The Common Bond & Scaling Strategy of social.coop?
Matthew Cropp
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Let's use this thread to discuss our current and future scope of membership for social.coop. I am currently the primary member vetting applications, and my understanding of our grounds for admission is pretty loose. Basically, if someone indicates interest in at least one of the items on the poll in the intro survey, and something in their application doesn't scream SPAM, I let them in.
That loose screen nonetheless establishes that social.coop currently operates with a common bond that can be characterized as "affinity for the co-op model/movement."
I think this has contributed to our progress thus far by (1) creating a critical mass of mutually interesting content, which keeps members coming back, by focusing on the co-op movement, and (2) having a pool of expertise, energy, and interest to draw on for the work of actually constructing the platform.
As our platform matures, a key strategic question is how we scale beyond our present semi-intentionally gradual growth? Do we, when we hit a certain size/infrastructural capacity milestone, decide to drop the common bond (and thus the more curated feel of the local timeline) and start actively encouraging our networks not just to join Mastodon, but social.coop specifically? Or do we maintain an identity as a co-op movement social hub, and work to support other instances in adopting the organizational model we're developing?
Where are we going with this?
Robert Benjamin Wed 11 Apr 2018 9:23PM
Man another great thread that I will have to wade through its entirety as I am finding people have already been discussing thinking about many of the things swimming around in my head in relation to social.coop growth. All great questions.Nick. For the finance related part it might be if good you joined the Finance working group so we could work some these ideas/questions within that framework. I recently posted a question about starting a budget document if there hasn't already been one. It seems like many of these issues around platform management, volunteerism vs remuneration, mission, support initiatives, growth, and the overall financial sustainability of SC would play out best in simple Pro Forma to start.
Nick S Thu 12 Apr 2018 1:14PM
I've made a request to join. I see it does say something about working groups on the main social.coop Loomio page, I hadn't noticed it before.
Matt Noyes Wed 11 Apr 2018 3:33PM
This is a great thread. I wish we could sit down in a room for a few hours and work through the issues! I imagine social.coop on the strawberry patch model, or Highlander model: we use our cooperative instance to cultivate/support cooperators who then start new cooperative instances. So maybe we want to think about providing hosting at some point, for example.
Nick S Thu 12 Apr 2018 1:07PM
I wonder, are these ("Strawberry patch"/"Highlander") ad-hoc, or known terms in coop parlance? I googled them but didn't find anything specific...
Neil - @[email protected] Sun 15 Apr 2018 10:25AM
Speaking of which - new instance opensocial.africa are looking to adopt the social.coop platform coop model - https://opensocial.africa/@falgn0n/99862640594925966
(edit: @matthewcropp is already on the case :) https://social.coop/@mattcropp/99842682979939582)
Jake Beamish Sun 15 Apr 2018 10:48AM
The strawberry patch/highlander terminology is lost on me too I'm afraid – but I'm in agreement that the scope of this project is something that could be ironed out a bit, and doing that would help with other questions and issues we're all working with
Matthew Cropp Mon 16 Apr 2018 12:22AM
Neil, you can embed links using the markdown system.
Matt Noyes Mon 16 Apr 2018 4:42AM
Sorry not to reply promptly! Strawberries grow like rhizomes instead of trees, basically distributed and federated. The Highlander Folk School, which was one of the key education and organizing centers for the civil rights movement, had a strategy of helping people to build their own independent organizations rather than expand Highlander itself.
Jeff Hardin Wed 18 Apr 2018 10:06AM
An example of the impact of the work of the Highlander Folk School: https://www.grocer.coop/articles/co-op-changed-south
Michele Kipiel · Wed 11 Apr 2018 10:04AM
There was a lot of talk around remuneration for mission-critical roles, but I'm not sure where we're at with it, as of today. So far, mostly everything is done on a voluntary basis, but we will need to change that in the future as the workload will sure increase over time, as the instance grows. Regarding the questions you pose on the surplus and the overall income, that information is available on our OpenCollective page https://opencollective.com/socialcoop