October 2019 Social.coop Strategy Thread
Matthew Cropp PublicSeen by 52In the most recent Community Working Group Operations Team call, we discussed moving a process forward to collect members' thoughts on the strategic direction of our co-op, with an eye towards a developing a plan to guide the co-op going forward. We'll be given a short (8 minutes) slot during the Platform Cooperativism conference in early November to discuss social.coop, so that gives us a good deadline for completing this work.
So, I'll be putting out a schedule poll for a 90 minute Zoom call this month that all members are invited to participate in, and we also welcome folks to share their thoughts and ideas in this thread!
Here's a condensed version of what's in my pdf notes - more visual, single page
Facepalm Thanks for noticing, just updated with the link.
@Matthew Cropp was there intended to be a link here, to the meeting notes? I don’t see one.
Notes from today's call. Thanks everyone!
That was my understanding. Thanks for getting the conversation moving!
No problem with abstaining Matt, I’m not trying to get these ideas endorsed here. I just want to float some thoughts for discussing on Weds, which first began to form during the meltdown weeks last year.
i did not have the chance yet to dive into this and have been not enought involved lately to be able to judge priorities. but i trust it's the right topics to discuss.
Points #4 and #3 ("A-list") feel particularly important to me.
The financial underpinnings of social.coop and how we compensate those who "do the work" (tech or otherwise) feels like an existential matter for the continued thriving of social.coop.
Having a set of ideas that don't need to be re-litigated in times of crisis would make us more robust and help prospective members self-select. Can be a simple list, eg: https://doubleunion.org/base_assumptions/
@mikeh8: thank you for putting so much thought into this. I think it's awesome that you are able to articulate and organize your ideas in writing. For me, the theoretical ideas you're presenting are a bit taxing to my energy levels towards this project and it's hard for me to reconcile the proposals you've made with the practical issues we are facing on the platform.
I like these ideas, I do think we need to consider making the existing do-ocracy a bit more formal, and based on my recent introduction to MayFirst, which just became a cooperative, that process -- making social.coop a formal cooperative -- might have a good heuristic affect, provoking more participation and commitment...
Abstaining because I see these as valid topics for discussion but am not ready to endorse them.
Mike, I understand that it's tricky to try to summarise what I'm sure are well thought out ideas in a short form, but I am not entirely sure of what you mean so correct me if I'm wrong a path here.
Regarding commoning, I have tried to improve and extend Wikipedia articles relevant to coops. I think that could be one nice activity Social Coop could organise.
@mattnoyes for example seems to be interested in Latin American coop movement. We could perhaps improve Wiki articles relevant to it.
The pdf had become detached from the proposal. It's re-attached now.
I like these ideas, I do think we need to consider making the existing do-ocracy a bit more formal, and based on my recent introduction to MayFirst, which just became a cooperative, that process -- making social.coop a formal cooperative -- might have a good heuristic affect, provoking more participation and commitment...
Also - not sure what is meant by #3 above. Core intentions of whom regarding what?
Loomio says the "attached pdf" does not exist.
Option to add: Make social coop more useful to coopers. First step: add Loomio polls to the social.coop client app. Loomio has done this for Slack(tm), wd be better to add to Fediverse...
Proposals for discussion in Zoom on Oct 30
proposal by mike_hales Closed Wed 30 Oct 2019 2:02PM
Today’s Zoom discussion picked up three of the topics proposed. One of them - a list of ‘core concerns’ which defines the intentions and common purposes of social.coop - will be taken up. Another - the labour required to support the platform infrastructure of social.coop - seems likely to be an ongoing concern, which some people have a particular focus on. The third - developing a public knowledge base around the core concerns - was tacitly accepted, but with no clear definition of how this may be done. Editing Wikipedia entries related to coops was one proposal. Adopting fedwiki as a platform for use by social.coop members was not discussed in any detail. The fourth proposal - to regard social.coop as a ‘cultural commons’ rather than simply ‘a coop’ - was not discussed.
Looking forward to Wednesday’s Zoom discussion. I have three interlinked ideas that I offer for discussion, as possible developments in social.coop:
Develop a self-aware practice as a cultural commons - which is not exactly the same as ‘a coop’.
Start up a durable, evolving, ‘commoned’ knowledge base around the core concerns (maybe a fedwiki); and
Adopt a statement of core concerns and intentions - an ‘A-list’. A fourth matter arises along with these:
Review the financial basis of social.coop, and payment for the tech ops team members who maintain and develop the platform infrastructure.
The attached pdf has a bit on each. Plus fifth, a brief reflection on where we maybe are at, compared with the meltdown in 2018.
