Back then, they wove the bags by hand, without any modern technology, and with few places to sell them. 

All that changed in 2003, when she met Sonia Guevara, one of the co-founders of the Association of Olopenses Women (AMO).

“The AMO has helped me with the training, and access to credit, to finance the materials and supplies I need to make the bags,” said Guzman. 

The Association of Olopenses Women was founded in 2000 in Olopa, in Guatemala’s Chiquimula Department, near the border with Honduras. Guatemala, one of the poorest countries in Central America, has a poverty rate of 45 percent, and the fourth-highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, according to the World Bank. 

Remote regions like Olopa are among the poorest, with few opportunities for women to break the cycle of poverty. 

That’s exactly what makes the AMO so powerful and important.

Since joining, Guzman has not only built her own bag-weaving business, she’s also gained other income streams for her and her family. 

“I have also received training in the construction of organic gardens, the production of compost and the construction of bio filters for safe water consumption,” she said. 

What makes the AMO special is its model. The organization operates in many ways like a cooperative, with decisions made collectively and all voices heard.

This gives the Association an advantage over international aid organizations and charities that want to create opportunities for rural and disadvantaged women to thrive. The Association of Olopenses Women is different, says Guzman, because it didn’t just provide aid, but offers real ownership. 

Unlike other organizations, the AMO is managed by the women themselves, who represent their own communities. — Paulina Ramirez Guzman, member of the AMO

“The AMO is the only organization that has seen the need and potential of indigenous women artisans for community projects that directly benefit them in remote communities,” Guzman said.

Guzman herself became a member after paying a nominal 50 quetzals (~US$6.50) entry fee.

“To be a member of the AMO, it is only required to have the desire to participate, pay … and to be able to receive all the training and activities that we have scheduled throughout the year,” says Olga Marina Romero, a 42-year-old mother of seven from the village of Chucte Centro, and the organization’s current elected president. 

She herself started, like Guzman, learning about the AMO through another member, getting involved with her community. She started out as a volunteer, and then in 2018 was elected president at the organization’s general assembly. 

Now, she’s leading efforts to bring in more women members, and expand to other communities. 

The Association of Olopenses Women is at the service of its members, the women entrepreneurs. It is an opportunity for indigenous women in Guatemala to support their families through their own enterprises. — AMO president, Olga Marina Romero

The AMO trains women doing crafts, hammocks, and rope-bag businesses, like Guzman, but also teaches skills in agricultural business and practice such as growing coffee and raising livestock like chickens, turkeys, and ducks. 

This can build food security by promoting family gardens, and also helps the women earn extra income.

Romero, herself a farmer, grows coffee, corn, beans, and sometimes raises chickens. 

“Right now we are preparing seed beds for coffee, avocado, oranges, mangoes,” she says, and the AMO’s members “know that the trees will bear fruit to generate income.”

Despite working in such a poor region, with limited resources, the AMO has shown that this model can not only survive, but thrive. Grants and financial aid help, but what makes the organization sustainable is the success of members themselves, who use the AMO to contribute to and invest in their own future. 

According to World Neighbors, a nonprofit international development organization that works with impoverished communities in underdeveloped regions, the AMO’s members contribute a small part of their profit into a savings and credit group. 

This group in turn makes loans to women who wish to start their own businesses, giving them means to purchase tools or even additional land to expand farm output. 

Loans have mostly been paid back, allowing available credit to expand over time.

Coming together also provides new opportunities to export products abroad, or hire more support staff, says Romero. “We are convinced that if the products that the members produce could be exported by the AMO, we would have enough resources to have full-time staff and continue financing our own projects,” she said. 

To date, the Association of Olopenses Women has grown beyond its initial base in Olopa, Guatemala. It now works in 37 communities, and has about 700 members, 400 of whom are active. All but 15 are women.

The Association of Olopenses Women is like a seed, in that it is waiting for its opportunity, moment and time to germinate and become a tree, but to get there it has to go through many stages. — Olga Marina Romero

“Through the training of its members, the tree eventually comes to bear fruit and live forever if it has water and nutrients and receives proper care,” says Romero. 

There’s no fast and easy means of empowering women and ending systemic poverty in places like rural Guatemala. 

Real solutions, such as building an organization like the AMO, require time to build trust and relationships. It also means overcoming the legacy of failed government and nonprofit promises to impoverished communities. 

For many, therefore, what the AMO offers may seem too good to be true. That’s why Guzman encourages women of all ages to come see the AMO in action. 

“Visit us to come see our organization and what we do in it,” she said. “There are many ventures that women have in mind, and it is easier to make them a reality when we have the support of our own community organization, that speaks our language, knows our customs and believes and bets on us. Through the AMO, women can be better organized to achieve our goals [and] prepare projects that benefit our communities.”

Check out these related articles: 

• How a gift economy powers education in rural Nepal
• Synergy, not disruption: Industry 4.0 meets traditional wisdom in rural Italy
• How children are changing their communities in rural India

The post Association of Olopenses Women provides economic empowerment to rural Guatemalan workers appeared first on Shareable.

“It is absolutely a trend,” says Ken Haycock, a professor and coordinator of graduate programs in Library and Information Management at the University of Southern California. “What is happening is that libraries are seeing needs in their communities, and responding to them.”

LoTs themselves are not new — some, like Berkeley, California’s tool library, have been open for decades — and are now also run by nonprofits, social enterprises, and local communities directly.

