We provide a Meeting Place, Learning Place and Market Place to turn the digital divide into digital dividends with our support plans.
We are a Platform Cooperative, Collaborative Community Commons, and the educational arm of the Broadband Institute Foundation (a Michigan educational nonprofit, IRS: PUBLIC CHARITY). We are qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106, or 2522.
Mission
Organized for charitable purposes, we create educational resources that help to improve Internet access for underserved populations. Our online training materials are freely available using a Creative Commons license, rather than copyright. We train people to create Community Owned Infrastructure Networks, COIN, that promote local, regenerative economies, and leverage AI that works for us, rather than over us.
Marketplace 20 sec video
Members and businesses have . searchable profiles. A vendor has products and services.
AI & P2P
Benefits of a regenerative economy replacing the older extractive incumbent models.
Member Messages
Sign up & in to see left panel | horizontal communication without revealing your email | Block bothersome members
Help us prevent “Enshittification” of our platform
“Cory Doctorow advocates for two ways to reduce enshittification: upholding the end-to–end principle, which asserts that platforms should transmit data in response to user requests rather than algorithm-driven decisions; and guaranteeing the right of exit—that is, enabling a user to leave a platform without data loss, which requires interoperability. These moves aim to uphold the standards and trustworthiness of online platforms, emphasize user satisfaction, and encourage market competition.”
We already have built in support for the right of exit. Anyone can leave our platform and export all of their data to take with them. You can help us to make decisions about our directions by submitting user requests via our contact form.
We added a new profile field
Please edit your profile (in the upper right drop down menu) and check all of the relevant boxes you support.
We are working on making it easier for people to find each other in order to collaborate on solutions that promote a better Internet for all. The more content you add to additional fields in your profile for you as an individual and your organization, the more likely it is that people will find you and seek to connect, in order to work together and collaborate to promote better Internet for all.
Our Ecosystem Pictograph with Links
zoom in & out on small screens
Everything on the left is done & we are using “make” & “n8n” to connect things in the cloud.
Some definitions
Platform cooperatives are businesses that sell goods or services primarily through a website, mobile app, or protocol. They rely on democratic decision-making and shared platform ownership by workers and users.
Platform Cooperative Consortium
What is a co-op? A cooperative is defined as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.
What is a platform? A platform is an online application or website used by individuals or groups to connect to one another or to organize services.
The Internet should connect us like the sidewalk
Together, we can do this. In a Ted Talk Bob Frankston starts with this question to the audience: “How many of you paid your sidewalk provider in order to come here?” So, why do we accept the idea that we will let providers, who must make a profit, decide on what limits they want to impose on our Freedom to Connect? I embedded the video below in an article I published in Medium back in 2017, when I was a member of NYC Mesh: “Ending Net Neutrality: Tip of the FCC Fuckery Iceberg That Limits Your Freedom to Connect.“
Working cooperatively will promote #DigitalEquity
During the 1930s, rural electrification was a major challenge in the United States. At the time, private electric utilities were hesitant to extend their services to rural areas because they were considered unprofitable. This meant that millions of Americans in rural areas were left without access to electricity. In response to this problem, the U.S. government established the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in 1935. The REA provided loans to rural electric cooperatives, which were owned and operated by the farmers themselves. These cooperatives were able to use the loans to build power lines and other facilities to bring electricity to their communities.
AI Chat GPT-4
Rather than being a single cooperative, we are functioning as a Federation of emerging cooperatives. Our focus is being in the center of that Federation, and providing tools for horizontal communication and learning.
We’re closing the Digital Divide with a Platform Cooperative that trains people to build Community Owned Internet Networks. We use LearnDash, a Learning Management System, and the BuddyBoss Platform in WordPress for community engagement to connect Courses with Social Groups and discussion Forums, thus promoting “Social Learning.” Governance by teachers employs “consensus decision-making” with tools from Loomio. We use a grassroots legal and financial toolbox from Open Collective.
Visit our Foundation’s website
Broadband Institute Foundation
Rural Co-op Report
Open PDF from ILSR
Our mission & tools to achieve our goals (90 sec video)
Learn about how we move from an extractive to a circular economy. Plus, see how this website, integrates Groups, discussion Forums, and Courses.
