“Who Owns the World?”, Research, Services and Open Roles

Who Owns the World? The State of Platform Cooperativism

Who Owns the World? The State of Platform Cooperativism is a platform cooperative conference hosted by the Platform Cooperativism Consortium at the The New School, New York, New York, USA that was held from November 7 to 9 this year.

Pictures from the Conference: https://flickr.com/photos/treborscholz/albums/72157711739075488/with/49082459592/

The conference covered the current state of platform cooperativism, practices for cooperatives, international perspectives on platform cooperativism, startup funding, the use of platforms for resolving societal and economic issues, data governance and data cooperatives, and distributed governance.

The conference (We did not attend the conference. Rather, we watched the conference via a live-stream), at least form our view, was very good because it touched upon so many different topics in the platform cooperative space and highlighted different sectors and approaches that can be incorporated to help change the platform economy paradigm.

We were also very happy to see a discussion of blockchain cooperatives, though not specifically focused on the technology, but on cooperatives who employ blockchain to build their platforms.

Our major takeaways from the conference are generally related to our views and interests in decentralized and open thinking and systems (DOTS) concepts.

Takeaways:

• Greater emphasis on leadership training, and taking a page from Decred, a need for distributed leadership (alternatively, de-leadership) in which all participants are empowered and active in the decision-making processes (very similar to a do-ocracy)
• We need a bigger move to empower the platform cooperative model in the fields of data (governance, sharing, collection, usage, privacy, storage, etc.), mobility, freelancers (refer to Opolis for a blockchain cooperative for freelancers), energy (though this is more prevalent in rural areas in the USA, but we can have them in urban areas as well through projects like the Brooklyn Microgrid), internet (by building community wireless networks; this might be one of the biggest areas that is completely being missed out on. I mean, do you know anyone that likes Comcast?), and identity (self-sovereign identity (SSID) services)
• We need to develop more protocols via platform cooperatives so that we can provide cooperative infrastructure for platform coops and other companies to build frameworks and platforms on. Without a hold on infrastructure, it will be very difficult to change
• Is there a need for rebranding cooperatives into something that is more appealing to the general public?
• We need to consider new, innovative and fair funding models that can grow the ecosystem in a non-extractive manner.
• There needs to be more research focused on platform cooperativism, distributed governance, and technology usability

From our key takeaways, we thought of a couple decentralized and open thinking and systems (DOTS) related concepts that may be beneficial:

• Cooperatives should consider adopting Token Bonding Curves for membership, a la Nexus Mutual, a decentralized insurance mutual (we would consider Nexus Mutual a blockchain cooperative)
• Cooperatives should consider the Continuous Securities Offering (CSO) model for raising capital by offering equity on the blockchain
• Platform cooperative should consider offering self-sovereign identity services (SSID), data-related services, based on DOTS-related technologies
• More research should be done on DOTS-related technology usability and governance principles for cooperatives

Research Roundup

Reimagining going public with Continuous Securities Offerings (CSO)

Author: Joris Delanoue

Year: 2019

Related Organizations:

• Joris Delanoue: Cofounder, Fairmint Inc.

Full article:

Reimagining going public with Continuous Securities Offerings (CSO) by Fairmint

Cooperators Assemble!

We are looking to add 4–6 more co-operators to join us at Ledgerback to help our research, education, and analytics efforts.

Specifically, we are looking for new members to fill one or more of the following roles:

• Technical Researcher: a research with knowledge preferably in computer science (networking, data science, blockchain architecture, databases)
• Data Analyst (Statistician / Data Scientist): an analyst who is comfortable with basic statistical analysis and visualization of DOTS-related data and writing data-driven articles
• Editor: an editor that has experience with, or an interest in, open access publishing, and editing papers that have been submitted for publication (this can be made up for with editorial training)
• Writer: a writer who has an interest in DOTS-related areas and is willing to write a post every 2 weeks of 500 word length. Primarily blog posts such as organization updates, research updates, DOTS-related updates, etc.
• Infographic Designer: an infographic designer who is comfortable making data-related presentations and assisting with design decisions for publications
• Finance Manager: a manager who will focus on raising funds for the organization via fundraisers, grant applications, etc.
• Coordinator: a coordinator to oversee the projects, initiatives, and services run by the organization and help coordinate internal activities
• Communications: a communications director to maintain the organization’s contacts with other organizations and individuals
• Programmer: a programmer with experience in building decentralized applications, solidity programming language,
• Research Analyst: an analyst to stay abreath of research developments in the DOTS space
• Course Creator: a creator with experience developing online courses

Research & Analysis Services

Other than original research and data analysis, here at Ledgerback, we also offer research and analysis services to help clients: 1) gain insights into DOTS concepts, markets (intelligence, competitors, etc.), and data; 2) develop and complete their research projects; and 3) edit and format their documents to meet publication requirements.

Here are our research & analysis services:

1. Tailored Research: Send us your research inquiry, and we shall work on producing an original research report which meets your research requirements
2. Datasets: Comprehensive datasets in an easy to read format
3. Market Intelligence: Get strategic issues, drivers and constraints, key developments, and trends in a market along with the key stakeholders and strategic recommendations
4. Publication & Editing: We will format and edit your documents to meet your publication requirements
5. Data analysis: We will analyze your datasets for you based on your research requirements and questions
6. Infographics: We will design infographics tailored to your research and presentation requirements

What you can expect with us?

• In-depth original research
• Comprehensive datasets
• Quality and understandable data analysis
• Strategic market intelligence
• Clear and unambiguous research and analysis

How do I become a Client?

If you are interested in any of our research & analysis services, please send us an email at hello@ledgerback.coop with the following information:

1. Your full name, company and title;
2. Your email address; and
3. A short description of your inquiry.

Once you send us an email, we will follow-up to see the best way we can provide our services to meet your inquiry.

Originally published at https://ledgerback.substack.com.