go to Platform Cooperativism

[chadwhitacre]

http://platformcoop.net/

They bagged Stallman(!).

Update

"A Platform Cooperative ... Almost" (blog post)

Detailed Report and Pictures

[chadwhitacre]

I've registered.

I have an Airbnb pending for $112.

Megabus will be $70 to $100.

I'm emailing the organizers to ask about sponsorship opportunities. Based on that I expect to ask if Gratipay can cover some or all of this. I'll go even if Gratipay can't cover it.

[chadwhitacre]

Nathan,

Chad Whitacre here from Gratipay (née Gittip). I just registered for Platform Cooperativism! You had me at Stallman. ;-)

Are there any sponsorship or partnership opportunities still available? What do those look like?

chad

P.S. Tracking on our side here.

[chadwhitacre]

I've booked the room.

[chadwhitacre]

Trying to set up drinks with an acquaintance for the 12th, waiting to finalize bus ticket until I hear back.

[chadwhitacre]

So glad you'll be there! Good to hear from you.

We're getting pretty close to the wire here, so it may be hard to fully recognize the sponsorship in the program and so forth. Sponsors have generally contributed between $3-10K. Some are in-kind, such as taking care of livestreaming or covering travel for key speakers. And I think since we're so close to the end of the preparation process, the Partner category wouldn't really make sense.

In any case, it would be great to have your support in getting the word out about this crazy event.

[chadwhitacre]

@kzisme Can you help promote https://twitter.com/platformcoop (as you deem appropriate) over the next couple weeks?

[chadwhitacre]

Fair enough. $3k+ is out of our budget, anyway. :-)

I've asked our Twitter guy to help promote the event, and I'll look forward to meeting you in person in a couple weeks! Keep up the great work!

[chadwhitacre]

Great, thanks! I appreciate the outreach. Be well!

[kzisme]

@whit537 Will do :)

[kzisme]

@whit537 Is this an event or is it just a talk? I'm trying to find more info on it to write some posts for it, but am having trouble.

[chadwhitacre]

@kzisme It's a two-day event in New York, trying to steer the "sharing economy" away from corporate interests (Airbnb, Uber, etc.) and more towards collective ownership.

[kzisme]

@whit537 Sent out a few tweets :)

[chadwhitacre]

Nice, thanks! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

This is in a few days. I'd better book a bus! :)

[chadwhitacre]

Done. $67.50. Heading out Thursday during the day, heading back Saturday overnight.

[chadwhitacre]

Trying to set up drinks with an acquaintance for the 12th

P.S. Fell through.

[chadwhitacre]

If platform coops are our only hope, then we’re in big trouble. The movement is in its infancy. There are several fundamental, interrelated legal, financial, and organizational challenges to the process of forming platform coops. New organizational forms need to be worked out, which will take years. Meanwhile, Death Star platforms will conquer more territory at a new, faster version of Internet time. Their global blitzkrieg will continue apace.

The aforementioned conference, Platform Cooperativism, hopes to address this through what organizers are calling a coming out party for the cooperative internet.

http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-platform-coops-can-beat-death-stars-like-uber-to-create-a-real-sharing-economy

[chadwhitacre]

Over 1,000 people have registered.

!

[chadwhitacre]

@kzisme Consider retweeting https://twitter.com/Shareable/status/663046884752142336 and https://twitter.com/platformcoop/status/664246257309712384 and in general cross-promoting @Shareable along with @platformcoop. Ya?

[chadwhitacre]

To: Neal Gorenflo
Subject: see you this weekend?

Chad Whitacre here from Gratipay. Last we touched base you had just returned from OuiShare and we had just relaunched as Gratipay 2.0.

I'm writing because I just finished "Death Stars" and I'm all fired up! Platform Coops is definitely something Gratipay wants to contribute to.

I'm planning to be at Platform Cooperativism this weekend. I don't see your name on the participants list ... are you going to be there? I'd really love to buy you lunch ...

[chadwhitacre]

To: Nathan and Trebor
Subject: Room for one more? :-)

Nathan and Trebor,

I'm really excited to attend Platform Cooperativism this weekend! Thanks for all your hard work putting this event together! :D

I'm writing to ask: Is there any chance you'd be willing and able to add Gratipay to the Ecosystem Infrastructure panel on Saturday morning?

Gratipay is a payments platform for cooperative projects (more or less). We've processed $1,000,000 since launching three years ago, and currently process about $5,000 monthly for ~120 "teams," including Sudo Room.

Three distinctives:

1. We are an "open company," blurring the lines between users, collaborators, owners, and staff.
2. We invented "take-what-you-want" salaries to solve the problem of distributing revenue when those lines are blurred.
3. We don't take a cut of payments—we are funded on our own platform via pay-what-you-want.

