Basil’s Table: Building co-operative futures in the tech bros era (December 6, 2022)

Antony McMullen and Sonja Schulze from 888 Co-operative Causeway organised this particular event for Basil’s Table just before 2023. Which is an interview series conducted by Basil Varghese, a well-known Melbourne- based community builder and advocate for social justice, who has long been committed to ‘bridging the gap between those that have and have not’. As a Patron of 888 Co-operative Causeway, Basil hosts these conversations with special guests online or at the Kelvin Club in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD on topics relevant to building a connected community across Victoria Australia.

The event called "sheet: Building co-operative futures in the tech bros era" was a panel where the the cooperative community took stock on the year of 22022 and what to expect for the future. The Designing Open Democracy community believe this will be of interest to the wider democracy community because of the need to encourage democratic structures in not just the governmental level but in the workplace as well.

In addition – there will be a very special announcement – regarding an opportunity to join the 888 co-operative as part of a broader exciting initiative with a major university.

Have the tech-bros got all the answers? With the passing of Deliveroo, and Twitter appearing to slowly die like the proverbial canary in the coal mine (or alternatively morphing into a bird of prey) many are looking for new ways of organising and owning the platforms we use – to build stronger local community relationships for social, economic, and environmental resilience.

Event Reference: https://www.888causeway.coop/event/the-feeling-is-mutual-the-future-of-cooperation-in-a-time-of-uncertainty/

We ask:

• In the face of global political and climate uncertainty – are populist ideologies from the left or right the only alternatives?
• Mutual aid and reciprocity – what kinds of social, technological, and environmental systems, institutions and relationship building initiatives are required?

Featuring:

• Elena Pereyra – CoHousing Australia
• Jose Ramos – Action Foresight
• Bridgette Engeler – Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Swinburne University
• Alexar Pendashteh – Technologist / Social Entrepreneur.

Join our telegram channel https://t.me/+bHfGHtsTEKwwMTZl

Austin was previously working in the Journalism space when he saw an issue of the loss of trust in media. When you read a newspaper or watch a documentary, how do you understand or trust how Journalist obtained and researched the subject at hand?  As a fellow democracy innovator he seeks to create tools and apps to provide Journalist and media companies with the ability to provide a transparent and public verifiable trail of the journalistic journey that helped to create media pieces. 

You can check out his project at https://www.writeinstone.com/ . 

This is a joint Designing Open Democracy and Innovation Trademarked interview of Austin and his Write In Stone PTY company. Which is of interest to us due to his apps potential contribution to the intersection between democracy and innovative technology startups tackling real cracks in the current social fabric of many nations around the world.  Listen to learn more about how his tool may one day come to power a media outlet near you.

Recorded on 2021-07-31

After a few years it is about time to catch up with Adam Jacoby, founder of MiVote. MiVote is a collaborative decision making and voting platform that aims to give the entire public a say in parliament. In this interview we aim to learn more about how MiVote has progressed after a few years and what success and stumbling blocks this project has encountered that can apply for other democracy innovation projects.  

Referenced Links:  https://mivote.tech/ 

Note that this was intended to be a one to one interview with Adam Jacoby, but on the day of the interview a lockdown was declared due to the ongoing worldwide pandemic hitting Melbourne Australia. Thus recording was done via video conferencing and was partially redubbed on my side to account for a live recording audio glitch.

Recorded on 2021-07-20

Hi and welcome to the Designing Open Democracy Podcast. We are an Australian based forum keeping track of democracy innovations in Australia and around the world. In the background of the banking royal commission starting at 2017 and the uncovering of banking misconduct by the big four banks in Australia, there is a need for the public to be able to trust that corporations will work in the interest of all stakeholders. This podcast recorded and hosted by Alexar on March 2020, was a talk by Anthony McMullen from Co-operative Bonds, explaining how we can step beyond Corporate Social Responsibility towards a corporate structure with a fundamentally more democratic economic structure. Given the situation around the world with the global pandemic in 2020, social distancing requirements meant we had to record this episode by video conferencing. So audio quality will be different compared to other episodes. The first half of this event with be a short primer by Anthony McMullen to get newcomers up to speed about what Co-operatives is and why it matters. Afterwards a panel led by Anthony McMullen will be held to discuss about the state of co-operatives in Australia and how co-operatives can gain traction against traditional forms of business structures. # Speakers Biography ## Antony McMullen (Co-operative Bonds) Antony McMullen is a Melbourne based co-operative entrepreneur and expert in co-op development, policy and enterprise for common good, with qualifications in social impact (social entrepreneurship) and community development. Co-founder of Co-operative Bonds, his consultancy specialises in offering expert advice and support to help build and grow many other co-operatives. He is also secretary and co-founder of Co-op Incubator, as well as co-founder of the cooperative network in Melbourne - 888 Co-operative Causeway. In addition he also collaboratively prepared the Co-operative and Mutual Enterprise (CME) governance framework for the Australian Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals in 2018. Serving as Vice-President of the Victoria Day Council (that administers the Victorian of the Year award), he also holds qualifications in social impact (social entrepreneurship) and community development. https://www.bonds.coop/ ## Sean Bezard (Earthworker Cooperative) Sean Bezard is a membership officer at Earthworker Cooperative in addition to being an Earthworker representative on the Redgum Cleaning Coop board. Volunteering with Earthworker for 6 years in a range of fields in every capacity, he hopes to bridge the divide between economic and environmental concerns. Most of all, he is driven by a strong belief in every project with a core philosophy that emphasises the importance of a collaborative economy to foster a more holistic and inclusive democracy. https://earthworkercooperative.com.au/ ## Ian McBurney (bHive) Ian McBurney is an ecological sustainability educator, entrepreneur, facilitator, speaker, MC and author. His specialty is change practice: how do we inspire others around us? Ian spent 5 years in the early 2000s at Vox Bandicoot (http://voxbandicoot.com.au/) in Melbourne, delivering the famous environmental theatre program to ten thousand students, workplace culture change training to six thousand staff in local government and manufacturing. https://bhive.coop/about/ ---- Discuss: Show more...