“Libraries that offer tools or a wider range of products for lending seem to have a remarkable cultural function,” says Najine Ameli, a researcher at Bochum University of Applied Sciences in Germany, who is doing her thesis on LoTs. “They present a deviation from the standard, a viable alternative to the previous use-own standard.”

The future of LoTs is likely one where technology empowers more efficient sharing, communities play a direct role in management, and the impact is not merely economic, but social as well — a direct counter-model to unsustainable consumerism — and one that is not only more sustainable, but easier, too.

Technology can increase scale and impact

James Dong started Last Minute Gear in his San Francisco apartment back in 2015 with a simple focus — one particularly relevant to Northern California, where there is ready access to outdoor activities: Create a platform for the renting and sharing of outdoor gear.

“The mission is to reduce waste and increase access by developing scalable alternatives to buying,” says Dong. He saw technology as crucial to the success of Last Minute Gear. He knew that success for a start-up meant that it had to be financially sustainable, focusing on usability and convenience. Last Minute Gear was competing with the ease of the buy-and-keep or throw-away alternatives people were used to, like Amazon.

“Our economy has evolved in such a way that customers have come to expect to be able to eat almost every slice of the cake and have it for later, too,” says Dong. “People can ‘virtue signal’ about shopping small and local all they want, but it’s not enough people, not enough instances to reverse the trend.”

After some early success, Last Minute Gear moved to a showroom in 2016, and then to a regular retail shop in 2017. Physical presence was crucial, as Dong aimed to build a platform that allowed people to rent and borrow goods whenever they wanted, regardless of staffing. 

“Last Minute Gear’s rental program is available 24/7,” said Dong. “You can be outside the shop when no one is working inside, place an order on your smartphone, then get a button on your phone to unlock the door, and access gear from a locker inside.” This allows him to be both more sustainable, cheaper, and faster than Amazon.

Tech has also been key to a London, England-based LoT start-up. When the very aptly named Library of Things opened their first sharing library in 2016, it was a retail location like Last Minute Gear. Now they’ve turned to a more tech-driven solution: self-serve kiosks in accessible community spaces, some of which are public libraries.

“The kiosk itself can look different in different places, and can be configured to any community space,” says Rebecca Trevalyan, one of the original co-founders of Library of Things. “It’s designed to be modular, so it can be larger or smaller to fit different places, and even be moved if the host space needs to use that particular spot for other activities. Additionally, they all have community boards, photos, and spaces for the community to adapt themselves.”

Like Last Minute Gear, Library of Things relies on technology to function, having built their own platform after realizing that existing platforms were not quite adaptable to the needs of local communities or users. 

“Without the right tech it’s not a user-friendly experience, and so it’s difficult for borrowers to borrow,” says Trevalyan. “Having the right technology drives usage, and also means you can replicate the model.”

Sustainable impact for communities

Historically, LoTs have performed a primarily economic function; allowing people to rent or borrow items saved them money. While that is still an important factor, the goals are far broader today: to promote local, sustainable development, with the understanding that mass consumerism is a key driver of environmental degradation. 

Ameli believes that, in the future, LoTs can be a direct tool for communities to reduce their environmental and climate impact through the sharing of reusable goods, while also helping reduce waste. 

“Possibly, municipalities could help provide suitable space or financing,” said Ameli. “Sharing libraries are [part of] the urban model for a sustainable or sharing city, since it enables the intelligent use of raw materials and energy, and furthermore improves the quality of life of inhabitants.”

Considering that, it is no surprise that the success of modern sharing libraries are directly connected to other factors that make sharing cities vibrant. London’s Library of Things has found that certain types of locations are more amenable to LoTs. 

“Our model is particularly suited to densely populated urban areas,” says Trevalyan. “Seventy percent of borrowers come from within one mile of the kiosk. Hyperlocal neighborhoods are really instrumental to building community, because it is about creating connections between individuals.”

Dense, walkable neighborhoods are enablers to other forms of sharing as well, so it is no surprise that LoTs work better in this setting. The impact can be measured in ways beyond the direct benefit of any single transaction. Dong sees the potential to empower communities in an increasingly automated world.

“Beyond reducing waste and increasing access, not buying has some other really cool potential positive impacts as well,” said Dong. “Scandinavian studies have shown that rental programs help resist automation and provide apprentice-like skills development by creating a strong adjacent market for repairs.”

The past and future

Public libraries are certain to continue to be at the center of future LoTs, which — despite the shift to people accessing information digitally — remain central to vibrant communities and are more popular than ever.

“People are seeing that libraries are evolving as unique community spaces,” says Hancock. “They are safe, inclusive spaces that provide access to information and ideas that are neutral. The reality is that more people are going to libraries than ever before.”

Hancock sees some types of items as more “educational” than others and hopes public libraries can find a balance between lending non-traditional items while remaining focused on their missions to provide access to information and ideas. That means there will always be additional space for startups and community-driven platforms like Last Minute Gear and Library of Things to allow community members to share things that libraries cannot provide. 

Both platforms are already looking to expand. Library of Things is opening up six more kiosks in London, and is talking with city officials in Briston, Brighton, Cambridge and Manchester about launching there. Meanwhile, Last Minute Gear recently had a tool rental pop-up in their store. Dong sees an opportunity to expand to other product verticals, but with the same goals. Longer term, he hopes the borrowing movement may even spur changes in how goods are produced.

“I always hope that demand for rentals incentivizes the design and manufacture of more sustainable products, rather than planned obsolescence, since you want rental gear to last,” says Dong.

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This post is part of our 2020 editorial series on libraries of things. Download the free ebook from the series here.