This isn't actually a call to vote. This is just a way to propose topics we might discuss. If the discussion thinks they're OK, this might become a vote later? But if you do have options to add, you can do this in the voting process.
Results
| Results | Option | Votes | % of votes cast | % of eligible voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consent | 2 | 29 | 2 | | |
| Abstain | 5 | 71 | 5 | | |
| Objection | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Not voted | 91 | 93 |               |
Will be at work at the time.
I can join the call only partly, i'll try to be there in the first part. i hope this is ok. joining anyway feels important. i'll be at the platform coop conference too and would love to reconnect before with social.coop and you guys.
Can’t make it
I will try to make it. Might be late.
Thanks for organising this, I look forward to it.
could possibly, and would like to, but it's 7AM-8:30 where I am, and that's the block of time I have to get my son ready for 9AM preschool.
This is during work for me but I hope the conversation is fruitful!
Clashes with a childcare commitment
I'm a very new user/member so I'm not expecting to say anything, But I'd like to understand what's happening. This is 17.00 in Saint Petersburg.
RSVP for 10/30 10am-11:30am EDT Strategy Call
opt-in by Matthew Cropp Closed Wed 30 Oct 2019 2:02PM
Please check 'yes' if you plan to attend, 'no' if you cannot make it. Tentative agenda (subject to suggestions):
Personal Check-ins
Round of thoughts about, reflections on, and ideas for social.coop (~1-2 min. each)
Lessons learned thus-far.
Proposal(s) development for policies, reforms, etc.
Check-outs
Call Coordinates:
Topic: S.C Strategy Meeting
Time: Oct 30, 2019 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 113 470 915
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Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 113 470 915
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aetgPdwLl4
Results
| Results | Option | Voters | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | 12 |  | |||
| No | 6 | | |||
| Not voted | 80 |        |
It should be local for everyone.
What's the timezone here? Is it local time for everyone?
The way the instance is run seems opaque to me (occasional user, involved in no other social media). Participating ('at large' member) in the ops team made me aware the active core of operational labour is small (& tenuous?). 'Steering' labour too. So I'm still unclear in what way social.coop can operate as a coop, in the sense that a food distribution coop or a producer coop might be; or even my commercial telephone consumer coop in the UK. But great conversations!
Darn, none of these times really works with my family schedule.
I am most interested in discussions about how to make social.coop more useful for people involved in and/or organizing cooperatives and especially coordinating more than one cooperative. Not necessarily less social, but more cooperative.
Have a bad habit of forgetting these calls but now I will put an alarm on my phone...
Social.coop Strategy Conversation Zoom Call
time poll by Matthew Cropp Closed Thu 10 Oct 2019 1:01AM
It looks like October 30 at 10am US Eastern Daylight Time is our most mutually workable day! I will create an RSVP poll with the call coordinates, and look forward to the conversation!
If you're interested in joining a call to contribute your thoughts to the strategic direction and future of social.coop, please indicate which times might work for you to join a Zoom call. We also welcome folks' thoughts in the thread this decision is embedded in as well.
Results
| UTC | Votes | | | | | | | | | |||
Tue 15 Oct 2019 12:00AM | 4 | |||||||||||
Tue 15 Oct 2019 1:00AM | 4 | |||||||||||
Tue 22 Oct 2019 2:00PM | 6 | |||||||||||
Wed 23 Oct 2019 12:00AM | 4 | |||||||||||
Wed 23 Oct 2019 1:00AM | 3 | |||||||||||
Fri 25 Oct 2019 1:00PM | 3 | |||||||||||
Fri 25 Oct 2019 2:00PM | 5 | |||||||||||
Fri 25 Oct 2019 3:00PM | 6 | |||||||||||
Mon 28 Oct 2019 12:00AM | 4 | |||||||||||
Mon 28 Oct 2019 1:00PM | 5 | |||||||||||
Mon 28 Oct 2019 2:00PM | 6 | |||||||||||
Wed 30 Oct 2019 1:00PM | 7 | |||||||||||
Wed 30 Oct 2019 2:00PM | 8 | |||||||||||
Thu 31 Oct 2019 12:00AM | 4 | |||||||||||
Thu 31 Oct 2019 1:00PM | 7 | |||||||||||
Thu 31 Oct 2019 2:00PM | 7 |
not an exhaustive list of things to distinguish in a social network / information commons:
1.what’s important news for everybody, news for specialists in a particular area, personal reflection and ongoing communication between friends.
who should and shouldn't be allowed to register as a user.
speech and aggression.
“work” that should be paid in money and “work” that shouldn't.
issues where a collective acts as one and where each member acts separately.