Cooperatives, Member Driven Organizations and Collaborative Development are my passions.
Some of the Organizations and Networks we love:
MayFirst Movement Technology
MayFirst Movement Technology (MFMT) is a cooperative, of movement organizations and individuals that provides ethical web hosting, email services and a suite of free software tools to its members. We support the organization by raising awareness.Your web hosting is a political choice and so are the tools you use. You should have a voice and a vote! Your privacy should be protected by the organizations you rely on for communications.
Open Collective
Open Collective enables all kinds of groups to raise, manage, and spend money transparently. Our open source software platform engages contributors and supporters, automates admin, and helps you tell your story. The first thing you’ll notice is transparency—everyone can see where money comes from and where it goes—but it doesn’t end there… Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, Open Collective is designed for ongoing collaborations. That means your funding and community of support doesn’t disappear after a single campaign, or if the initial organizers move on.
Laura Flanders Show
The Laura Flanders Show began in 2001 as a daily radio program on Air America Radio to engage listeners in a deep dive of the most pressing issues of the times. In 2008, supported by Free Speech TV, Laura moved to television, beginning GRITtv, a daily national news show that covered the Financial Crisis from the grassroots up. After several years, the show moved to KCET/Link TV and teleSUR, where it ran as a weekly program called The Laura Flanders Show. The Laura Flanders Show launched on PBS stations in the United States in 2020, airing in 23 of the country’s top 25 television markets. To find your local listing, check out our TV schedules.
The Online Meeting Co-operative
Meet.coop is an online meeting co-operative dedicated to hosting BigBlueButton video chat servers in multiple locations around the world. We meet weekly in different teams to work out the governance and member issues. There is an operational team that builds and maintains the hardware and software for providing an excellent video conference network structured in Sociocracy, also called dynamic governance. Meet.coop has forums where you can mingle with members and get up to date information on the development and learn more about the project.
MassMesh
MassMesh is a volunteer organization working to build community owned wireless networks across Boston. Using their custom routers, they advocate for neighborhoods to form internet buying clubs, essentially by purchasing a gigabit internet plan with your regular ISP, and sharing that plan with your neighbors by allowing them to connect to it via your peer to peer community network. This is a great way to cut the cost of internet, reduce your support of your ISP, and to more affordably build a community owned infrastructure in under-served communities that have limited internet access.
Drutopia
Drutopia is a flexible content management system with many features built specifically for grassroots organizations. It already helps groups share goals, call for action, collect donations, and report progress. Most important, Drutopia’s developers seek to design ongoing improvements and capabilities with groups organizing for a better world.
Tech Coop Network
The Tech Coop Network was formed at a USFWC conference in Los Angeles in 2017 as a peer network – specifically for North American Technology Worker Cooperatives. The group was formed by members of several worker-owned tech and web development cooperatives and is currently discussing bylaws and governance to prepare for inviting other cooperatives to join.
International Workers of the World
As IWW members, we stand marginalized people and communities. We represent the disenfranchised worker and support non-conforming individuals rights. An injury to one is an injury to all!
IEEE.org SA Open
SA Open is a platform, by the IEEE and managed by LeadingBit, that
aims to create a set of agreed upon standards to help people, both technical and organic, co-work more effectively to build Free Software with proper documentation and support materials on using and changing it.
Mastodon
Mastodon is a federated social network made up of affinity groups. The functionality is much like Twitter, where you can message other members and share information or “Toots” as they are called, in a group or one-on-one. You can join a sub-community or create your own. The platform is collectively owned by the members. I am known as @Free_Scholar and I am a member of social.coop in the Mastodon fediverse.
Center for Economic Democracy
The Center for Economic Democracy advances visions and practices for a just and sustainable world after capitalism. Dozens of volunteers and funders helped launch our early programs, lay the groundwork for our organization, and continue to support our work today.
United States Federation of Worker Owned Cooperatives
USFWC is the national grassroots membership organization for worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces. Our mission is to build a thriving ecosystem for worker-owned and controlled businesses – and their cooperative leaders– to power movements for racial justice and economic democracy.
Drupal
Drupal is content management software. It is used to make many of the websites and applications you use every day. Drupal has great standard features, like easy content authoring, reliable performance, and excellent security. But what sets it apart is its flexibility; modularity is one of its core principles. Drupal helps you build the versatile, structured content that dynamic web experiences need.
Educational Cyber-Playground
K12 Internet History from 1991 up to the present
HUMAN Curated and vetted Reference Directory of Resources for: Teachers, Parents, and Policy Makers: Learn about Music, Teaching, Internet, Technology, Literacy, Arts and Linguistics in the K12 classroom.
Beautiful Trouble
The Beautiful Trouble toolbox illustrates the key tactics, principles, methodologies, theories and stories that have inspired centuries of people-powered victories. Written by over 175 frontline activists from Harare to Amman, New York to Oaxaca, the toolbox is one part prankster manifesto, one part direct action manual, and one part training guide for mass organizing and collective liberation.
Creative activism offers so much more than one-size-fits-all solutions, and so do we. Beautiful Trouble is less a cookbook than a pattern language —a matrix of interlinked concepts that you can apply as works in your situation.
If you are doing something cool… Reach out and tell us!