The post The future of Libraries of Things is digital and bright appeared first on Shareable.

“Cooperation between municipalities governments is essential,” said Park at the summit. “We need to prepare for future disasters and infectious disease outbreaks through joint efforts of partner cities. Cities will take the lead in overcoming the pandemic and shape the future of humanity.”

The new platform is modeled on a website launched by the Seoul metropolitan government earlier this year, which shared detailed information on the city’s response to COVID-19. It will initially focus on sharing information on new infectious diseases, cooperating in people-to-people exchanges and reducing barriers with regards to travel and economic activities between cities. 

“The only option for us to save each other is through solidarity and cooperation,” said Park. “City governments should come forward and take the lead and put our collective heads together.”

South Korea has emerged as a model for how to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and sharing has played a key role. In fact, Seoul has been recognized as a global model sharing city since the launch of the Sharing City Seoul Project in 2012. Under Mayor Park, the city has expanded apartment-based lending libraries, given financial support for sharing businesses and even launched a sharing-economy-oriented start-up school.

These efforts played a part in the city’s response to COVID-19, with Mayor Park and other city officials at the summit highlighting the role of citizen participation, and the creation of sharing networks, as key in not only limiting the spread of the disease, but also ensuring that there weren’t food shortages or panic buying.

“They took initiative on social distancing and voluntarily wearing face masks,” said Park. 

Other participants at the summit highlighted the importance of emphasizing sharing as we emerge from the pandemic and look to build more resilient, healthy, safe cities. In Spain, Italy, New York and elsewhere, sharing played a role in how neighborhoods responded to the crisis, said Harmen Van Sprang, co-founder of the Sharing Cities Alliance.

“What I see is that there is more sharing going on, and helping and caring for each other is coming to the surface,” said Van Sprang. “My hope is that we will continue to see this development of caring and sharing in the post-pandemic era.”

Neal Gorenflo, co-founder of Shareable, said via video that he sees an opportunity for cities to play a bigger role as not only economic, but political actors.

“The pandemic not only shows that cities need more independence from global capital and nations states, it shows the opportunity that cities have to enhance their global leadership,” said Gorenflo.

As for Seoul, it plans to continue to play a key role as both a convener and as an innovator. The current focus is on expanding access to public goods in order to tackle inequality, and also expanding citizen participation in governance and budgeting.

“Engaging more citizens is important, which is why Seoul came up with a citizen participation budget system,” said Jeong Seon-Ae, Director General of the Seoul Innovation Bureau, in the city government. Currently, if 1,000 residents agree on a project through a digital platform, the mayor himself must respond, and the scope of the project will grow over time. “A phased approach will be taken until 2022, and the scale that Seoul is doing this is unprecedented.”

The city will also be hosting the Sharing Cities 2020 Summit, currently scheduled for November. By then, it is hoped that more regions will have emerged from the pandemic, and there may be an opportunity to redefine the role of cities in building the post-pandemic economy.

“Let’s think of a new normal, a way forward where we can all thrive and be resilient, in livable, sharing cities for a long future together,” said Van Sprang.

##

This article is part of our reporting on The People’s COVID-19 Response. Here are a few articles from the series:

• Coronavirus catalyzes growing wave of grassroots action despite social distancing
• The coronavirus pandemic calls us to share more than ever
• The People’s COVID-19 Response needs you
• 10 ways to share during the COVID-19 pandemic
• The pandemic isn’t a portal, yet
• The Response: Resisting COVID-19 with mutual aid in Chico, CA
• 20 ways Shareable readers are helping during the pandemic

Download our free ebook- The Response: Building Collective Resilience in the Wake of Disasters (2019)

The post New intercity sharing network aimed at promoting collaborative responses to disasters, infectious diseases appeared first on Shareable.

One company that is not struggling? Amazon. The e-commerce giant has seen booming business, as many justifiably choose to get foods and other essentials delivered rather than risk going outside.

Amazon, however, is a company with numerous social, environmental and ethical issues. Amazon has been accused of exploiting warehouse and delivery workers, degrading the environment, enabling the sales of low quality, counterfeit products, and ignoring even the bare minimum when it comes to corporate responsibility. They also do everything they can to avoid paying taxes – money that would fund schools and other local services. Instead, what you spend on Amazon goes into the pockets of faraway shareholders, and billionaire Jeff Bezos, instead of your local economy.

Thankfully, there are alternatives that are not only local, but can help support community agriculture, civic institutions and cooperative businesses. By keeping your spending local, you can also help your neighborhood, town or city recover from COVID-19 impacts more quickly.

Food and Groceries

Grocery Cooperatives:

There are over 200 grocery and food cooperatives across North America. These businesses are mostly worker-owned or consumer-owned, meaning that profits go to workers and local owners. Many also support other local businesses by sourcing locally, or donating excess profits to the community. They also often carry locally made prepared food.

The best part? Most also have delivery service and stock a lot of what you’d find on Amazon. Check the Cooperative Grocer Network to search for your local co-op.

Food Delivery:

Along with Amazon, it’s also best to avoid food delivery apps like Deliveroo, Doordash, Seamless, Postmates, Grubhub or UberEats. They are not taking good care of gig workers, and are even cheating restaurants. If you want to order from a restaurant, contact them directly and see if they offer their own delivery service.  

Online Farmers Markets:

The local farmers market is a key component of a thriving neighborhood, connecting residents with nearby farmers and providing direct access to healthy produce, eggs, meat and other farm goods. During the pandemic, these markets have had to shut down, or are seeing far fewer customers.

