Hi Lothar, Genossenschaft is the German term, yes.
I can participate on the call but I would have to leave at 13:30 Berlin time for another appointment. If the control of the entity is to remain under the TDF, it may not be applicable. A Genossenschaft is structured to be controlled by it's members. Typically the structure involves one member, one vote, however in multi-stakeholder co-operatives that voting structure can be weighted so that certain classes of voters have more vote weight than others. The TDF could engage into a legal arrangement with the co-operative that implies control of actions based on a contractual service arrangement.. but theoretically the board of the co-op would be run independently. If it's the case that the TDF must control the entity then forming a co-op may be an overly complicated matter. I'll attend the conference at 13:00 Berlin time tomorrow and if there is time for me to speak on it before 13:30 I will. Cheers, Kevin > On 13/08/2020 11:42 Lothar K. Becker <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > Hi Kevin, > > thanks for sharing your idea, sounds interesting, if I understood it > right it is the "Genossenschaft" you are mentioning? > > It is worth to think about and value it if such an organisation could > help to full fill the solution for handling app store activities and get more > code contributions financed, under control of TDF. > > What about discussing the idea in the public part of the meeting > tomorrow, are you available there? I would love to have your full name then > to ask you in the meeting to say a few sentence about the idea. > > Thanks again, hopefully speaking tomorrow a bit about the idea, all the > best > Lothar Becker > > Am 13.08.2020 um 16:19 schrieb Kev M: > > > > I'm guessing based on the information provided in the > titles that the TDF is looking to set up a The Document > "Co-operative/Corporation". > > > > If it is the case you're setting up a business entity, may I > > strongly plead towards setting up a multi-stakeholder platform co-operative > > instead of a corporation? > > > > 1) CIB, Collabora, etc. would have equal voting rights as > > organization members > > 2) Donor/subscribers would have voting rights as personal members. > > 3) TDF/TDC staff would have voting rights as worker members. > > > > The weighting of votes could be determined by contributions, so > > maybe (60% org weight, 30% member weight, 10% worker weight). > > > > Trebor Scholz, a german professor at The New School in NYC is a > > proponent of platform co-ops and would likely be quite interested in > > helping out. > > > > There are a lot of other platform co-op enthusiasts that would > > likely help with this work as well, it would help with task 3113 (though I > > don't know why Heiko is so resistant against creating an online forum like > > Discourse considering the community is clamouring for it.) > > > > There are also lots of resources online with templates, etc. to set > > up a co-operative organization; in Europe the ICA (Belgium), CICOPA > > (Italy), etc. would be excited to help I would imagine. > > > > This also would be a potential revenue stream as voting membership > > could be set as an annual requirement to maintain good standing. Consider > > that Taz.de - a media co-op in Berlin, is purely funded by it's members, > > despite the availability of free news around the world and states. > > > > If you'd be interested in going in this direction I'd be happy to > > provide some volunteer time to assist in creation/governance. > > > > Cheers, > > Kevin > > > > > > -- > Lothar K. Becker, Member of the Board of Directors > The Document Foundation, Kurfürstendamm 188, 10707 Berlin, DE > Gemeinnützige rechtsfähige Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts > Legal details: https://www.documentfoundation.org/imprint > > mail: [email protected] mailto:[email protected] > phone: +49 7202 9499 001 (c/o .riess applications gmbh) >
