A list of tech coops and resources concerning tech coops and worker owned cooperatives in general.
Contributions to this list are very welcome. Just clone this repo, edit this file (README.md) or edit it directly (open it and click on the pencil icon on the upper right) and create a pull request.
A very general definition:
Worker-owned cooperatives are business enterprises that are owned and governed by their employees. All worker cooperatives have two common characteristics: 1) member-owners invest in and own the business together, and share the enterprise’s profits, and 2) decision-making is democratic, with each member having one vote.
Tech cooperatives are worker-owned cooperatives that operate in the information technology industry. This list focuses on tech coops that are providing software development and consulting services.
Tech cooperatives could be a solution if you feel alienated by big software corporations and startup culture or you feel alone and in search of solidarity as a freelancer.
- Coops
- Networks of coops
- Resources
- Information on tech coops and coops in general
- Talks
- Mailinglists
- Tools
- Products created by tech coops
- Jobs and contracts
| Coop | Business Areas | Region/Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agaric | Web development, tech consulting | USA / Nicaragua / Germany | Worker-owned collective building online since 2006, lately contributing to the Drutopia platform for grassroots groups. |
| Agile Collective | Web development | UK | |
| Alma | Software development | Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France | Founded 1979; LinkedIn |
| Atomised | Web development, mobile apps, UX design | Cupar, Scotland | Founded 2008 |
| bits.coop | webgl, maps, p2p, offline data replication | ||
| Brierwood Coop | Mobile apps | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | |
| Caravan Web Worker Cooperative | Web design, Software development (Python) | Montreal and Quebec City, Canada | |
| C4 Tech & Design | Web Design, Business IT Services, Computer Repair | New Orleans, USA | |
| CoLab | Ithaca, NY, USA | "CoLab’s mission is to contribute to a new economy of justice and cooperation while bringing clients beautiful, cutting-edge technology." | |
| Co-operative Web | Web Development, Mobile Development, Web Hosting, legacy software support | Birmingham, UK | |
| Devtopia | Consulting, project management, design and UX, web development, app development, marketing | Spain | Distributed company |
| dtc innovation | Web development, design and engineering, cooperation, open {data|source} | France, UK, Québec | |
| EITA | Open Source Development | Brazil | Our goal is to deliver open source technologies to social moviments |
| Electric Embers | Hosting | San Francisco, CA, USA | |
| Enspiral | NZ | Network-type | |
| Feel Train | Portland, OR, USA | "Feel Train will never consist of more than 8 people." | |
| Fiqus | Web and mobile development | Buenos Aires, Argentina | |
| Gaia Host Collective | Hosting | Greenfield, MA, USA | |
| gcoop | Hosting, Consulting, Web Development, FLOSS Development | Buenos Aires, Argentina | "Transformamos los sistemas." |
| Go free Range | Web development | UK | |
| Igalia | Free Software consultancy | A Coruña, Spain; Global | 40+ workers |
| IT Kollektiv | Cross-platform apps, web development, backend development, consulting | GER | Network-type |
| IT Kollektivet | Copenhagen, Denmark | ||
| Jamgo | Front-end dev, design services, e-commerce, Drupal/WordPress | Barcelona, Spain | |
| Koumbit | Hosting, Websites, Sysadmin | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| Loomio | Online decision-making app | Wellington, New Zealand | Wikipedia |
| MuchDifferent | Game technology, Engineering | Uppsala, Sweden | |
| Nilenso | Development (Clojure, Javascript, Ruby, Haskell, Go, Java) | Bangalore, India | |
| Outlandish | Web development | London, UK | Sponsored 2016 Outlandish Fellowships |
| Palante Technology Cooperative | Web development, CiviCRM, Tech support, Training | Focus on NGOs | |
| Plausible Labs | Development, Design | New York and San Francisco, USA | Bylaws |
