Charting the Design Space for Platform Cooperatives

Platform cooperatives [1, 6] are technology-driven member-owned organizations [4] that advocate for social, economic, and environmental sustainability. These organizations tackle issues their members identify in the world of work, and provide network-driven collections of shared things, resources, and data that benefit community members. Yet, there is a scarcity of research on the challenges of organizing in this way [2, 5]. In contrast to the popular sharing economy platforms (e.g., Uber, Airbnb), which face growing critique of their harmful societal effects (e.g., discrimination, exploitation of labor, extractive data practices), platform coops promote a fairer, more sustainable distribution of goods, labor, and data (e.g., Fairbnb, NYC Drivers Coop) and a stronger sense of community. Examples of platform coops include online marketplaces (e.g., Stocksy United), short-term rental platforms (e.g., Fairbnb), financial services (e.g., FairCoop), swapping platforms (e.g., TimesFree), and music streaming services (e.g., Resonate). Recently, in Switzerland, we have seen the rise of the data cooperatives like MIDATA and Posmo. MIDATA (midata.coop) is a Zurich-based medical health data platform coop, where members can share their data (with full control over it) to socially relevant medical research projects (e.g., the COVID-19 symptom tracker, a pollen allergy study). Posmo (posmo.coop), short for Positive Mobility, is a data coop for personal mobility data, which acts as a data trustee in citizen-science projects in transportation and urban development for public administration of the City of Zurich. The thesis will look into charting the design space of the platform coops and understanding their common characteristics when it comes to platform design [3]. The key questions this thesis can look at are What are the characteristics of fair/equitable platform coops? How can they be manifested through platform design? What are the main challenges of data coops? How can they be addressed through coops platform design?

Platform cooperatives [1, 6] are technology-driven member-owned organizations [4] that advocate for social, economic, and environmental sustainability. These organizations tackle issues their members identify in the world of work, and provide network-driven collections of shared things, resources, and data that benefit community members.
Yet, there is a scarcity of research on the challenges of organizing in this way [2, 5]. In contrast to the popular sharing economy platforms (e.g., Uber, Airbnb), which face growing critique of their harmful societal effects (e.g., discrimination, exploitation of labor, extractive data practices), platform coops promote a fairer, more sustainable distribution of goods, labor, and data (e.g., Fairbnb, NYC Drivers Coop) and a stronger sense of community.
Examples of platform coops include online marketplaces (e.g., Stocksy United), short-term rental platforms (e.g., Fairbnb), financial services (e.g., FairCoop), swapping platforms (e.g., TimesFree), and music streaming services (e.g., Resonate). Recently, in Switzerland, we have seen the rise of the data cooperatives like MIDATA and Posmo. MIDATA (midata.coop) is a Zurich-based medical health data platform coop, where members can share their data (with full control over it) to socially relevant medical research projects (e.g., the COVID-19 symptom tracker, a pollen allergy study). Posmo (posmo.coop), short for Positive Mobility, is a data coop for personal mobility data, which acts as a data trustee in citizen-science projects in transportation and urban development for public administration of the City of Zurich.
The thesis will look into charting the design space of the platform coops and understanding their common characteristics when it comes to platform design [3]. The key questions this thesis can look at are
What are the characteristics of fair/equitable platform coops? How can they be manifested through platform design?
What are the main challenges of data coops? How can they be addressed through coops platform design?

The goal of this project is twofold (1) to conduct a systematic analysis of platform coops and their supporting technologies, and (2) to carry out an interview study with members of data platform cooperatives in Zurich. In particular, we would like to investigate what are the main challenges of the data platform coops and of how these exchanges can be mitigated through platform design.

The goal of this project is twofold (1) to conduct a systematic analysis of platform coops and their supporting technologies, and (2) to carry out an interview study with members of data platform cooperatives in Zurich. In particular, we would like to investigate what are the main challenges of the data platform coops and of how these exchanges can be mitigated through platform design.

Dr. Anton Fedosov (antonf@ifi.uzh.ch), People and Computing Lab (ZPAC), UZH

Dr. Anton Fedosov (antonf@ifi.uzh.ch), People and Computing Lab (ZPAC), UZH