Felix Weth (Fairmondo) at Platform Co-ops event, London 2016

Summary

Felix Weth (@wewetho) speaks about his experience founding and running the paradigmatic platform co-operative, Fairmondo. The German website offers over 2 million goods, and is distinguished by its radical openness and including merchants and customers in its governance.

The talk is from the Platform Co-ops events at Newspeak House in May 2016. Hosted by Outlandish (outlandish.com, twitter.com/outlandish)

Event description:

High-tech tools of exploitation are being repurposed to build a fairer economy.

The digital platforms that have become the connective tissue of our lives – the likes of Airbnb and Google – have proven to tend towards monopolies, monetisation of surveillance and disregard for labour standards.

But what stops us from using the Internet’s power for collective action to usurp them with alternatives?

What if taxi drivers were to seize control of their own platform and run it democratically? And what would an Amazon look like, were it not only to push wares, but to distribute power and accountability?

Outlandish invites you to an evening of discussions on the opportunities and challenges of making the vision of Platform Co-operativism a reality in the UK and abroad.