ABSTRACT
Most of today’s online community organization is done in an “implicitly feudal” manner, coordinated on centrally managed digital platforms, operated by platform companies. However, cooperative models represent a viable alternative that deserves wider recognition. This chapter explores community organizing efforts around decentralized technologies that are designed to limit centralized control, emphasize user voice, and foster participation. Specifically, we draw on two cases, https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://Social.coop">Social.coop and The Platform, to illustrate the breadth of the cooperative approach. https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="https://Social.coop">Social.coop is a cooperative social network that uses a different set of technologies, combined with fiscal sponsorship for legal recognition, toward similar ends. The Platform is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization incorporated as a multi-stakeholder cooperative, which uses blockchain technology to preserve digital art and to supplement the project’s cooperative governance processes. Our goal is to highlight the potential for increasing effective forms of voice that emerges from coupling decentralized technologies and cooperative governance models. Furthermore, we draw on insights from the cases to elicit critical tensions in the form of legal, technical, and practical hurdles, which currently hinder the growth in the adoption of network-native cooperatives. This chapter closes by providing practical recommendations to address these hurdles and avenues for further research.
