[Co_Reentry]

I think that there is real value in thinking more broadly about the cooperative model when building any new business! As a way to align incentives it makes a lot of sense.

I am part of a growing tech worker cooperative called Tribe Works (https://www.tribeworks.io). We are a platform cooperative that helps tech workers connect with businesses looking for contractors or direct hires. We were set up as an alternative to "gig platforms" (upwork, etc) and staffing firms, and quickly realized that the real value in our model was in longer engagements. We usually target roles that last at least 3 months so that our members can access healthcare through the cooperative if they are working full time and allow workers to buy in. The platform ties together the functionality of an applicant tracking software (ie jobvite.com) and professional employer organization (ie justwork.com) and we add recruitment process outsourcing as a service on top. We have only just launched our beta platform right now but hoping to fully launch when we reach 301 members (we are about 1/4 of the way there). We have community calls every other week as well for people interested in learning about the co-op.

We are also part of a larger cooperative called the Staffing Cooperative (https://www.staffing.coop) which is a holding company owned by every worker. Here is a webinar we were recently on describing the holding company structure: (http://transformfinance.org/investor-resources)

[braindead_in]

We are an crowdsourced transcription service and are seriously exploring converting into a worker coop. I have been researching worker coops for a month now. How do we get started?

[crankylinuxuser]

I'd contact Richard D. Wolff about what to do next.

https://www.rdwolff.com/contact2

[conatus]

Happy to hook you up with someone to advise, but as people are saying would be good to know your location first.

[braindead_in]

SF. We are a fully remote company though.

[conatus]

Cool. Found your email, will drop you a line.

[braindead_in]

Hey, do you have any connects to Loconomics?

[walshemj]

Which country ? you probably want to talk to the local coop movement in your country about how they are setup

[braindead_in]

I'm already in touch with the folks at usworker coop. Just attended their seminar on Friday.

[Co_Reentry]

This sounds rad! Feel free to reach out if you want to chat about it joseph at tribeworks.io

[xiler]

Has anyone looked into creating a cooperative data labeling service similar to Scale AI, except where labels are owned by the people who created them? Perhaps this might even increase label quality by aligning the interests of the labelers with the people who use them?

[heyitsguay]

I'm very interested in answers to this question as well. I'm working near this space and have a lot of thoughts on what such a service would need to be successful, at least for image tasks. I think it could offer real value to the work forces that complete data labeling tasks, cutting out middleman companies with worker-owned labeling and marketplace software tools.