Re:Beware Centralization
by jimkleiber on Sunday October 03, 2021 @01:09AM
(#28734680)
I like both of these suggestions! While I've read a bit about cooperatives and digital ones, I haven't heard too much about the trustee idea. Do you have links to either where I could learn more about how they might work in with digital platforms?
I think the best example (although it's not a digital platform, and the ownership is for the benefit of employees rather than customers) I know of would be the John Lewis Partnership in the UK.
It's incorporated as a public limited company, but all of its shares are owned in trust.
The obvious answer would seem to be structure them as cooperatives.
Allow service users to purchase shares at a nominal value, and restrict voting rights to one member one vote - that is, shareholder votes are not weighted based on how many shares one has, owning more shares would only enable one to earn more interest on the shares' capital.
Alternatively, all shares (or maybe just 50%+1) could be held in trust for the benefit of the users. Trustees would then have responsibility of taking users' needs in to account.