On Wednesday, April 5, 2023, during the Platform Cooperatives community assembly on “Recent Developments in Data Collectives, Data Commons, and Peer Production Licenses”, the idea came up to compose a manifesto and open letter to the leadership of cooperative networks calling for support. The Data Commons Cooperative (DCC) created a Loomio thread (requires a free Loomio login to join the group) for discussion and invited all those attending the assembly and interested followers of the Data Commons to participate. Trebor Scholz of Platform Cooperativism Consortium wrote the first draft, which underwent extensive revision with input from Data Commons Cooperative, ChiCommons LWCA, Waag Futurelab, and several others.
This published manifesto / open letter is intended as an invitation to work together on co-creating the policies and structures that will support digital tools for cooperativism. We hope that many more groups and people will join us to envision and call forth the digital world we need and deserve!
We recognize the nature of getting consensus on a critical document such as this. We offer this draft as an early call to action and hope that you and/or your cooperative can sign on in good faith. We view this as a living manifesto and commit to developing an updated version 2.0 when more folks support the effort.
We plan on delivering this Manifesto to Mr. Ariel Guarco, President of the International Cooperative Alliance early in 2024. Please sign onto the Manifesto by December 31, 2023.
Please review the Manifesto, discuss it in your cooperative or organization, and sign it as a federation/consortium/apex body, a cooperative, or an individual.
Read the letter at Data Commons Cooperative
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