That’s where online farmers markets can come in, allowing you to order fresh goods from farmers directly. In New York City, you can try OurHarvest, while those in the Washington D.C. region have From the Farmer. Others can try Farmbox, a national farm-to-home delivery service. If you’re in the United Kingdom, there’s Farmdrop.

This is also a great time to consider signing up to join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) network in your area. This allows you to regularly get a box of fresh, seasonal produce from a local farmer. 

Media

Books:

Amazon actually started out as a digital bookstore, and as it grew, it devoured book sales and now accounts for about half of all books sold in the United States. This meant that a lot of independent bookstores, which were often centers for community gatherings, struggled. Now they are closed due to social distancing requirements, leaving many with seemingly little choice but to purchase from Amazon.

Instead, try Bookshop, a portal that allows local bookstores to join together through a single platform. Buy your books there, and a minimum of 25 percent of the cover price goes to your local bookstore. Libro.fm does the same for audiobooks. If your local bookstore isn’t on Bookshop, see if they allow for direct ordering through their website.

Access your local library online instead of Prime:

Most libraries are closed across North America, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of your library’s services. Many offer e-book lending services, which you can download and read on your mobile device, computer or e-reader. You may be able to read newspapers and magazines via your local library as well.

Less known is that many also offer streaming movies and TV shows through Kanopy, Libby or another provider — often carrying high-quality documentaries and excellent children’s programming. Check your local library website to see what they offer.

Other Goods

Hardware and Sports Co-ops:

Ace Hardware is a retailer cooperative — essentially a network of locally owned stores joining together for purchasing and sales. Many of their branches offer delivery, and they carry a wide range of houseware goods. 

Another option is REI, a consumer co-op, which also allows you to order outdoor equipment online. 

Buy used, locally:

You can still buy used goods from those in your community. Besides keeping your money local, you can also help reduce over-consumption. 

Goodwill, a non-profit that runs thrift stores across the country and focuses on helping disadvantaged people build skills and find jobs, has an online store, too, that offers Ebay-style auctions for used goods. Salvation Army also has a similar online store.

Some local thrift stores are doing delivery during this time, too. Use the National Thrift Store Directory to find the websites for your locations. 

Though it can be messy, Craigslist, the original online classified site, where anyone can post products for sale or even stuff they want to give away, is worth checking out. Much of what Craigslist makes through paid job ads, their primarily revenue source, goes into grants to local organizations. Two other options are the Freecycle network and the Buy Nothing Project, in which users exchange goods for free in their neighborhoods.

Buy direct:

Need a particular brand of toothpaste, shampoo or soap? Most brands, including local ones, sell directly to consumers through their own website — sometimes for less than Amazon! Or, try other local businesses; some coffee shops are selling baked goods and grocery boxes, while certain hair salons are selling cosmetics and hair products. 

To find out what options exist in your community, check out your local newspapers, many of which share updated lists of local businesses open for delivery or curbside pickup. You might be surprised at what’s available. 

Be safe

You can apply the principles of social distancing even when receiving goods directly to your home. Follow these guidelines to ensure safety for both you and the delivery person.

##

This article is part of our reporting on The People’s COVID-19 Response. Here are a few articles from the series:

• Coronavirus catalyzes growing wave of grassroots action despite social distancing
• The coronavirus pandemic calls us to share more than ever
• The People’s COVID-19 Response needs you
• 10 ways to share during the COVID-19 pandemic
• The pandemic isn’t a portal, yet
• The Response: Resisting COVID-19 with mutual aid in Chico, CA
• 20 ways Shareable readers are helping during the pandemic

Download our free ebook- The Response: Building Collective Resilience in the Wake of Disasters (2019)

The post Accessible local alternatives to Amazon Prime appeared first on Shareable.

It is clear that the traditional American model of using single-occupancy, private vehicles to get around is not sustainable or equitable. There is hope, though, that the coming years will bring about a societal shift in how residents get around cities. In fact, it’s already starting, as around the world innovative grassroots and tech-driven efforts are re-inventing the commute, giving users lower costs through shared and sustainable alternatives to driving. Here are a few of these projects, and how they are changing the dynamics of commuting:

Casual carpool

Unlike the other items on this list, casual carpool is neither a new nor a technology-driven idea. In practice, it’s quite simple: Passengers go to a designated spot where drivers can pick them up and bring them to a predetermined destination. In some places, riders contribute a nominal amount — perhaps a dollar or two — to cover gas or tolls, while in other places the time savings from using carpool lanes is enough benefit to drivers.

The two cities with the largest networks of casual carpool locations are the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington, D.C., where it is called slugging. There are efforts to bring this informal system to more cities, including Miami and Houston.

Waze Carpool and Scoop

While casual carpool is great, it is also limited to a few cities’ downtown-centric routes and requires a critical mass of people to function. What if carpools could be arranged anywhere there are potential drivers and passengers? Enter carpool apps such as Waze Carpool (now owned by Google), Scoop and GoCarma, which aim to expand carpooling by connecting riders and drivers through smartphones.

Waze is connected to the popular navigation app and allows riders to request rides at any time. It is currently available in major cities in five countries: Brazil, Israel, Mexico and the U.S. Scoop is more focused on the rush-hour commute, requiring riders to schedule trips in advance, and then pooling people together using algorithmic matching. It is available in several U.S. cities. These apps are not meant to provide income to drivers, with reimbursements capped at about 50 cents per mile — enough to cover gas and expenses — and still be affordable to passengers.

