Theory of Everybody: A platform cooperative

  • Thread starter Sciborg_S_Patel
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Sciborg_S_Patel

Theory of Everybody

A Theory of Everybody is a platform cooperative.

The way a “platform cooperative” works is that we combine our creative energies and collective intelligence for the benefit of all.

In the case of this platform, that means our members contribute original work, technical skills, material resources, or simply their participation in the creative flow of a project through reading, listening, watching, or following a conversation—and in turn they can use the platform to develop, share, and support their own work.

We also work on the organization as a whole—cultivating more empathic and effective communication, developing a more intelligent social organism, improving the overall quality of the space.

In a platform cooperative (as we conceive it) ownership is a function of participation—and participation can take many forms. It ebbs and flows. It changes over time. What’s important is that the participation is honest, relevant, mindful, open to feedback, authentic. Mistakes are allowed. As a platform for radical creativity, we seek to foster a culture of openness, transparency, empathy, experimentation, and mutual encouragement.

There are no employers and employees in our co-op. People manage their own work, not other people.

However, that is not to say there is no structure. We do engage in project management, editorial curation, and production in structured ways. It’s just that we make these functions transparent and open to revision by the people who are actually participating in them.

Since everyone has something different to give (which could be anything of use or value to anyone else, from a poem to a few hours of programming to lending a sympathetic ear)—and since everyone has limitations on their time, energy, and resources—it’s up to each individual to determine what they wish to offer, how they can do so effectively, and what makes it worth their while.

That said, we’re here to help.
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A big part of our work—in which we hope you’ll join us—involves articulating the social poetics of our self-organization: our language, structures, systems, relationships, and culture. The integration of ethics and aesthetics.

This is very much a work in progress!

We hope you’ll feel called to share your presence, attention, and work with us. Help us make the dream of a creative gift economy a reality.
 
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