After that, a discussion called ‘Co-op? So what?’ with We Are Open Co-Op. It was an interactive discussion on what it means to be a co-op, why you’d want to do it, and what are some of the practicalities involved. It was very informative to hear about the ins and outs and pros and cons of being a coop, from people who have done it and know a lot about it through experience. (The live sktching of notes by Bryan Mathers was also massively cool.)
I had a nice chat at lunch with Peter from Content Mine, a system that helps to index academic papers (and points you in the direction of where you can download them from, too, from what I understand), and a couple of reps from Flattr, who were out in force at MozFest. They’ve recently been acquired by the company that does AdBlock, and have a new model where you can set an amount each month you want to spread out to donors that you like, and it gets distributed transparently to donors as you browse their content.
After lunch I caught a brief bit of getting started with data visualisation, but ducked out of that to sit in on a chat with the founders of the Digital Life Collective. They’re a coop pushing the idea of Tech We Trust – software that respects autonomy, privacy, and dignity. I really like the idea, and might become a member.
Finished off listening to a talk by Gillian Crampton Smith on the importance of design, and a very interested chat between Emily Gorcenski and Sarah Jeong on fake news and fake science.
All in all a fantastic, mind-expanding experience. I feel like I could take it all in a bit better if it was spread over a few more days, but then again packing it all into the weekend does make it much more accessible. I went away feeling inspired, and happy to know there’s so many people working on a more citizen-focused web.