Want to help bring democracy to the internet? On the heels of the successful platform co-op conference in Toronto, I’m now working with a mighty team of collaborators to organize November’s conference in New York, The People’s Disruption. It’s all about connecting the resources of the present with ambitious visions of a cooperative future online, featuring speakers from #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Alicia Garza to venture capitalist Brad Burnham. I hope you can join us! Space isn’t infinite! Register today (and retweet this).

Communists and Catholics

Over the summer I had the chance to join the MBA program at St. Mary’s University in Canada for a tour of the co-op sector in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. There was plenty to write home about, and I put it together in a dispatch for America magazine, which will appear in the next print issue. Read it and share it online now: “How Communists and Catholics Built a Commonwealth.”

It’s both a report from the field and a reflection on why, as we build a new economy, we should look to our past.

More Where that Came From

I’ve also been writing about stuff like how we can democratize ISPs and the little churches of St. Francis. I turned in a book draft, too! And then there are some live events coming up:

• 2017.09.28: Denver, CO – “Startup.Coop: How to Build a Real Sharing Economy through Shared Ownership” and “Demystifying the Hype: Understanding Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies with an Expert Panel,” Denver Startup Week
• 2017.10.4-6: Alexandria, VA – Keynote and other talks at the Co-op Impact Conference
• 2017.11.07: New York, NY – Lecture on Catholic cooperative economics at St. John’s University
• 2018.03.07: Cambridge, MA – TBA at Harvard Law School
• 2018.03.08: South Hadley, MA – TBA at Mount Holyoke College
• 2018.03.10: East Lansing, MI – TBA at MSU Student Housing Cooperative

Thank you for reading, thank you for what you do.