A cooperative for the 21st Century

This post is focused on a segment of a more far ranging article in DieM25 regarding the platform economy and unionization in the European Union. We focus on how, in Germany, a group of food delivery riders set up the Kolyma2 collective that has been able to successfully operate on a local level with the use of Coopycyle, an open source software platform that helped them go from 60 orders on a weekend to 80 orders a day.

Alexandre Segura, who goes by the moniker Mex, thought that…

cooperatives belonged in the 19th century, as he vaguely remembered some socialist writings by thinkers like Charles Fourier or Robert Owen. However, he suddenly realized that the concept makes perfect sense in the modern world.

The idea arose that he could develop an app that belonged to delivery riders and that it could act as the “factory” they commonly own. Riders could run the platform on a local scale without global structures involved. “Technology is not everything, for sure”, he adds, “but you need to have an app and a functional website to compete.”

Cultural Fusion

An iconic photo of a Maasai in traditional shuka, carrying a spear and talking on his cell phone perfectly personifies the fusion of European, American and African cultures.

19th Century Technology Fuels 21st Century Sustainability Project

By: Chris Vedelago

It’s a bold 21st century sustainability project that will be fueled, ironically, by 19th century technology.

Excess energy from the powerful boilers that run the CUB Brewery in Abbotsford are being retasked to meet the energy needs of a nearby office building, turning it into a hub of environmental sustainability and design.

”We are in a really unique position – with the brewery and its existing co-generation infrastructure – to begin establishing a renewal energy community utility, which will the first of its kind in Australia,” said John Shone, chief executive of environmental research and education group Kunexion.

”This is part of the Yarra Energy Foundation’s strategy to establish a municipal style community utility and renewable energy business based around six industry districts in the City of Yarra,” Mr Shone said. ”We happen to have six large boiler rooms in our municipality that already generate electricity, hot water and heating and cooling for their host operation, be it a brewery, hospital, university or laundry. So we’re able to use, quite ironically, infrastructure from the 1840s – i.e. the steam engine – to generate renewable energy today.”

You can read the entire article here.