3 ms·

The author of the article wrote a book ‘Everything for Everyone’ that looks interesting. It is about organizing coops as a push back against the gig economy or

The author of the article wrote a book ‘Everything for Everyone’ that looks interesting. It is about organizing coops as a push back against the gig economy or large corporations. My first job was at what was essentially a huge coop: the 100% employee owned defense contractor SAIC. SAIC spoiled me for all other jobs I had because there was a good vibe and efficiency that came with all employees having a strong motivation for the long term success of the company. After I left SAIC, it eventually became a public company and changed its name to Leidos.

mcguire 7y ago
I worked for SAIC before and after the Leidos split. It may have been a 100% employee-owned "coop", but it was clear that some employees got more out of the success than others. And it was always a government contractor like all of the other contractors out there.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- perl4ever 7y ago
  I'd be curious to hear what Sun Hydraulics or King Arthur Flour were like from someone who worked there.
specialist 7y ago
Thanks. Added to reading list. Also, nice tidbit about SAIC. It seems that many coops get coopted. Suggesting there's some as yet unknown magic sauce that makes some coops more durable. I'm very interested in comparative governance models. All tips, links welcome. I just want someone to point at some real world working organizations. Kinda like how QA obsessives study the Toyota Production System. -- I joined a FOSS project structured as multi-org consortium (Kuali) explicitly to learn how they work. (It didn't.) Richard Wolff's book Democracy at Work advocates WDSE (IIRC, worker directed social enterprises). But, sadly, while Wolff's works are descriptive, he hasn't (yet?) gotten into case studies and prescriptive works. In the USA, the SEIU and other unions are funding misc coops. IIRC, coops currently employ 1.4m workers. I haven't had the gumption to contact the principals to see how they're doing.
- jodrellblank 7y ago
  Have you read anything by Pieter Hintjens, the creator of ZeroMQ? He wrote quite a lot on organising people, particularly software development, but instead of focusing on how to make people efficient, he focused on how to organise the group to protect from opportunistic outsiders / psychopaths coming in and taking personal advantage and destroying the group in the process. After having his early work ruined several times by other people taking unearned credit, taking money out, causing projects to fail, ZeroMQ was organised around his ideas. “Coops that get coopted” or are less durable, might be failing to protect their structure well enough.
  - DoctorOetker 7y ago
    you guys are rediscovering the birth of "in-group socialism" just make sure that anyone who wants can join (by complying), otherwise if people are left out by definition from joining (can't change property X) you're just recreating "national socialism"
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      Matt Levine often says "the modern investment bank is a socialist paradise run for the benefit of its workers".
  - jacques_chester 7y ago
    The story of life on earth generally and human civilisation generally is one of constant adaptations between parasites and predators and the defenders against parasites and predators. Ecology and population biology are fascinating sources of ideas in this regard.
  - specialist 7y ago
    Belated reply, apologies. I read Social Architecture (after my Kuali experience). It's very good. In my head, it sits alongside Clay Shirky (eg Here Comes Everyone). Whenever questions like "how do I make money working on open source?" and "which license should I use?" comes up, I expect Hintjens' wisdom to be at the top. Alas. I'd cite Hintjens myself, but I have yet to put his wisdom to practice, so I'd be just another poseur. I also read his writings about health and dying. I can only hope that I have such grace when it's my time. His others are in my queue.
perl4ever 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberated_company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberated_company

mcguire 7y ago

I worked for SAIC before and after the Leidos split. It may have been a 100% employee-owned "coop", but it was clear that some employees got more out of the success than others. And it was always a government contractor like all of the other contractors out there.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
perl4ever 7y ago
I'd be curious to hear what Sun Hydraulics or King Arthur Flour were like from someone who worked there.

specialist 7y ago

Thanks. Added to reading list. Also, nice tidbit about SAIC. It seems that many coops get coopted. Suggesting there's some as yet unknown magic sauce that makes some coops more durable. I'm very interested in comparative governance models. All tips, links welcome. I just want someone to point at some real world working organizations. Kinda like how QA obsessives study the Toyota Production System. -- I joined a FOSS project structured as multi-org consortium (Kuali) explicitly to learn how they work. (It didn't.) Richard Wolff's book Democracy at Work advocates WDSE (IIRC, worker directed social enterprises). But, sadly, while Wolff's works are descriptive, he hasn't (yet?) gotten into case studies and prescriptive works. In the USA, the SEIU and other unions are funding misc coops. IIRC, coops currently employ 1.4m workers. I haven't had the gumption to contact the principals to see how they're doing.

jodrellblank 7y ago
Have you read anything by Pieter Hintjens, the creator of ZeroMQ? He wrote quite a lot on organising people, particularly software development, but instead of focusing on how to make people efficient, he focused on how to organise the group to protect from opportunistic outsiders / psychopaths coming in and taking personal advantage and destroying the group in the process. After having his early work ruined several times by other people taking unearned credit, taking money out, causing projects to fail, ZeroMQ was organised around his ideas. “Coops that get coopted” or are less durable, might be failing to protect their structure well enough.
- DoctorOetker 7y ago
  you guys are rediscovering the birth of "in-group socialism" just make sure that anyone who wants can join (by complying), otherwise if people are left out by definition from joining (can't change property X) you're just recreating "national socialism"
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    Matt Levine often says "the modern investment bank is a socialist paradise run for the benefit of its workers".
- jacques_chester 7y ago
  The story of life on earth generally and human civilisation generally is one of constant adaptations between parasites and predators and the defenders against parasites and predators. Ecology and population biology are fascinating sources of ideas in this regard.
- specialist 7y ago
  Belated reply, apologies. I read Social Architecture (after my Kuali experience). It's very good. In my head, it sits alongside Clay Shirky (eg Here Comes Everyone). Whenever questions like "how do I make money working on open source?" and "which license should I use?" comes up, I expect Hintjens' wisdom to be at the top. Alas. I'd cite Hintjens myself, but I have yet to put his wisdom to practice, so I'd be just another poseur. I also read his writings about health and dying. I can only hope that I have such grace when it's my time. His others are in my queue.

perl4ever 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberated_company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberated_company