Liftshare

Liftshare is a self-funded carpooling social enterprise in the U.K. that has had a remarkable impact. It counts 700,000 members on their platform, and has prevented 250+ million road miles of solo driving. Liftshare also has partnerships with big organizations to help them save money, reach environmental goals, and improve recruiting and retention. Rides can range from short commutes to cross-country trips, with fares based on distance.

Gig Car Share

Gig Car Share is a free-floating car share service started by the non-profit American Automobile Association, currently operating in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, California, with an all hybrid and electric car fleet. Gig worked closely with the cities to set up “HomeZones,” where users can leave cars in nearly any streetside spot for free. Rates are based on how long one drives, with caps for hourly and daily usage, and with incentives given to get drivers to go to places where there are not enough cars.

TaxiStop

TaxiStop is a Belgium-based platform that started back in 1975, and has evolved to become a network for the modern sharing economy, even launching mobile apps in 2014. They arrange carpooling, on-demand car sharing, and small-group car sharing through their website, with the goal of reducing car ownership and the negative environmental impacts of driving.

Citymapper and Zipster 

Today, residents of many cities have far more transportation options than ever before: bikeshare, mopeds, scooters, buses, trains, car sharing, and ride-hailing, just to name a few. Figuring out which is the best mode to take is a challenge.

Enter third-party transit apps like CityMapper (Europe and North America) and Zipster (Asia). These seamlessly tell you the best way to get from point A to point B, mixing different modes. Perhaps it’s a bike share to a train station, followed by a scooter trip; or a ferry to a bus. By empowering users with information, these free apps allow for more innovative, fluid choices when it comes to designing a commute using share, public and private options.

One card for everything

Closely connected to all-in-one transit apps is an all-in-one payment system. Contactless smartcard payment systems allow users to pay for a variety of transit modes through the use of stored-value credit, making it easy to switch between systems without worrying about paying each time. 

You’ll find the most advanced transit card networks in Asia. Taiwan’s EasyCard can be used to ride buses, trains, high-speed rail, and even unlock bikes at bike sharing stations. You can use Hong Kong’s Octopus on all public transit, and also to pay taxi fares. In Japan, the national network of city cards is integrated, meaning you can use your Tokyo Suica when riding trains in Fukuoka, or your Osaka ICoca on Nagoya’s subway, making travel around the country simple.

These are just a few of the many projects that are transforming how people get around cities. Alongside the growth in shared mobility and new investments in public transit, this means that commuting in the future will likely look far different than the past — better for people, communities and the planet.

The post Reinventing the commute in the sharing economy appeared first on Shareable.

“The response has been great so far. Our original goal was $20,000 because that’s how much NewsMatch would match, dollar-for-dollar, from November 1 to December 31, but we exceeded that in a week,” says Chris Horne, publisher at The Devil Strip. “We’re hell-bent on keeping the community involved, which is why we’re becoming a co-op.”

The paper’s move to become a local news co-op is partly a response to the financial challenges facing news media in general; the industry has been struggling for the past two decades. The loss of revenue streams caused by the rise of Craigslist — which drained classified income — along with the shift to digital and the domination of Facebook and Google ads, have led to widespread layoffs and shutdowns across the journalism sector.

According to the Pew Research Center, United States newsroom employment has fallen by a quarter since 2008, with local and regional newspapers especially struggling. The alt-weekly sector has been hit hard, too. Even big city outlets are not immune. The Village Voice, a New York City institution and possibly the original alt-weekly, ceased publication in September of 2019, following the closure of similar outlets in Hawaii and Miami.

Amidst this, The Devil Strip has already had an unusual journey. It was founded five years ago — as other alt-weeklies were folding — because the founders saw a need in the community.

“When my family moved to Akron, Ohio a little more than six years ago, there was no alt-weekly serving the city,” said Horne. “I saw this great, rich opportunity.”

In that time, The Devil Strip has covered arts, culture, and local businesses, bringing stories to readers that would not have been possible otherwise. While the impact is real, financially the outlet has faced continuous challenges. Until now they’ve relied on ad sales and support from small businesses and nonprofits, which was not sustainable. There was also a more social reason: the paper relied on contributors throughout the community, and giving them ownership made sense.

“I was interested in turning The Devil Strip into a co-op because we relied so much on Akronites who often didn’t have professional journalism experience or training, but were willing to share their talents to tell Akron’s story,” says Horne.

They are not embarking on this journey alone. The Membership Puzzle Project, based at New York University, has been coaching staff as they shift their business model. They are also taking lessons from The Bristol Cable in England, which is already a local news co-op. At the same time, they realized that to be successful they cannot forget their roots.

“It’s important to embrace the flexibility of the co-op so it matches what your community needs,” said Horne. “If someone was setting up a local news co-op in my hometown of Macon, Georgia, it should be different than The Devil Strip, and so on and so forth.”

Once the transition is complete, every member-owner will have the ability to vote, run for the board of trustees, and play a role in budgeting, programming questions, and even editorial projects. As little as $1 per month is all it takes to become a member-owner, and once someone has invested $330, they become a fully vested shareholder for life. The only requirement is that — for legal purposes — all member-owners must be residents of Ohio.

The stretch goal for The Devil Strip is to get 1,000 member-owners by the end of 2020 – a challenge, but one that is well within reach due to the early success of the campaign thus far.

And the impact could extend far beyond Akron’s borders. According to Horne, other similar publications are considering following in The Devil Strip’s path, including the Northern California alt-weekly Mendocino Voice. In the end, though, even a co-op is just a model – what matters is how it’s used.

