Case studies of Cooperative Development: Free Geek
I just posted a series of reflections on the CooperationWorks! co-op development training, and I’ll wrap up here by sharing a series of case studies on different kinds of cooperatives in development. During this research, I found the array of models and issues to be fascinating — yet the challenges appear to be quite similar.
This one’s about Free Geek.
Introduction
Free Geek is a worker-managed non-profit organization that recycles, refurbishes and redistributes computers and open source technology to people and organizations in need.
Launched in 2000, the original Free Geek in Portland (aka “the Mothership”) currently employs 32 paid staff members (some part-time) — and counts as many as 700 active volunteers in a given month.
There are three primary components of the Free Geek model:
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Reusing computers and technology by giving them away in exchange for community service
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Recycling computers that do not get reused in an environmentally responsible way.
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Providing education and training in the use of computers and technology.
Mid-way through its lifespan, the original Free Geek reported that its income was largely revenue-based, from sales and recycling and disposal fees; just about a quarter of revenue was from traditional fundraising (private donations, grants, events). (The main Free Geek wiki only posts financial reports up through 2005.)
Free Geek has also ‘open sourced’ its model, providing extensive documentation and a roadmap for communities who are interested in starting their own organizations. As a result, ‘Free Geek Intergalactic’ contains as many as a dozen organizations throughout the US and Canada.
Notes on Cooperative Development (p3)
In 2013, I participated in the CooperationWorks! Cooperative Development training, and even got certified as a cooperative developer (woo!). This was in the midst of a lot of reading and travel to visit various kinds of cooperative enterprises in person, so I took a bunch of notes and wrote it up and eventually came back and broke it into less-unreasonably long blog-ish chunks, and here it is. This is part 3; here is part 1 and part 2.
So let’s take a moment to reflect. The entire second half of the post above — about developing a Feasibility Study and Business Plan for your cooperative — was concentrated entirely within Day Two of the CooperationWorks! workshop’s five days.
It was a grueling day. I walked out bedraggled and daunted. In the brief time available for an evening outing, I gauged the temperature of my fellow trainees: my feeling seemed to be shared, especially among the lone rangers (the people who’d been sent by organizations seemed to be taking it more in stride). Several folks who’d had cooperative development experience already under their belt acknowledged that we’d just been shown a whole mountain of knowledge via fly-by, and they were quick to point out that we (the would-be cooperative developers) weren’t supposed to be the ones to do all that work. We were just cracking the whips or herding the cats or patching the quilt or whatever other metaphor might be most appropriate.
I get that. I’m game for that. And look, I believe in People Power. The agents who should be most active in the process of meeting a community’s needs are the members of that community itself. But let’s be real, what we’d heard that day entailed primary research (surveys and focus groups and interviews), secondary research (demographics and census data; industry standards; with as much granular specificity to your local environment as possible), disciplined analysis thereof, legal expertise, and management skills. “Don’t forget accounting,” someone reminded me. Right, accounting. Ugh.
In any given community group you may have people with some of these skills; and I also believe that any given group of people can eventually learn the stuff above. But how can you create that learning opportunity if this all has to be figured out up-front just to launch?
To this question, I got the following answer: Continue Reading →
Notes on Cooperative Development (p2)
In 2013, I participated in the CooperationWorks! Cooperative Development training, and even got certified as a cooperative developer (woo!). This was in the midst of a lot of reading and travel to visit various kinds of cooperative enterprises in person, so I took a bunch of notes and wrote it up and eventually came back and broke it into less-unreasonably long blog-ish chunks, and here it is. This is part 2. Here is part 1 and here is part 3.
CooperationWorks! at work, cooperatively
CooperationWorks! is a cooperative of cooperative developers; all of its members are ‘on the board,’ it’s entirely cooperatively managed. The organization provides training, capacity building, and advocacy for cooperative projects across the country. Its professional development training has three parts, and was described to me by a freelance cooperative developer as the premiere training program in the country.
So, sign me up! Being unemployed, I searched around for local DC institutions to sponsor my attendance — no dice. Fortunately, I found financial support to be readily available from both the Co.Bank and the Ralph Morris Foundation. (In fact I felt like was almost too easy for me to get this support from them. These trainings should be packed, and there should be lots of clamoring for aid to attend, from people who have even more need for support than I do myself. Of course, I’m grateful! I hope to make good on the support in some small way.)
