Gig economy workers unite to take over digital platforms

07 June 2018

Co-operatively owned platforms will get the boost they need to compete against tech giants thanks to a $US1 million Google grant devoted to creating open-source platform technology for worker-owners.

The Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) has partnered with global Platform Coop Consortia so Australian workers can participate fairly in the new digitally enabled economy.

“This new Platform Co-op Development Kit will mean aspiring groups like care workers can access software templates and best legal practices to create their own sharing economies instead of settling for exploitation on the existing options,” said BCCM CEO Melina Morrison.

While platforms such as Uber, Deliveroo, Freelancer and Foodora don’t own what they sell, they keep the profits of the exchange between supplier and user because they own the rights to the technology underpinning the exchange.

Platform co-operatives are owned by the workers or producers, so the profits of their labour return to them.

“Co-operatively owned platforms are needed urgently to address the power imbalance between the people who do the work on platforms and the owners of the platforms,” said Ms Morrison. “Employee ownership and community ownership gives workers and communities the chance to harness technological changes to the local economy as players, not passive participants.”

Google.org and Harvard University are providing the key technical expertise via open source work.

BCCM member and carer co-operative This Cooperative Life is a pilot case in the Platform Co-op Development Kit program. “In areas like social care, platform co-ops deliver agency and empowerment for workers and high quality and consistent services for consumers of disability and aged care,” said Ms Morrison. “But their potential use is much more varied and wide.”

This initiative is a big win for the cooperative movement and for platform co-op pioneers all over the world,” says Associate Professor Trebor Scholz, platform co-operative expert and founder of the Platform Cooperative Consortia. “The Kit will make it easier to start and run platform co-ops. It will also provide an interactive map of the co-op ecosystem and essential community-edited resources.”

From July 2018, developers will begin the first stage of the platform development kit. The partnership will then look to building out data services, job training, legal templates, and consultancy services for emerging platform co-ops.

“By embedding the traditional co-operative principles of fairness and community in digital technology, the Platform Co-op Development Kit will seriously challenge the established players in the sharing economy,” said Ms Morrison. “It will make it easier instead for Australian workers to become our newest entrepreneurs and start their own labour-sharing platforms.”

“The Australian co-operative sector, which counts 2000 businesses and 8 in 10 Australians as members, is proud to be a part of this important initiative through our support for the Platform Cooperative Consortium.”