In this article, I am going to be talking all about platform cooperativism and what it means.
A platform cooperative or a platform co-op is basically a cooperatively owned and also democratically governed business that is establishing a commuting platform and also makes use of a website, mobile application or even a protocol to facilitate the sale of services and goods. It is actually quite interesting and quite simple if you think about it.
Platform cooperatives are basically an alternate to the venture capital-funded platforms, and they are also owned and governed by those who completely depend on them the most, who happen to be users, stakeholders and workers as well.
While there are absolutely no commonly accepted typology of platform cooperatives, researchers often anthologise platform cooperatives by the industry. A lot of potential categories happen to include transportation, journalism, labour, creative projects, film, home healthcare, music, photography, marketplaces and data cooperatives. Other kinds of typologies usually differentiate the platform cooperatives by the governance and also the ownership structures.
Basically, platform cooperatives have actually been contrasted with platform capitalism. Companies like junk removal Alpharetta that try to focus on the fairness and also the sharing, instead of the profit motive or actually described as cooperatives. Whereas, traditional and common companies actually focus only on profit like Uber and other capitalist companies. In turn, projects like Wikipedia that actually rely on labour that is unpaid or even volunteers can actually be classified as common based peer production initiatives that are extremely important for the community.
There are a lot of platform cooperatives that make use of business models that are similar to better go on applications or even Web services, but with a huge cooperative structure. For example, there are a lot of driver on the taxi applications that usually allow the customers to submit trip requests and also notify the nearest driver, just like Uber. The internet of ownership website basically includes a directory of cooperative platform ecosystem.
• EVA is a ride-sharing application that offers a very similar service to Uber. But if you’re talking about the cooperative members, you should think about the better wages for the drivers.
• Look at fairbnb .coop, and you will understand what I’m talking about. It is an online marketplace and also hospitality service for individuals who want to lease or even rent short-term lodging. It is basically a community of coders, researchers, designers and activists who are working to create a platform to enable the hosts and guests so that they can connect for travel and also cultural exchange, while also minimising cost to communities. It is basically an alternative to commercial platforms. That is why it is quite important indeed.