Tech-Coops at 35c3: Report and talk

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Building on the first tech-coops meetup in 2017 at the 34c3 and the connections made there, even more activity around tech-coops took place at the 35c3, the annual conference of the German Chaos Computer Club which took place in Leipzig, Germany from the 27th to the 30th December 2018.

IT Kollektiv from Germany organized a tech-coops assembly inside the Komona space, that brought together a broad range of people from different places and projects.

With two meetups and a talk on tech-coops we had the chance to spread the idea of tech-coops and build new connections.

Meetups

Two tech-coops meetups took place. The first one at the 27th December and the second one at the 29th December. The second meetup was split into two groups: One discussion further international relations and exchange and a group for persons that were interested in the idea of tech coops.

Some questions that were discussed:

  • What is a tech-coop? Progressive coops vs. traditional coops.
  • How to work together internationally in the future? How to stay in contact.
  • Pros and Cons of working for NGOs.
  • How to get a coop started.
  • How to find clients?
  • Unions and political alignment.
  • Selection of software and refusal of clients for ethical reasons.

Talk: Tech-Coops: No masters, no slave

On third day we held a talk on tech-coops and the history and development of IT-Kollektiv. The talk was held inside the Komona space. Around 40 people attended and we had a good and inspiring discussion after the talk.

You can see and download the slides of the talk here.

[pdf-embedder url=“https://it-kollektiv.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/35c3-talk-tech-coops.pdf“ title=“35c3 talk tech coops“ toolbarfixed=“on“]

Download

Future

The tech-coops assembly and our participation at 35c3 was another big step forward for furthering connections on an international level and bringing the idea of tech-coops into more communities. Building on this we want to be back at the 36c3 and if possible this years camp with a tech-coops assembly with a stronger shared ownership of the different coops and networks.

Next steps discussed for staying in touch and working on international connections:

  • Create a digital zine about tech-coops that can be used as a place to exchange ideas and experiences.
  • Use the CoTech community disource “International Solidarity” section for communication.
  • Organize a video call

We want to thank our friends from CoTech and everyone involved with Komona for making all of this possible.

https://wiki.coops.tech/wiki/Tech_Co-ops_Assembly_35C3
https://events.ccc.de/congress/2018/wiki/index.php/Session:Tech-Coops_Meetup
https://events.ccc.de/congress/2018/wiki/index.php/Assembly:IT-Kollektiv
https://talks.komona.org/35c3/talk/FZVFSF/