Cooperativeweb

The Cooperativeweb Is:

Re-Defining What An Internet Organization Can Be.

A Members' and Producers' Cooperative. Not just another corporation with an app.

Cooperativeweb.org has an unusual structure. It is not only a cooperative, but two cooperatives: one inside the other. On the 'inside', cooperativeweb is a producers' cooperative, owned and managed by the people that produce the technology that makes cooperativeweb.org work. These are the coders and those others concerned about the preservation of the internet as a vital space and who want to take direct responsibility. On the other hand, on the 'outside', is the internet-facing members' cooperative. Anyone can join this right here on this website, and these members form the basis of the collective search and discovery that the cooperative produces as a whole for the common good and benefit of internet users, as well as content creators who benefit from the links and networks produced by the cooperative. But more on this below.

Non-Profit. All revenue generated is paid out to members.

As a charity foundation and non-profit organisation(pending registration), the cooperative accepts donations on behalf of those who align with our vision here. These donations support the emerging internet economy we are trying to establish, particularly in the early days. Beyond operating costs to keep things running and some publically available portion of revenues dedicated to the growth of the cooperative(set by the cooperatives' members themselves) all donations are paid back out to cooperators based on a formula pre-determined and periodically reset by the members themselves.

With a Vision. Focused on the preservation of the internet as a productive, vital space.

Our focus on the internet is what inspired us to start. But the way in which we work together, and the experiment we are conducting in workplace organisation, the ethics of democracy, fairness, and sharing that arises naturally from out of a cooperative worplace supports us, and the entire project, for the long-duration. We are not just another corporation with an idea to make a profit: we are a fundamental re-thinking of the way we should be working together in this 'new economy'. And, hopefully, an inspiration for others to do the same.

Re-Creating Search and Discovery As A Human Process.

Create Meaningful Relationships. Right where you find them.

Think of the cooperativeweb as a collaborative network that starts on the back-side of any website. Find a page that's interesting to you, flip it over, take a note, add a link to another page, and share it with others so all profit from your discovery and the way in which you think its meaningful. Comments-sections, Twitter and Facebook are great, but they keep you circulating within their own gravitational fields. The cooperativeweb is open, distributed, and collectively owned and managed by its members. It gives its members the opportunity to make meaning right at the point where the context to make it meaningful is: at the url. Not isolated back on a blog or in a vanishing comment. In fact, the cooperativeweb breathes new life into these forms as well. That's our take on it anyway.

Discover New Connections. Not just what the search-engine feeds you.

The cooperativeweb is like a Wikipedia of Wikipedias, without any activist gatekeepers telling you what you can say about something according to some covert, homogenous rationality. These back-pages of the internet where the cooperativeweb begins are not only places for you to create your own networks of significance between the web as it is and the web as you see it; they are also places to discover and explore other's networks. If anyone else has also visited the page you're interested in, taken some notes or left a link there, connected their network to that location, then you'll be able to see them, and explore them, to discover new regions of the internet according to, perhaps, new or unthought principles. We have the ability to collectively redefine 'search' and 'discovery' on the internet: rather than determinants of worth generated by algorithms, we'll have an expansive multiplicity of meaningful, human networks of discovery to profit from.

Re-Distributing Created Value.

For Content Consumers and Link-Makers. Who expand the breadth of the discoverable internet through the links they make.

If you use cooperativeweb to make connections between places on the internet that are important to you, you are contributing to the overall construction of the cooperativeweb and the ability of other users to also link-back to the page that interests you and, thus, expanding the audience available for any content linked-to from within the cooperative. Traditional sites relying on advertising and referal fees make payment to the cooperative which, in turn, redistributes those fees to its members based on the traffic that passes through their networks and the links they've created. Additionally, any donations received and other revenue generated by the cooperative are distributed to all members to support these efforts.

For Content Creators. Who are compensated by the cooperative for what they make.

Rather than relying on advertising fees, content creators who disable advertisments on their sites for cooperativeweb members will be compensated directly by the cooperative, the donations it receives and the revenue it generates from traditional advertising search, for page-views of their work that refer through the cooperative. This ensures that there is another possibility for support for their work. Further, the cooperativeweb is a space within which content creators can curate the discovery of their work and develop their own networks that tie specific, known locations on the web back to their work.

Building The Tools Necessary To Make It Happen.

These are the three main components we're working on right now:

Browser Extension

As browsers become ever more simplified they become increasingly focused on content consumption. Our browser extension opens-up a separate horizontal sliding tab in the browser that opens-up a new window on the internet right in your current browsing context over which the user has direct control. It also facilitates the creation of a new form of 'bookmark' that creates a unique page corresponfing to the current page you're viewing and also allows for a location-aware and context-specific search for new content from a specific location in the web. We think that this moves the focus from simply consuming the internet to a more productive, creative and re-configurable involvement with it, putting you in control of your browsing and allowing you to re-combine content in new and interesting ways. Check it out..

Wiki Federation

The conventional Wiki is suited to the production of a single, authoritative text from out of the efforts of many; on the other hand, it suffers from the problem of managing that interaction by zealous gatekeepers and the problem of exclusion of viewpoints and forms of expression that don't conform to this 'consensus'. In a Federated Wiki, each person in the federation has their own, personal wiki and has complete freedom to create it in whatever way they choose. Under this paradigm authority asises from out of the Wiki Federation through a natural process of selection whereby links, text, and networks big and small can proliferate based on their value to each person. You can see how Federated Wiki and this bookmarking feature works like right here, as well as browse the current content of the entire Wiki Federation through a public wiki available right here on this site. Browse the cooperative..

Micro-Payments System

We believe a fundamental oversight of the modern web is the absence of a micro-payment architecture for facilitating the compensation of content creators. We believe this has led to the emergence of some of history's largest corporations whose value is derived from the voluntary and mostly free creative labour of internet users. To us, crypto-currencies are an essential element in a distributed cooperative economy and a necessary piece of the solution to this predicament. We're working with digital cryto-currencies to find ways to enable a system of micro-payments throughout the cooperativeweb network tied to the browser that would distribute revenues generated by the cooperative among its member-owners. We further believe the proper design of such a system might work to overcome some of the main problems associated with compensation for digital-goods.

And The Cooperativeweb Is Also...Still Under Construction

We've got alot of ideas here. But we're a long way from completing alot of them. Some, like the browser extension and wiki federation, are currently in a beta-testing phase open to new members on an invitation basis; others, like the crytocurrency that the cooperative will depend on for the distribution of revenues, are much less developed. In the meantime, you can either send us your email using the box below or, if you're interested and able, contribute to the work the producers' cooperative is doing and participate in the development. The cooperative isn't more than the sum of its members and everything possible certainly isn't written on this webpage. So, check out the support page for more on this...

Sound At All Interesting?

Give us your email and we'll send you an invitation to join the beta-testing phase we're about to begin and to let you know about any new developments.

No spam, we promise. And we don't share your information with anyone else, for any reason. Full stop. And that goes for your use of the federated wiki and the browser extension, or for any other thing we create and that you use. Selling your information to advertisers or anyone else is simply not our business model. Not to mention that we value privacy.