The CooperationWorks! training brought participants into direct and substantive contact with a broad range of cooperative developers. Together we walked through the history, principles, practices, precedents, challenges and new frontiers of cooperatives.
And I learned a lot just listening to my fellow workshop attendees, who came from all over the country with all kinds of objectives. Continue Reading →
Notes on Cooperative Development (p1)
In 2013, I participated in the CooperationWorks! Cooperative Development training, and even got certified as a cooperative developer (woo!). This was in the midst of a lot of reading and travel to visit various kinds of cooperative enterprises in person, so I took a bunch of notes and wrote it up and eventually came back and broke it into less-unreasonably long blog-ish chunks, and here it is. This is part 1; here is part 2 and part 3.
Cooperative enterprise in America began (as did so much else) with Benjamin Franklin. Franklin had witnessed more than a few fires while growing up amid the huddled wooden stocks of Philadelphia, and in the 1730s he started researching various fire-fighting techniques. When in 1736 Franklin started the Union Fire company, it wasn’t like the first time anyone had formed an all-volunteer community association — but it was the first such fire brigade that committed to fighting fires not just on the properties of the brigade’s members, but on any property within their community. Continue Reading →
About the community resource directory data problem…
Over the past few years I’ve been thinking about what I call, wonkily, ‘the community resource directory data problem’ — by which I mean: information about the services that exist in a community, and the challenges posed by the collection and circulation of this information.
This problem originally caught my attention while working at Bread for the City, where I blogged about it every so often, and eventually convened and facilitated a series of conversations about ways we might address the problem in the District of Columbia.
This year, I’ve had the opportunity to dig deeper. Thanks in part to a fellowship with Provisions Library, I’ve explored a bit of the history of community resource directories and the associated field of “information and referral,” and hashed out a framework for a new approach to the production and circulation of this information. Specifically, I’m proposing that the technology now makes it possible for community resource directory data to be managed as a commons–a resource that is shared by those who use it–and that for us to realize this potential, we will need to design new cooperative solutions.
This week, Code for America is publishing their book about the future of open data, and I’m excited to have a chapter in there called “Towards a Community Data Commons.” In this essay, I consider the community resource directory data challenge from an institutional perspective, and sketch out the parameters of a commons-based cooperative solution. Here, over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share some accompanying materials that weren’t able to fit into the book, including an annotated version of the paper and an accompanying memo that considers the various layers of technology involved and a possible tactical path forward.
The stakes are high and many: helping people access the resources they need, yes, and also enabling communities to know themselves and create new ways to apply that knowledge.
I’m actively working on this issue, cooking up some plans and looking for collaborators. If you’re interested in discussing this stuff, let’s be in touch!
Brian Anders, in memoriam
I wrote this shortly after Brian passed away, which was a year ago today. Decided to post it after a celebration of his memory last weekend, on Ontario Road in Adams Morgan. We planted a tree among his ashes. R.I.P. friend.
I’d only met Brian Anders a few times, and each time I’d only spoken with him for a few minutes max, but it didn’t take much more than that to turn him out to a meeting that ran through almost an entire spring Saturday. Turns out this was one of Brian Anders’ natural habitats.
Brian arrived even before the Save Our Safety Net campaign’s strategy session began, and he stayed well past the official end. We were meeting at Bread for the City’s Northwest center, and it was the middle of our campaign. On the agenda: planning a series of direct actions that would pressure City Council to raise taxes instead of cutting social service budgets.
Among the crew assembled at this meeting, Brian was nearly unique: he actually looked like he fit the part of the kind of person who might actually receive help from the safety net—a bald black elder breaking bread with a group that was almost entirely white and trim and under thirty. The truth was, only one or two other people in the room had more than a decade of time in DC under our belts; most had only one or two years. We were so conscious of that, and we wanted to change it, so we’d put the call out far and wide… Brian was the one who showed up.
Happy blog day.
For my 32nd birthday, I’m giving myself a blog. This is kind of like getting a puppy: it’s gonna be cute, and also messy, and eventually it’s going to end in tears.