
Why you should hire a tech co-op - conatus
https://outlandish.com/blog/why-you-should-choose-a-tech-co-op-for-your-next-project/
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agentgt
I can't figure out why Co-ops (particularly education institute backed)
haven't really taken off in the US.

For example my alma mater Georgia Tech used to offer a Co-op program but I
believe they discontinued it.

Northeastern here in Boston from what I have heard from others had serious
problems with adoption of the Co-op program (I have to find the citation where
I also read this).

Of course this was a few years back so maybe Co-ops are in now?

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jasode
_> I can't figure out why Co-ops (particularly education institute backed)
haven't really taken off in the US._

I'm not familiar with what "education institute backed" means. Does that mean
GTech provided initial seed capital to the co-op for free? If so, how much
money was it?

To the general question of why co-ops are not prominent, it's because the
_workers_ don't have significant money. By definition, the co-op is owned by
the workers and therefore, the workers need to fund the business. That limit
on investment is why co-ops are often smaller businesses like consultants
sharing an office & a laser printer or farmers-&-market collective. I also
made a previous comment about it:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165966](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11165966)

~~~
agentgt
I had a complete brain fart and thought they were talking about education co-
op which is more like an internship (sadly I skimmed the article... poorly).

I am surprised I wasn't downvoted (I deserve it) to oblivion for such a
mistake.

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kingbirdy
This seems like it's just a pitch for this company - what's the actual value
of the article?

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bussierem
The value of the article is the advertising - I could tell just from the title
that it was almost certainly written by someone employed by a "tech co-op".
I've never seen an article like this introducing a concept and why it's so
great without it being written by someone financially motivated to do so.

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heliosAtwork
The concept sounds interesting. Are there any successful tech-coops in the San
Francisco bay area that people are aware of?

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conatus
I don't know of any off the top of my head, but I do know that substack, James
Halliday, who is behind Browserify has launched a tech coop
[https://bits.coop/](https://bits.coop/)

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megamindbrian
I hired from a tech-coop and the person didn't do any work.

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cortesoft
Yeah, because the status quo is to 'do the work you are hired to do', and they
disrupted it.

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31h
> we reinvest our own profit into new projects that we believe are going to
> bring about real social change.

So what? Why is there an implicit assumption that if someone is trying to
bring about "change", that it must be good?

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everestjustleft
I believe the "good" is implicit mate.

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31h
Pardon if I don't give someone credit for asserting they support "social
change" without specifying what they're changing. It could mean anything from
"ban mosques in London" to "free condoms with every middle-school lunch".

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conatus
What social change we want to cause is: a) decided democratically by those who
have done the work. b) subject to a rigorous "theory of change" (of the kind
used by charities and the third sector) to decide on potential impacts and
side effects of any change caused and to measure how much change has been
caused.

So we don't just do change for changes sake but try and cause positive social
change. We talk about this internally a lot and have robust consent based
decision making processes to be "checks and balances" on these matters.

~~~
31h
_a rigorous "theory of change" (of the kind used by charities and the third
sector) to decide on potential impacts and side effects_

I see. Sounds like "very rigorous maritime engineering standards".

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conatus
I work here. AMA.

~~~
drcongo
Not really a question, just wanted to pat you on the back for the exceptional
work on the NHS and school cuts sites. They were both highly effective
(anecdotally I believe they played a not insignificant part in the general
election) and really, really well done.

~~~
conatus
Thanks a lot, extremely kind! We are very very pleased to have made a
difference. :)

