I suspect they would find escape and socialization by means of virtual worlds. They could visit San Francisco and meet old friends for coffee. They could scuba dive or go hang gliding. They could revive their spirits basking in Earth’s comforting slendor.

Alan was a man.
A man with ideals.
A man with dreams.
He spent his life breathing life into his dreams.
He worked to make his dreams real.

When we look around, we see the result of his work.
Looking at his work, we can see the dreams.
We can see the man.
His works appear to me as monuments
to beauty, creativity, optimism and love.

Now that he is gone, the world is a dimmer place.
His living force that strove to build and sustain these monuments is no longer here, and I can tell.

However, he has left a legacy even greater than these monuments. And that is his example.
His example inspires me to dream.
His example inspires me to work.
His example inspires me to live.

Co-op à la Carte

This weekend I was struck with an idea. What if each web service was rolled out as a separate co-op with a very focused mission? For example, a web-mail service would be implemented by a single co-op with a mission to provide web-mail services to its members. Each service — online calendar, storage, VoIP, etc. — would run under its own co-op and have its own mission. Then, users could join one or more co-op depending on the services they wanted. Competing co-ops might even emerge offering similar services but based on different software. This model would solve the problem of trying to serve many members who have many different desires.

Co-op Federation

The top-level organization, then, would be responsible for providing very basic services to this federation of cooperatives:

• Co-op Organization Template (’instant co-op’ kit)
• User ID Service
• Web Hosting
• Arbitration Services
• Federation Principles — Members agree to basic rules, such as:
  • Drafting a Very Focused Mission
  • Respecting Basic User Rights
    (a basic TOS that can be built upon)
  • Disputes Resolved by Arbitration

Perhaps the federation rules would be baked into the co-op template, and using this template could be required for federation membership. This might sound confining (rules! rules! rules!), but it would help assure consistently high-quality service to the users.

The Federation itself might be organized as a non-profit.

Anybody have a better word to use than federation? “Co-op Federation” is just too thick with loftiness.

UPDATE: Here’s a cute abbreviation for “co-op federation”:
co-fe — pronounced coffee.

Reading Tim’s piece, I found something that struck close to home:

I’m focusing the program around the intersection of Open Source and Web 2.0, because I continue to believe that even though Web 2.0 is deeply rooted in open source, it’s the open source community that most needs to be reminded of the connection.

Wow! That’s how I feel, and that’s how I hatched my idea about web cooperatives! So I quickly chimed in on the comments:

Tim-

As I’ve noted before, I think a web cooperative might lie at the intersection of open source and web 2.0.

Not only does it hold a unique promise for its users, but it also presents a novel means for funding open source software development.

I’m kicking related ideas around on my web co-op blog. Your thoughts?

Thanks-
Sid

This drew him out a little:

Sid — I find your idea of a web cooperative intriguing but unconvincing. It certainly could work. But the best way to find out is to try it. In today’s web, it’s pretty easy to get new systems up and running, so I have acquired a bit of an “I’m from Missouri” attitude towards ideas (including my own) that don’t have existence proofs. Love to hear more when it’s up and running…

His quick “intriguing but unconvincing” judgement is good and fair. The rest of his reply is generally useful advice, but it overlooks the uniqueness of the coop proposition. I followed-up:

Tim-

Thanks for the reply. I completely agree about rapidly getting the rubber on the road — I’ve done that in the past. The difference with a co-op is that its implementation is in its organization, and I feel it is critical to get that right. Plus, it must provide services people or businesses need — what would you (or ORM) want from a web co-op?

So that is why, for once, I’m talking about something so much and not simply cranking it out. A solo co-op would be rather sad. To succeed, it must be community from the inside out.

I coined: “community from the inside out” on the spot, and I think it nicely captures the fusion you would get by mixing free software culture into a web 2.0 social platform. A cooperative struck me as a good vessel for doing this. Ergo: web co-op.

However, a spoiler lurks behind my pithy coinage. Free software and open source are fringe cultures. Does a web 2.0 user really have anything in common with a free software advocate? Their intersection could well be the empty set.

So many web services use free software, yet the services themselves, their organization and management, are closed. When will we see a web service that is literally owned by its users, like a cooperative? Or is one already flourishing somewhere?

As a capitalist, I can go buy shares of Yahoo! or Google and feel confident their management is working for me. But as a user, I can’t be as certain. Management will serve me, the user, to the extent that it also serves their shareholders. Yes, they’re doing a good job serving users today. But will they do a good job for the next 20 years? How many times must I switch services during my lifetime?

It just seems to me that as these services integrate more closely into our lives, the need for a stronger social contract increases. This isn’t just about privacy, but also reliability and community. It would feel good to know that the service’s management is working harder for the user than the shareholder (crazy!). In a cooperative, the user is the shareholder, so no worries.

Recently this idea returned to me, so I started to ask my friends: would you use a web service co-op? The usual reply is: what are you talking about?

Imagine Gmail, except operated by a transparent organization owned by its users. Its mission, terms of service, privacy policy and features would all be written by its users to serve its users.

Now build on this idea by adding your favorite features from Yahoo!, Google, MSN, MySpace, etc. As a member of the co-op, you would help shape it. Over time it would become a full-featured web service/community where people have faith in their organization and trust in its members.

Did I mention membership fees? (Music stops.) Instead of showing ads, an annual fee would be charged. Maybe other ways could be used to raise funds, too, such as sponsorships.

So, what do you think? The Web’s missing link? Web 2.0 utopian drivel? Let me know. I plan to use this blog for airing ideas and information on the topic.

I want to tell you about Foundd by telling you a little bit about myself. I studied math at Cal Poly, SLO, California and entered the workforce as a programmer in the midst of the dot-com boom. One thing led to another and I became a specialist in Adobe’s PDF file format. Who could have guessed?
Anyhow, that’s how I came to write my book, PDF Hacks, for O’Reilly. And that’s when my DNA changed.
Writing a Hacks book is a crazy, mad-scientist marathon, and the experience has altered how I think. I can’t take off the lab coat any more. I’m always dissecting, tinkering and creating — looking for novel solutions to interesting problems. It’s usually fun, sometimes frenzied, occasionally profitable.

Foundd got its start in February, 2005, when I hit upon a new idea for an online service. After many months of odd hours, I had built GoJot. I showed it to my friends and we started kicking it around.
In the course of these debates my passion for GoJot gradually dimmed. I had wanted to build something so useful that ordinary folks (not just geeks) would use it every day — and this just wasn’t it. The debates around GoJot, however, had sparked a wildfire of new ideas. I had become the mad scientist again, passionately persuing an elusive notion.

A succession of little online services followed, each one an experiment. One Friday I hatched a new idea that was so compelling that it made my heart skip with excitement. After many long nights, ListMixer was online. I love ListMixer, but I knew it could grow into something greater. ListMixer was almost it.

With great care I started work on the online service before you now: Foundd – Re-search Engine. And I feel I have finally discovered what I set out for, over one year ago. Olé!
But this isn’t the end of the story. Rather, the passion I used to discover Foundd will now go into developing Foundd into something even greater. That’s where I could use your help.
I hope you will try Foundd, and I hope you will love it as much as I do. Most of all, I hope that you will write me to let me know how it works for you — how I could improve it. Foundd’s success depends on how well it serves you.

Thank You–
Sid