Come to the DisCo (meaning DIStributed Cooperative Organisation)! And find out how to make your local group connect to the world

Driven into the online space by you-know-what, but still as vibrant as ever, this year’s Open: Coop conference - highlighting the fusion of digital technology and the traditions of coops - brings us a rich menu of webinar presentations (here’s the full page, scroll down for content. And here’s our archive on Open).

These webinars are leading up to Open:Coop’s full online two day event over June 11-12, an “online world cafe” meet-up - the information is here, and the aim of the conference is below:

How to enable small groups to form, exchange ideas, define shared purposes, to collaborate effectively, and trade – within a global network of like-minded, commons-building initiatives?

One of the early webinars which we’re really happy to promote is “What is DisCO?” (embedded above), presented by Stacco Troncoso.

In short, a DisCO is a “distributed cooperative organisation” - which aims to put all our powerful digital technologies (like blockchain, open source and AI) at the service of positive and coherent communities. In their own definition, at the back page of their DisCO Manifesto, “If I Only Had A Heart”:

A DisCO is a set of organisational tools and practices for groups of people who want to work together in ways that prioritize mutual support, cooperativism and care work. DisCOs focus on social and environmental work, exploring convergences between the Commons and P2P movements along with the world of cooperatives, feminist economics and the Social and Solidarity Economy.

We have covered the launch of the DisCO project before in A/UK - but we’re really encouraged by the commitment to clarity and access, in the way it’s explained in the video above. We encourage comment (and requests for further explanation) below - and contact Stacco here directly on Twitter.