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Conditions for Platform Cooperativism.md

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Purpose

Thoughts on the conditions that may make a platform cooperative a better business model than others or alternatively, conditions where a platform cooperative business model makes sense.

Preliminary for now.

Possible Conditions

Also very similar to the conditions which make a blockchain applicable

  • User Awareness
    • Users of platform coops are more aware of issues in the sharing economy and platform capitalism than the general public.
    • Users of a platform (generally the labor-side stakeholder) cannot access information about the Platform or the Platform-owner is not transparent about certain information with users that may be considered vital (e.g., algorithms, software, finances, data collection)
  • Power imbalances
    • One side of the Platform has a major power imbalance with the Platform owner (e.g., content creators on YouTube) and usually feels the most pain when a new governance decision is made. This can be regarding:
      • Governance (pricing, decision-making, etc.)
      • Architecture
  • Labor reliance
    • One-side of the platform's stakeholders are generally content and data generators. If the stakeholders are the primary source of input for the Platform, then the stakeholder may consider having more say in the Platform's governance or challenging the Platform owner.
  • Multiple Stakeholders
    • If the Platform-owner must appease multiple stakeholders, internally and/or externally, then the governance of the platform must take into account the diverse views of the stakeholders. If the Platform-owner cannot appease all stakeholders, then there may be an extra incentive for a stakeholder group to leave and form their own similar but alternative platform.
  • VC-backed organizations
    • look for businesses with unsustainable business models that can only make sense with VC funding
  • User Roles
    • look for the ability for individuals to take on new roles that provide value (and the possibility of taking on multiple roles at the same time)
  • Intermediaries
    • Look for the existence of intermediers (especially brokers who are only rent-seeking)
  • Invisible labor or under-paid labor
    • Look for whether an existing non-cooperative business is using invisible labor (the labor that produces value for the organization is generally unknown to the users who create the value by providing labor) as part of its business model
  • Precarious work
    • Look for industry-level or similarly-related organizations where the majority of workers have a precarious work situation (e.g., no employment benefits, underpaid)
  • Presence of unions
    • Look for industries where unions are weak, non-existent, or actively discouraged by organizations
  • Stakeholder tensiosn
    • Look for tensions between sides/stakeholders (Exlcuding platform owner) of the platform
  • Commerical use of community repositories/technologies
    • Look for issues where the commerical use of the technology or platform intentially impedes the growth/innovation of the technology or the beneit of the platform owner/organization
  • Core Technology
    • Look for situations when the core technology guides organizations to be centralized (e.g., AI/ML)