“The co-op model is just another business structure with its pros and cons, just like an LLC or B-Corp or whatever,” said Horne. “So the key is to think about how it can protect or improve your mission.”

Once the Newsmatch campaign ends on December 31st, the hard work will begin: actually setting up and running the cooperative. This will include electing the first board members, organizing the first annual meeting for all reader-owners, and figuring out the next phase in The Devil Strip’s mission to build community in Akron.

The power will no longer be in Horne’s — or editor-in-chief Rosalie Murphy’s — hands. Reader-owners will, collaboratively, determine the future of the publication. It is uncharted territory, but one that readers, staff and editors are all eager to begin. 

The post See why this Akron alt-weekly publication is becoming a reader-owned media co-op appeared first on Shareable.

“These co-ops are an example of how rural communities have done entrepreneurship differently,” says Nathan Schneider, a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

RECs got their start in the 1930s and ‘40s, primarily because the mostly private businesses that were electrifying cities found it unprofitable to extend their networks to rural regions. Farmers formed cooperatives and — with the assistance of government funding and cooperative financial institutions — were able to electrify much of rural America. Despite this history, it often comes as a surprise that RECs are so widespread. In fact, even their own member-owners are often unaware that they are members of a cooperative. Over the past decades, within many RECs, relatively few member-owners have been actively engaged, leading them to be run by for years by the same family or small group of people, or take on entirely un-democratic practices.

“There are not 42 million Americans who know what a co-op is,” says Jake Schlachter founder and executive director of WeOwnIt, a start-up nonprofit that is building a national network for all types of cooperatives and their member-owners. “There is this real need for member-owners to support each other by organizing to build power to reclaim their co-ops, or in the cases where the co-ops were never owned or controlled by members, to assert their identity as owners for the first time.”

WeOwnIt and New Economy Coalition, a network of nonprofits working for an economy where people and planet come first, have released a toolkit aimed at educating Americans and REC member-owners about RECs and their role in the economy. The toolkit includes information on the state and scope of RECs across the country, case studies, organizing materials and guides on member engagement and cooperative finance.

“The toolkit provides a curated guide — or an introductory document — that will prove useful for member-owners who are trying to find out what is going on at their co-op and what to do about it,” says Schlachter.

Greater involvement by member-owners could help RECs address modern challenges, too. RECs are legacy institutions and often rely on legacy energy–namely, fossil fuels. Many are still using centralized coal plants, which are responsible not only for dangerous pollution but also greenhouse gas emissions. This is risky for the RECs themselves, as they could be left behind and suffer financially as energy systems transition.

“The energy market has never gone through as much change as is happening right now, at a rapid pace,” says Schlachter. “Member-owners are at risk at losing their democratically owned utility if their co-op is not able to adapt to these changes in the market fast enough.”

There are some Rural Electric Cooperatives leading the charge on this front. Kit Carson REC in New Mexico is aiming to achieve 100 percent daytime solar electricity generation by 2022, and has plans to make their system more resilient by integrating battery storage. In Hawaii, the Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) has grown its use of renewable energy from just eight percent in 2010 to 55 percent today, and aims to hit 70 percent by 2030, with distributed solar as the key to their growth. Puerto Rico, too, is looking at decentralized systems and energy cooperatives as it seeks to rebuild its power system in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Part of the potential of WeOwnIt and the emerging network of active REC member-owners is to share lessons from model RECs like Kit Carson and KUIC and get more member-owners to take leadership roles and push for cleaner and decentralized options across the country.

“One of the things we can do [to] inspire member-owners is by holding up these examples of co-op excellence across the country,” said Schlachter. “If Kit-Carson can do 100% renewable energy… why can’t we do it here?”

The re-emergence of Rural Electric Cooperatives as a force for democratic, equitable businesses could also have an impact beyond of rural America. These entities have access to billions in finance through associated cooperative financial institutions, and linking them up with emerging cooperative incubators and start-up platform co-ops could help shift the entire economy toward cooperativism.

“Young people don’t realize that there are big, powerful, multi-billion dollar co-ops all around them, and if we don’t participate in that legacy, we can’t build upon it,” says Schneider. “Reigniting those older co-ops is a way of igniting the possibility of younger ones.”

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“AB5 has raised, in public consciousness, that idea that flexibility does not have to come at the cost of employment. They are not mutually exclusive,” says Ra Criscitiello, deputy director of research at the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), a 150,000-member-strong labor union.

The bill is squarely targeted at the gig economy. While many see the growing power of platforms like Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Instacart and Postmates as the key target, AB5 will also have broad-ranging impacts for other workers — such as home cleaners or day laborers — who are forced to work as independent contractors, often for low pay. The bill has numerous exemptions for other industries as well, where contract work is common but not necessarily a tool to avoid paying workers their due, such as healthcare, trucking or journalism.

“This problem of misclassification is not a new one, it has been occurring for years in many industries,” says Steve Smith, communications director at the California Labor Federation, based in Sacramento. “What we’ve seen in the last 5 to 10 years is an acceleration of this problem, in part due to the gig companies constructing entire business models around the notion of misclassifying workers.”

AB5 is the first attempt by any state in the US to redefine worker classification in direct response to the growth of the gig economy. Proponents believe it will have wide-ranging impacts, as California is not only the largest state in the country, but the fifth largest economy in the world. It also happens to be where several of the largest gig-platform companies are based, including Uber, Lyft and Doordash. This makes the fact that the state has just passed a law that is opposed by major business interests even more remarkable, and a credit to growing gig worker organizing power.

