Survey Questions and Answers (Summarized)

Based on your experience, what are the most important functions/features of a website for the platform coop community? In other words, what do you want/expect to be able to find and/or do on the site?

• map/directory & stories/case studies of coops

  • including regional hubs

• understand what platform cooperativism is

• find and contribute articles

• search resource archives (legal, technical)

  • legal compliance info

  • business model examples

• know who is maintaining/running the site

• learn how to start a coop

• a guide as to how to join the consortium (for coops, freelancers etc)

• tap into online community

• events listing

• list of free/OS frameworks 

• maybe a discussion forum (using Loomio or Discourse?)

How do you use the existing website to engage with others in the coop community, if at all?

• I don't

• I go to social media or mailing list instead

• I put my coop into the directory

• I look up conference dates

• I read blog posts, articles

• I look up news (from events)

Describe some activities or ways of connecting with others through the new site that you would like to see incorporated.

• connect/tap in to social media streams or other chats

  • allow open-ended, self-directed participation

• tap into existing content in platform coop community

• map

• forums

• it shouldn't be the purpose of the site

• maybe discussion/comments under blog posts?

• experimental field for collaborative creation of coop / collectively owned digital infrastructures. 

  • how can developers engage?

  • coop repositories for collaborative software developments?

• overview of network/resources available

• share challenges/questions with other coops

• point of contact for coops (connect over shared resources)

• specific points of contact for different types of collaborators - such as freelancers having their own e-mail address to contact

• a way to join the project

What features of the existing site do you find useful?

• archive of content

• blog

• directory (not just the coops but also related orgs)

• get involved/ call to action

• basic info about platform cooperativism

• news

• links to social media

• resources/articles

What is the most important change needed on the existing website?

• archive needs regular updates (including crowd-sourced submissions and motivation to do so)

• better search engine (allow for searching date range, most recent, RSS feed, etc)

• landing page needs a clear, concise definition of Platform Cooperativism

• post links to livestream video recordings from past events/conferences panels

• provide connections to other platforms

• need a "how to start a coop"

• easier sign-up/onboarding to join the movement/other coops etc

  • ability to reach out to other workers to join their coop, freelancers who want to start a coop etc

• add "profile pages" of coops

• better events listing

• more support for developers

• include regional coop hubs

• right now there is too much text info/hierarchy in the structure

  • make it interactive 

  • make targets more clear

  • more specific and granular organization

Are there any websites that you find particularly engaging and useful? What are the specific features and/or design characteristics that you like and why?

• http://www.co-oplaw.org/

  • narrow and specific focus, full of easy-to-find information

• https://techaction.nyc/

  • interactive, useful, entertaining

•  https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org:

  • very simple, basically a wordpress site, but does a good job of conveying information. 

  • Any well-designed advocacy and research news blog could be a good example

• Airbnb https://www.airbnb.ca/ 

  • visual appeal

  • clear call to actions

  • showcases what it is all about by displaying a large number of interesting examples on the landing page

• World Economic Forum https://www.weforum.org/ and the Climate Action Tracker websites https://climateactiontracker.org/ 

  • information on various topics and areas arranged in drop-down boxes

  • pill buttons, etc. 

  • Focus on freely flowing, coherent, nested HTML and CSS elements over slower-loading and less flexible JavaScript elements, 

  • Succinct descriptions of the purpose of each page, and what users can hope to do with the information on each page. 

  • clear, bolded, elements of the site that encourages and entices users on how they can take action on issues.

Overall Summary