the alternative“ or changing status quo? I believe it is not enough to only focus on building alternatives, even though this is my main focus, too.

I think, the societal and environmental damage shareholder driven cooperations cause is too high to turn away. I don’t wanna fight them tough, I want to find ways to work together with them.

There are so many ways to help an organization change towards a more collaborative model, step by step. And with market pressure and current trends, I believe more and more managers in companies need to be open to creative solutions.

Well, in our case, we would need solid convincing arguments, clever communication and the luck to talk to the right people at the right time.

I am also not so sure if it’s the right playground here. Depends on i.e. the alignment and capacity of this group, and probably more.

Not just Twitter. Zuckerberg needs new model of #ownership & #corpgov @ Facebook $FB. Nathan Schneider, recommends a federated social network or direct user-ownership. We need a participatory social utility, not democratic-free #corpgov https://www.corpgov.net/2018/03/mark-zuckerberg-give-up-facebook-control/ … #ESG #CSR #SRI