Democratising Tech Means Democratising the Economy

We can all feel it: more and more of the digital infrastructure we rely on is becoming dysfunctional. Platforms are being steadily “enshittified”, attacks and outages are becoming routine, and websites, services & online communities are increasingly vulnerable to authoritarian interference. If technology is to serve people and communities, it must be democratised. And democratic technology needs more than open code: it requires new models of ownership, governance and finance. This is where the principles of a cooperative economy become essential.

Together with our friends from the Democratic Tech Fund, we will explore:

◦ the environment in which technology is currently built and delivered

◦ who benefits and who bears the costs of today’s dominant platform models

◦ why cooperative finance is critical to building technology that genuinely serves people

◦ how the DTF combines community ownership, funding circles & crowdfunding

◦ how cooperative ecosystems can help democratic-tech projects become sustainable

Speakers:

Andreas Arnold, co-founder of Platform Coops eG, will open the conversation with challenges observed in the founding and financing of social innovations and commons-oriented projects. He will introduce the approach to Cooperative Finance and ecosystem business models.

Wouter Tebbens, co-founder of the Free Knowledge Institute and co-initiator of the Democratic Tech Fund, will then present the Fund, its value proposition and its emerging crowdfunding ecosystem: a bottom-up approach through which communities can identify, validate and collectively finance the digital tools they need.

Hosted by Ela Kagel, co-founder of Platform Coops eG.

During the community call, we will introduce the emerging cooperation between Platform Coops eG and the Democratic Tech Fund. As a steward in the DTF ecosystem, we will support democratic-tech projects from Germany - and European initiatives seeking to establish themselves here - with free guidance on cooperative business models, governance, fundraising, financing opportunities and the founding process.

This conversation is for social entrepreneurs, project starters, cooperative founders and innovators who want to create social impact and contribute to a commons-oriented, democratic technological future.

Come and explore with us what becomes possible when democratic technology meets cooperative ownership and finance.

>> Please register using the form below. We will send you the meeting link once you have registered.