“The drivers themselves, they’ve been self-organizing with support from labor unions, and that began with the extreme frustration that drivers feel with the treatment they receive at Uber, Lyft and others,” says Smith.

Not surprisingly, Uber, Lyft and Doordash have been leading the opposition to the legislation, spending $90 million and even laying the groundwork to challenge the bill in a voter referendum. That is why Smith believes the real impact of AB5 will come once the implementation starts.

“It is going to take a lot of work and coordination between labor unions, the labor commission, governor’s office and businesses to implement this law in a way that is fair, so that we make sure that companies are not continuing to benefit from the misclassification of workers,” says Smith.

Ensuring that gig platforms can no longer exploit workers through misclassification also presents a need for new models which assure the full profits and benefits of technological innovation don’t end up only in the hands of investors or venture capitalists, but make provisions to include workers. For this reason, SEIU-UHW and Upside Down Consulting, which focuses on worker ownership organizations, have released an early version of what they call the Cooperative Platform Economy Act, which would give platform companies the option of working with democratically controlled Cooperative Labor Contractors (CLCs). 

“We’re proponents of organizations that have democratic worker control as a way to retain profits that workers have earned, rather than them going to someone else,” said Criscitiello. “That entity can then contract with the gig companies who want labor.”

The act envisions that CLCs would be capitalized by a loan from the state, and could prove a unique method for preserving the flexibility of the current gig economy, while improving workers benefits and giving them more power to collectively negotiate with platforms.

For now, the Cooperative Platform Economy Act remains a work-in-progress, though Criscitiello hopes that it can be submitted as legislation once it has broad input and buy-in from the labor movement and workers. Regardless, she sees a shift in how new cooperative models are being discussed across the state – and potentially an opportunity to redefine the future of the gig economy.

“There’s definitely growing interest in cooperative structures,” says Criscitiello. “Cities are showing an interest in being supportive, and there’s other movement in this general area that feels like a commitment and an acknowledgment that employment structures that are worker controlled are meaningful.”

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To lower the barriers to entry, a range of services have emerged to support sharing economy and platform cooperative startups. The services allow entrepreneurs to save money, and better manage users and service providers, while also giving them more space to focus on their core business – sharing.

“Ultimately if you want to provide true on-demand services, you need to increase your scale in order to survive, or the economies of scale don’t work out,” said Derek Cheng, senior director of corporate and content marketing at Tipalti. “A lot of sharing economy companies have fairly low margins, and don’t want to burn capital on hiring staff to do mundane things,” he says.

In this listicle, we highlight Tipalti and several other companies that offer services to support sharing economy and platform cooperative startups:

1. Tipalti — Vendor payments

Payments to platform providers like drivers, hosts, and freelancers might seem straightforward at first glance, but they’re complicated by different currencies, payment methods, regulations, taxes, and other complexities. Taking its name from the Hebrew word meaning “I took care of it,” Tipalti automates vendor payments making it less complex, time consuming, and generally reducing the burden on sharing economy companies. Tipalti manages typical supplier and partner payments as well. Check out this interview of Tipalti CEO, Chen Amit, to learn more about how they help all types of online platforms grow.

2. PlatformOS – Online marketplaces

A core focus of many sharing economy companies is connecting users services or goods. To do that, PlatformOS allows anyone to easily build a marketplace, from startups to big brands. It also allows you to quickly setup customizable marketplace functionality on your website or app. They also have a pay-for-use model, which means small or new companies only pay for the benefits they use.

3. Twilio – Cloud communications

Twilio allows you to easily integrate phone calling and SMS functionality into your website or platform. Twilio also allows you to hide user phone numbers so that users can connect without sharing personal data. Their pricing is based on usage by minute or by text message.

4. Checkr – Background checks

Safety is a major concern for users of sharing economy services. It’s challenging, especially as communities scale, to ensure that everyone using the platform does not mean harm. We have seen this become a major issue for Uber, Airbnb, and other gig platforms, and it is a huge concern for sharing economy and platform cooperatives, who face larger risks to their reputation.

Checkr provides modern background checks for companies and startups. It’s used by Grubhub, Instacart, and others in the gig economy.

5. Extole — Referral marketing

Think about how you first heard about Uber, Airbnb, or another of the massive, venture-capital-backed gig economy platforms. It was likely through a referral, perhaps with a new-user code. Extole helps sharing economy platforms use referral marketing techniques to reach new customers. They have loyalty programs and tools for retailers and membership organizations.

6. Stocksy United – Photos and video

Photos and videos are essential for sharing economy companies to tell their story to potential users and other community members. Stocky is a platform cooperative owned by its photographer members. It allows users to download stock photos or work with creators directly. They have a pay-per-image or video model, compared with the subscription model of other stock photo sites. 

7. MyTurn – Lending Library Software as a Service

If you want to start a lending library in your neighborhood, there’s probably no better choice for managing your inventory than MyTurn, which serves hundreds of lending libraries throughout North America and beyond. Social entrepreneurs can access MyTurn’s robust services and excellent customer service through a reasonable monthly service fee. Through its hundreds of customers, MyTurn processes nearly one million sharing transactions per year. Check out Shareable’s in-depth interview of MyTurn’s  CEO, Gene Homicki, here to learn more about MyTurn and Shareable’s guide to starting a tool library here.