| Protozoa | Web development | NZ | |
| Quilted | consulting, graphic design, web development | Berkeley, California, USA | "Quilted is a worker-owned, cooperatively-managed company stitching together technology and social change." |
| RadicalDesign | Web development | Oakland, CA, USA | Focusing on non-profit and grassroots social change organizations |
| Resonate | Music Streaming | Berlin, Germany / Dublin, Ireland | A multistakeholder platform co-operative - with contributors (workers, contractors, volunteers) represented with a 20% ownership stake. |
| Root Systems | Consulting | NZ | "Pod" within Enspiral |
| Sassafras Tech Collective | Research, User experience design, Development | Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA | |
| TableFlip | Web development. Javascript, Node.js, Meteor. | London, UK | Founded 2013; "We're your technical co-founder." |
| TechCollective | tech support | San Francisco & Boston, USA | |
| the Tech Support Cooperative | POS software, open-source web development, consulting | US + CAN | Maintainers of the CORE-POS / IS4C software project |
| Tecso | Development, Information services | Rosario, Argentina | Founded 2002; 150+ associates |
| Vulk Coop | Design, Development | Austin, TX, USA | |
| Webarchitects Co-operative | Hosting, Sysadmin | Sheffield, UK | Multi-stakeholder, including workers, organisations and investors |
- Awesome Tech Cooperatives - A collection of awesome cooperative tech companies and projects
- CoTech - Network of tech coops in the UK.
- FACT[TIC] - Federation of tech worker-cooperatives in Argentina.
- Tech Co-op Network - North American Technology Worker Cooperatives.
- A Technology Freelancer's Guide to Starting a Worker Cooperative, 2009
- A Document To Help You Start A Tech Cooperative - By Feel Train.
- The Loomio Co-op Handbook
- Discussion on Hacker News.
- Enspiral Handbook - More information about the Enspiral network.
- Starting a Cooperative, One Step at a Time - 12-page eBook by Huia CDS a consulting company for cooperative enterprises.
- Patterns for Decentralised Organising by Richard D. Bartlett - Practical guidance for teams, organisations and networks to manage without hierarchy.
- Can Coops Revolutionize the Tech Industry?
- Co-op of digital co-ops – arise, er, Megazord?
- The Argument For Worker-Owned Tech Collectives (Fastcompany)
- The Case for Technology Worker Coops from a Former Freelancer
- Post-Capitalist Solutions: How Worker-Owned Tech Co-ops Are Boosting the Solidarity Economy (occupy.com)
- Incorporating Notes: On Cooperatives, Nonprofits, and Better Accountability by the Collective for Liberation, Ecology, and Technology
- A new financial model for consulting - How we’re making our salaries fair and transparent
- Coopensation - Worker-Owned Incentive System.
- How a Worker-Owned Tech Startup Found Investors—and Kept Its Values
- "Loomio Points" - A system to acknowledge the work people did for free to get the project off the ground.
- Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives? - Interesting discussion with lots of links.
- /r/cooperatives - Subreddit about cooperatives.
- Applying the Advice Process to a Software Service Co-op
- Grow Your Own Economy in a Company, Don’t wait for the system out there to change — make your own rules and live in the economy you want, right now.
- Two Years Wiser, The Nilenso Experiment - Steven Deobald
- tech-coop listserv - Main mailinglist about tech coops. Check out the archive for interesting threads in the past.
- Cooperative Technologists Community - CoTech (UK) community forum.
- Cobudget - Crowdsource and fund projects within an organization. Developed and used by Enspiral.
- Loomio - Online decision-making
- Cobuy - Group wholesale purchases as a consumer co-op (by Root Systems).
- Up & Go - Cooperative Home Cleaning Services (by CoLab).
- Tech coops growing - Tech coops forming or looking for new members.
- CoTech Jobs - Jobs category on the CoTech Network (UK) community forums.
This work and all contributions to it are released into the public domain under the terms of the CC0 1.0.