I'm really excited about Platform Cooperativism and would love for Gratipay to be a part of this movement right from the outset, if possible. So waddya say? Is there room for one more on the Ecosystem Infrastructure panel? If not, is there another way Gratipay could participate?

One way or another, I will see you on Friday! Keep up the great work! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

From: Neal

Chad, thanks so much for reading my post, the offer of lunch, and your generous recurring donation [note: I set up $10/mo from personal]. All of this made my day.

Unfortunately, I can't make the conference, the timing just didn't work for me. I would love to go. Perhaps we can Skype after. Curious about the latest version of Gratipay.

To: Neal

Ah, well. I suspected that might be the case, since you weren't listed as a participant. :-)

Instead of Skype, would you be at all open to a "Hangout On Air" that would be live-streamed and archived on YouTube? That would make our conversation more shareable, as it were. ;-)

I'll track this further on the Radar.

[chadwhitacre]

To: Kenneth Ho
Subject: penny punching photos?

Chad Whitacre here from Gratipay. I was punching pennies at the Platform Cooperatives conference. Did you get any good photos of that? Did copyright end up with you, or the conference? What might licensing look like?

Thanks! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

Jay Cassano's write-up in Shareable: "Platform Cooperativism Conference Disrupts Silicon Valley's Disruptions."

[chadwhitacre]

From: Kenneth

Thanks for reaching out and it was great to meet you this past weekend! I do have images of the penny punching at the reception and can provide you a contact sheet. Do you have any idea how you may wish to use the images? This will give me a better idea as to licensing.

---

I'd like to use one of the images on this Medium post:

https://medium.com/gratipay-blog/a-platform-cooperative-almost-94cd5900840f

[webmaven]

Related to Platform Cooperativism in concept (and there seems to be some overlap in people and groups): https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/doing-more-together-together-seeding-a-collaborative-technology-alliance-82243ea30d41

[webmaven]

Nice list of fellow-traveller orgs presented at the conference: http://platformcoop.net/schedule/owning-is-the-new-sharing-actually-existing-platform-co-ops

[webmaven]

List of projects in the CTA: https://cta.hackpad.com/Tools-projects-and-initiatives-of-the-CTA-zJkyGIUZtEc

[chadwhitacre]

Found some photos!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/treborscholz/albums/72157661354244001

[chadwhitacre]

Janelle's legal workshop ...

... with @mitar (that's the back of his head :).

---

Putting a bug in Doug Rushkoff's ear. ;-)

---

Jack! "I know about Gratipay!"

---

Punching pennies! 💃

[chadwhitacre]

To: Trebor
Subject: permission to use photo?

Great work on Platform Cooperatives! It was a stimulating time, catching up with some old friends and meeting many new ones.

I'm writing to ask permission to use a photo from your Flickr account in Gratipay's blog post about the conference. Here's the photo:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/treborscholz/23079593146/

And here's the (draft) post:

https://medium.com/gratipay-blog/a-platform-cooperative-almost-94cd5900840f

I'm happy to provide attribution, of course. :-)

Would you be okay with this usage?

Not sure how this will interact with my conversation with Kenneth, whom I haven't heard back from as of yet.

[chadwhitacre]

From: Trebor

Sure. The photographer's name is Kenneth Ho.

---

Thanks, Trebor!

[chadwhitacre]

To: Kenneth

I found this one in Trebor's Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/treborscholz/23079593146/

What would be the cost to use that one in our Medium post?

https://medium.com/gratipay-blog/a-platform-cooperative-almost-94cd5900840f

I'd like to get this taken care of, so I can get the blog post out the door tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

I approached Trebor as well (he has the photos listed as BY-NC-SA), and he was fine with us using it. At this point I'm not sure how to proceed, whether Trebor has the right to the photos or you do. Let me know ...

Thanks, Kenneth! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

Reopening until the blog post is live, I guess. :)

[chadwhitacre]

Alright, so Trebor's response indicates that he thinks he can grant permission to use the photo. If I don't hear back from Kenneth by tomorrow I'll proceed on that understanding (i.e., I'll publish with the photo), and we can handle Kenneth's reply as it comes.

[chadwhitacre]

From: Kenneth

Hey Chad,

I have rights to the image. Please see attached. We can certainly get you that image that you’d provided the link to. I just ask that you provide a link back to my website and use the image I’ll provide you with (watermarked).

Okay! Proceeding with that ...

[chadwhitacre]

[chadwhitacre]

To: Trebor

We ended up using a watermarked version from Kenneth. The write-up is live. We're planning to post it to Twitter tomorrow.

https://medium.com/gratipay-blog/a-platform-cooperative-almost-94cd5900840f

Cheers! :-)

[chadwhitacre]

Nice list of fellow-traveller orgs presented at the conference: http://platformcoop.net/schedule/owning-is-the-new-sharing-actually-existing-platform-co-ops

P.S. @webmaven That was the session I skipped to talk about the Gittip crisis. Opportunity cost! :-/