So here we are, email newsletter number 2. And who doesn’t get enough email, right?!
Well, you may be relieved to know that we don’t see email newsletters as a primary communications channel. Call us old-fashioned, but communications is two-way and as much about listening as speaking, and surely this is all the more critical for a group of people co-operating as, well, a co-operative.
So being an email newsletter of a co-operative, its sole purpose is to encourage productive co-operation. It’s a signpost. A heads-up. A flag.
With this in mind, we’re going to adopt a very simple structure that will surely evolve as we learn from each other what works best:
– NEWS: our most important news, opportunities, and needs
– LINKS: interesting stuff relating to our mission.
Note that all newsletters are posted here: https://discuss.diglife.com/c/newsletters
NEWS
// The five goals for September are pretty much focused on preparing to start our mission: recruiting co-founders, the website, content and communications, organizing, and onboarding (see our last newsletter). Feedback on these has identified the need to start thinking about the mission itself; after all, that’s what presses most of our buttons! It’s taking place this week and you can join in right now. If you would like to join a circle devoted to accomplishing any one of these goals, please just say so in Open Chat.
// What declarations of possibility can you make that have the power to inspire you and energize the Collective? All DigLife members are invited to explore this question in a “possibility conversation”, starting now and concluding during our Zoom call, 16:00 UTC Monday July 10th. With as little as 45 minutes of your time, on your own schedule, you can help energize and inspire the Collective as we move towards our planned ‘hard launch’ this September. Please join us! Details are here.
// We’ve had our very first company member join – welcome Cetis (Centre for Educational Technology, Interoperability and Standards), a co-operative limited liability partnership.
// We have a meeting later this month with Which?, the trading name of the UK consumers’ association. Our respective values and purpose have much in common and it makes sense, we think at least, to work together. Perhaps you have connections to similar associations in your country?
// Niloufar Salehi, a 4th year PhD candidate at Stanford, joined us on one of our regular Zoom calls to discuss her experience of and insights into convening productive, distributed teams. See Huddler (PDF).
// Our self-formed tech and governance teams have been working hard on assembling the scaffolding for just such self-organization, including ‘social capital’ innovations. Our Zoom call at 16:00 UTC Friday July 7th is dedicated to the topic, starting with a presentation and demo, and we’d love to see as many of you drop in as possible. If you’ve wondered how all organizations can improve on the old-school command-and-control shenanigans, if you’re keen to see how co-operatives might be reinvigorated for this digital age, if you want to help shape how we’re going to nurture Tech We Trust together, you should be there! (Top tip: download and install the Zoom client in advance.)
// We need a team to develop what marketers might call our value proposition. What benefits can we secure together that we couldn’t achieve individually? While our mission clearly draws people to it, it’s essential as we approach our ‘hard launch’ in September that we communicate tangible value in the near- as well as long-term. Up for it? Then why not join our marketing team.
// Check out our first draft webcopy for our first ‘proper’ website. Looking good? Or gobbledygook? Together we can make it outstanding.
LINKS
// Can the Connected Car be designed as Tech We Trust? This one-pager (PDF) from the Future Of Privacy Forum lays out many things to consider.
// Until recently the redoubt of personal privacy in Europe, “Germany has passed an unprecedented spate of new surveillance and security laws”.
// The market for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) appears to be reaching a tulip-like hysteria. On 17th June, Bancor announced the “largest token generation event in history”, raising the equivalent of US$153m in three hours despite concerns that the proposition is flawed. Moreover, its claim lasted just a few days until on 20th June Status.im’s ICO raised … wait for it … US$270m. And the excitement doesn’t stop there, the digital currency on which these coins are based, ethereum, plummeted at 19:30 UTC 21st June from US$317.81 to just 10 cents. Just 45 milliseconds later (that’s not a typo), it was back up to US$224.48. Cryptocurrencies and ICOs won’t be for the faint-hearted until some fundamentals are fixed.
All the best, Ben and Philip, on behalf of our member relations team.
HELP
How do I join the conversation at chat.diglife.com?
The welcome email included login details, otherwise please email tech@diglife.com.
Where’s the welcome guide?