---
title: 'Co-operation: Putting it in Writing'
osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/conferences/seagl2019/program/proposals/673
beginning: '2019-11-16T16:15:00.000-08:00'
end: '2019-11-16T17:05:00.000-08:00'
resources:
  internet_archive_identifier: cooperation_202001
presenters:
- name: Katheryn Sutter
  affiliation: Delib-Rating.org
  osem_url: https://osem.seagl.org/users/391
  gravatar_id: 29433bd3cb2299e3ff56add0b4069f48
  biography: Katheryn Sutter PhD has a background in community development and policy
    analysis, concentrating on how to evaluate deliberations in consensus-based groups.
    Living and working with co-operatively minded projects her entire adult life,
    she also did applied and theoretical social and bio-behavioral research in university.
    Free software has been her primary interest for over a decade. As developers'
    free-software contributions are primarily voluntary and building a shared commons,
    the formalities of co-operative organizational forms seem to fit. She makes presentations
    at tech conferences about how to look at free-software in terms of democratic
    communication ideals.
---

Just as [copy-left](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft) uses principles of intellectual property rights to legally protect free and open source software, [co-operatives](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative) use principles of business ownership to legally protect their collaborative relationships.

This talk is an exploration of co-operative organization forms for free and open source projects, projects that may or may not be formal entities.  We'll cover a little bit of basic principles, a little bit of example tech co-operatives, and hopefully a good amount of time for questions, news and brainstorms.

No technical knowledge is assumed for this talk. It is mostly about self-organizing people, and touches a little on law.
