1st Edition - Co-op Incubator

The 1st Edition

The 1st Edition of the Platform Co-op’s Now Course was the result of collaboration between The New School, Mondragon University and incubator.coop.

Trebor Scholz from the New Schoool and Jose Mari Luzarraga Monasterio of Mondragon University delivered the first 4 weeks to a global audience. Local Partners delivered the final 4-weeks in their respective countries. Andrew Ward and Rohan Clarke of incubator.coop delivered 10 modules in 4-weeks.

At the end of 8 weeks 6 Projects had completed the course.

The enrolled students and project participants included:

Aaron	Magner
Andrew	Keast
Andrew	Ward
Ann	Apps
Bing	Gibson
Brownen	Morgan
Elliot	Hughes
Emma	Pascoe
Hamideh	Iraj
Dr. Lea Campbell	Campbell
Melinda	Marshall
Molly	Kendall
Paul	Atkins
Peter	Tregilgas
Rachel	Pines
Rebel	Black
Rohan	Clarke
Sam	Waterhouse
Sidsel	Grimstad
Tamsin	Young
Tuffy	Morwitzer
Viv	Rockach
Katrina	Ford
Kerri	Kennedy
Janeece	Keller
Adrian	Clarke
Mel	Gatfield
Sara	Smylie
Lorraine	Cassin
Jane	Karslake

Graduating Projects

A quick summary of the projects (in alphabetical order!):

Comrades Camera – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1icL55Fjq4PGisjtwgtkcCPwjDBYK4Fwj/view?usp=sharing

A platform for sharing the equipment and services that artists need. It is aimed at enabling artists to offer their equipment, and to share their skills and expertise, with projects and other artists – in a way that helps create sustainable income for artists.

FairBnB – https://archive.org/details/fairbnb-australia

A smart & fair solution for community powered tourism. This project aims to bring a global platform coop to Australia. The model enables communities to invest in their own development, via recycling 50% of booking fees back into local projects. This revenue sharing approach aligns interests between communities, hosts and guests and creates a socially sustainable business model that has a significant competitive advantage over incumbent platforms.

Get.coop – https://archive.org/details/get_coop

There’s a growing demand for distributed organising software from trade unions and similar member-owned organisations. Get.coop allows them to share and evolve this common asset on behalf of members. The Platform Coops Now! course was a catalyst to bring three trade unions together to understand the problem and work on creating a cooperative.

Loconomics – https://archive.org/details/loconomics-pitch-2020

A 2-sided marketplace where locals can buy business services from locals. Loconomics takes less margin and offers advanced features for businesses providing local services. It has customised the open source software for the Australian market and intends on piloting the platform in Darebin, Melbourne over the next 6 months.

Future Resource – https://archive.org/details/future-resource

Making your waste a future resource. A platform that addresses the issue of matching and logistics in “waste production” and demand with “next-markets”. It’s an app that creates a market in recycled products by connecting logistics. transports and storage.

The Rural Woman – https://archive.org/details/therw

An existing 3000-strong community of female micro entrepreneurs transitioning to cooperative to a Member-owned organisation and sharing in the development and ongoing support of the digital platforms they support. It has a dual focus – assisting members with lifelong learning and creating a platform for amplifying the impact of their members in their communities.