8. Hyperwallet and Stripe – Payment processing

Stripe and Hyperwallet both allow for sharing economy companies to quickly receive payments online or in-person. Stripe is known for having lower fees than other processors, making it a popular choice among small businesses, and it can work with existing phones and tablets. Hyperwallet is similar to Stripe but focused on global businesses and has multi-currency capabilities so it is a better fit for enterprises with large global trade.

9. Everflow – Partnership marketing

Everflow is a platform for creating promo codes and other marketing offers. It can produce codes automatically, has detailed analytics and tracking, and fraud-detecting tools. Pricing is based on clicks and starts at $200 a month. Data can be integrated with a variety of customer relationship management tools.

10. Sharetribe – Online marketplaces

Sharetribe is designed for the collaborative economy and is the marketplace tool of choice of many platform cooperatives. It requires little technical skill and allows enterprises to cheaply rent or sell goods, spaces, or services online.

Moreover, Sharetribe can integrate directly with Stripe and Google Analytics so that you can process payments and track analytics directly. Whatever code and data you create on Sharetribe is yours in perpetuity, meaning you can later shift to separate or self-built platform without losing your data. There are three price tiers based on the number of users.

Tipalti, PlatformOS, Stocksy, and MyTurn are Shareable sponsors. 

The post 10 companies that make it easier to build a sharing economy or platform cooperative startup appeared first on Shareable.

That could soon change.

New entities are creating toolkits and models for start-up platform cooperatives to more easily tackle the existing legal, financial and technical barriers to entry in the digital economy. One of the first was Platform Cooperative Consortium, founded in November 2016, which counts 17 members in its circle of cooperatives, and now has affiliates in six countries around the world.

More recently, the brand new Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy (ICDE), launched this past May at the New School in New York City, where the first Platform Cooperativism Conference was held in 2015. The ICDE is focused on creating actionable research and knowledge, examining digital businesses and projects that are owned and governed by workers and users.

To get a better understanding of how the ICDE will help the broader platform cooperative movement, we spoke to Trebor Scholz, a professor at The New School and the Founding Director of the ICDE, to learn more about the Institute and how it will push the broader goals of platform cooperativism.

Firstly, tell me – what led to the founding of the ICDE? What gaps does it aim to fill, and how will it connect with Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC)?

Trebor Scholz- The Institute is the research arm of the PCC. We founded the Consortium a few years ago in response to people approaching us on a daily basis requesting our support, advice, policy analysis, seeking partners for collaboration on research projects. We simply couldn’t respond to all of these requests; there had to be a more collective response.

We helped people in the movement find others, and we did a lot of advocacy to introduce people around the world to this ecosystem. But we quickly realized that there is a need for research — research that formulates, builds and explores new visions for what a cooperative future of work could look like. And we need research that is unafraid to take a starting position which states that today’s digital economy is unfair to workers, but that together with other movements we can build a fairer future. Instead of examining the latest apps coming out of Silicon Valley, let’s visit Detroit, Barcelona, Ahmedabad, Zurich and Bendigo to research experiments in self-sufficiency and democratic enterprise for clues about what might scale. 

What is the Institute doing for the wider platform cooperative movement in a tangible way?

We are starting with four priorities. First, there is our Research Fellowship Program. The fellows are working on reports, which they’ll present in November at our conference. We will also start publishing a series on Public Seminar. We will have a vertical for that on our site, where we’ll will publish in groups of short accessible pieces on particular topics that are relevant to the community.

We also will be starting to work with ICDE-affiliated faculty at The New School. We’ll start affiliating New School students in the fall as well, and in the spring of 2020, I’ll be teaching a course on platform cooperativism.

Beyond that, there are many other projects but at this point we will limit ourselves to these activities. Unsurprisingly, the scope of our research hinges on the funds that we’ll be able to raise.  

Besides research, how will the Center produce something tangible for cooperative practitioners?

In our statement of purpose, we are very clear that we’ll focus on producing knowledge that will be helpful to people in the movement. The idea is to have accessible material that can then be circulated and used.

There are some really urgent needs. For example, figuring out an investment fund for platform cooperatives, which is so sorely needed. One of our fellows is thinking this through for her report. That will be another of our areas of focus. 

In general, the platform cooperative movement has some fundamental challenges – like how to raise capital and how to scale; how will the ICDE play a role in addressing those challenges?

Economically, platform cooperatives are quite marginal still. There are some groups that have moderate success, like Stocksy and Smart, but many are struggling — and obviously start-up capital is the main challenge.

So while there’s a lot of energy, and many many groups around the world are starting to work on this and commit themselves, and culturally the concept is definitely succeeding, economically we will have to see.

Think about the history of Mondragon. It started in 1941 with a technical college where the Jesuit Priest José María Arizmendiarrieta, the founder, introduced ideas of cooperation, humanism and solidarity to people in Mondragón, Spain. More than a decade later they started the first cooperatives. It takes time. 

Has the growing awareness of platform ownership and privacy allowed for more discussion of cooperative alternatives?

It has definitely become much more mainstream. Data breaches, privacy violations, and the public awareness of the concentration of platform ownership, is so much clearer now. Also, the antitrust discussion has really taken several steps forward, so maybe there is some hope that the likes of Facebook or others will split up, and one of those companies will become a cooperative.

There are much more concrete talks about conversions as well. Here in New York, there’s Juno, a tertiary app-based company owned by Gett. Gett is trying to sell it, and now there are drivers thinking about purchasing it and turning it into a co-op. Things are becoming much more within reach. 

The PCC has just launched a new website that aims to be a hub for knowledge and resources on platform cooperativism around the world. You can also get monthly updates through their mailing list here. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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