Help us build better community tech!

Aim

Help us improve our mapping and data-sharing tools, invite new members into our cooperative and build a better internet, together.

MAPPING AND DATA FOR THE COMMON GOOD

We are Digital Commons Cooperative: a community tech startup that provides communities and social movements with the data and mapping tools they need to create a more regenerative world. We're an experienced team of technologists, social entrepreneurs and community builders passionate about building an internet that works better for everyone.

This crowdfunder is a bit of an experiment for us! We're hoping to learn a lot about what people are interested in and what the best way of talking about our (complex!) ambitions are. If you'd like to stay in touch but can't afford to chip in any money, you can follow us on Twitter or sign up to our newsletter. 

How we would spend your money

• If we raise £1,000 we will set up our multi stakeholder cooperative with open and transparent governance processes;
• If we raise £2,000 we will do the above AND create interactive toolkits and free trainings that demonstrate how communities can use open mapping tools to understand the land around them;
• If we raise £5,000 we will do the above AND begin developing innovative software licenses that anyone can use to protect open source software and ensure that it is used for building commons based on reciprocity;
• If we raise £7,000 we will do the above AND create a map of UK Co-operatives; 
• If we raise £10,000 we will do the above AND build distributed web technologies to extend the functionality of our tools so that they work together. This will mean you could build a collaborative map and then embed it in your website; uploading your data and visualising it live. 

If we raise more than £10,000 we will be able to put more energy and time into all of these things; do more consultation with users and move more quickly!

Why are we doing this?

At the moment, a lot of people working to bring about positive change in the world - communities, social movements, and other changemakers - don’t have access to the digital tools, resources or skills they need for bigger impact.

In a digital world, those with resources turn our data into money and power. And those without, lose out.

But what if social movements had access to digital tools made for them?

What if those working for change could more easily find each other and the data they need? 

What if communities mapping local projects could build upon the work already done by others like them?

We make digital tools that are tailor-made for social movements that: 

• Help them connect, empower and grow. 
• Are designed to decentralise power, build the alternative and fight for the common good. 
• Are built upon trust, cooperation and fairness.

And we need your support to take the next step in building our tools and the team behind them!

Find out more about what we've been building:

Our mapping tool Land Explorer:

• Helps people and organisations access information on land and find suitable sites for community-based development projects.
• Enables people to gather the insights they need to make sure their project is a success. 

Twine is a free mobile app that provides a hassle-free way for community businesses to keep tabs on their activities and projects, saving them time and money. Twine:

• Helps volunteers to record their contributions to initiatives without any paperwork.
• Helps organisations to better understand the work their volunteers are doing. 

Mykomaps maps the solidarity and cooperative economy to increase opportunities for collaboration and collective changemaking. Mykomaps provides the foundation tech for two key platforms:

• Mykomaps' Communities Connect, an online platform that helps communities connect and collaborate by visualising data about organisations and initiatives in a given area.
• Mykomaps' Cooperatives Connect, an online platform that helps the cooperative movement connect and collaborate. It acts as an extensive online directory of cooperatives, providing an easy way to locate and engage with fellow cooperatives on every continent. We are partnering with the ICA (International Cooperative Alliance) and DotCooperation to deliver this service.

As a start-up, we’re only at the beginning of our journey. To keep developing our community tech alongside changemakers, we need your help! 

What will your donation allow us to do?

We've put some detail on this above; in summary it will:

• Help us build Digital Commons Cooperative as a strong organisation, and open up our governance as a multi-stakeholder cooperative that you could join, so that our supporters, workers, and investors can all have a say in our future.
• Better connect (build interoperability between) our tools. Our vision is a tool that combines public, embeddable maps with clever environmental analysis and collaborative map development tools. 
• Extend our (free) training and toolkits to more communities that want to make use of collaborative mapping for social change. 

Contribute now to help us strengthen our organisation, improve our tools and scale up their use. With your support, we can help social movements and communities harness the power of data to create a more regenerative world.

This project successfully funded on 10th November 2022