Loomio
Wed 1 Aug 2018 4:01PM

Got a question? Need support?

MSC Mark Simmonds (Co-op Culture) Public Seen by 45

Thread to post questions and requests for support. Access the collective wisdom of the Platform 6 community.

MSC

Mark Simmonds (Co-op Culture) Wed 1 Aug 2018 4:02PM

We're looking for someone to help develop the brand around Platform 6. Can you help?

AC

Austen Cordasco Wed 1 Aug 2018 4:19PM

Or some co-op...

LS

Leo Sammallahti Thu 8 Nov 2018 11:19AM

Hi everyone!

I'm involved in a platform cooperative that would need some help.

We have had two developers who we are in good terms with, but who cannot anymore contribute to the project for some time due to being busy with work. None of the people currently involved have any programming experience, and while we are sure we could find developers interested in contributing, it's very hard for us to help them get involved.

We would need someone with developer experience who could help us onboard other developers interested in contributing. I have 25 shares of ShareTribe, a stewardship company based in Finland co-founded by a platform coop enthusiast Juho Makkonen. I bought them for 20€/share, and would be happy to donate them to Platform6.

The project is called WeCo, a platform coop for discussion and link sharing similar to Reddit, with distinct tools such as polling and more sophisticated categorization. On Reddit r/geology and r/science are separate subreddits. On WeCo b/geology is a childbranch of b/science.

We'll be legally a cooperative soon, allowing equal co-ownership of the platform to all users, while keeping registering as an user free.

About WeCo:
* Introduction video and a video describing the features.
* How the democratic decision making works in WeCo and future feature proposals for more sophisticated polling tools and comment rating mechanisms.
* How WeCo currently enables global cooperative movement to share, rate, categorize and discuss content, and how it could develop in the future.
* Discord and/or Slack Group. Everyones welcome to join.

G

Graham Thu 8 Nov 2018 11:49AM

Hi Leo. So, it sounds you are looking for someone who can quickly get to grips with the current technology stack that WeCo is using, and who may be interested to potentially take a leadership role in WeCo with respect to the technical side of things, and who could attract and support others to build a new development team? Or have I misunderstood? Is the code on Github or similar such that someone could take a look at it? Is there any funding available for the role?

LS

Leo Sammallahti Thu 8 Nov 2018 12:42PM

We can most likely attract interested developers, but we would need someone who could help them contribute to the project. We do not ask for the person them self to do development work, but help others who want to contribute to do so. Our problem is that there are interested developers but it's hard for us as non-tech people to allow them to contribute.

We do have a github here.

We don't have much funding available currently unfortunately, but we could donate the ShareTribe shares alongside 300€/month, more later.

If this is totally disproportionate to the effort required, we understand it might not be appealing. We don't make any money out of the project, and will provide funding to the people doing and helping with the development as soon as we get funding.

G

Graham Fri 9 Nov 2018 7:22AM

I would argue that the people best placed to help new devs contribute to the project are the people that wrote the current codebase. They'll know it inside out, warts and all. You're saying that these people can't spare any time to do that, which is a shame. If you've not already done so, I'd encourage you to post something about this on the CoTech Discourse site - https://community.coops.tech. As we steadily build out Platform 6 in terms of members and systems/processes we'll be better able to offer assistance. In the meantime I'll check out the links you've posted about WeCo, and get a better insight into what it's aiming to achieve.

BG

Bronagh Gallagher Wed 5 Dec 2018 3:32PM

Hey, looking for advice or a bit of a steer on finding a legal structure which will work for an emerging, slightly unusual co-op model.

We are an activist translation collective that also functions as an agency. As an Open Coop we perform socially-oriented pro-bono and paid work. Both forms of work are tallied into credits. Care and reproductive work is valued and rewarded as highly as productive work.

Due to the innovative nature of the collective, including its operating as a distributed, digital cooperative, the established legal rules and forms may not apply. The result is that we aren't clear about our choices, their benefits and caveats, and so I am reaching out for help.
Most of our members have their (tax) residence in Spain, yet we are not happy with Spanish coop law. At the moment, I am the only UK based member. However, the collective is designed to be transnational and we are in contact with people from different countries wanting to join.
Our main questions at this stage are around the possibility of using a UK legal structure which would allow for a co-operative organisational form with members not necessarily based in the UK - what, if any, legal structures would be suitable for us and what limitations or restrictions would there be on things like the ability to take in funding, mutualize income, how taxation would work..

Any thoughts, comments, reflections, advice or signposting would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Bronagh

G

Graham Thu 6 Dec 2018 12:25PM

Hi Bronagh. You'll be talking about Guerilla Translation. I know Guy James, who used to be involved there (I think he's moved on now), and Stacco of course. Lots of interest in your governance model.

BG

Bronagh Gallagher Thu 6 Dec 2018 2:07PM

I am, indeed, Graham. I'll tell Stacco you say hi! Yeah, Stacco, AnnMarie and lots of others have really worked on the governance model and now just needing a legal structure to fit.

JG

Jonny Gordon-Farleigh Wed 5 Dec 2018 3:36PM

Hey Bronagh, quick reply - if it's possible - would be for you to apply for fully funded place on 12 December's Worker Co-op: How to Get Started workshop in London, sponsored by Platform 6. More info: https://www.stirtoaction.com/blog/platform-6-fund

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