Welcome to “perhaps the geekiest of all cooperative organizations on the planet!” The Data Commons Co-op greases the flow of data between communities in the cooperative, solidarity, new, call-it-what-you-will economy. The co-op not only serves these communities, it is owned by them. The Data Commons Co-op, like a food or housing co-op, is owned by its members. The members have some fundamental differences, and many differences of emphasis and priorities. But like the Judean People's Front, the Judean Popular People's Front, the Campaign for a Free Galilee, and the Popular Front of Judea, they have a lot in common. This co-op is a way to share the cost of tending a commons of overlapping data, and realizing the benefits that brings to all.

Are you part of a community that should join? Send in an application. Dues are on a sliding scale starting at US$100, with waivers for no-budget groups. You don't have to be a co-op to join. You don't have to be in the U.S. to join. You just have to be trying to change how the economy works for the better in your bit of the world, and be interested in pooling knowledge systematically with overlapping communities. The Data Commons Co-op is committed to voluntary and open membership, open to all persons able to use its services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.

Get ready to beta-test!

The Data Commons is working on making sharing data easier, faster, and cheaper. There are three ways to do this: shared agreements on how data gets used, shared methodologies on how data is collected, and shared tech for keeping data up to date and in line with the wishes of data owners (the people data is about).

We are ready to start getting feedback on our beta-version Data Use Agreement. The agreement does a few things: it enshrines data sovereignty of Data Owners (the people that we have data about) as an important principle. It outlines rights and responsibilities of data gatherers and data users, including respecting the wishes of data owners. And it makes sure that those agreements and principles apply to any sharing with new data users.

We are also working on a shared worksheet on data fields and how to collect data in a way that can be comparable. The biggest area of needed development right now is how to gather data on supply chains for solidarity/cooperative economy entities! If you are working on this or would like to get involved, let’s talk. You can email info_at_datacommons.coop.

Join us remotely at CommonBound!

Next week will be the amazing CommonBound conference 2018. If you are coming and you are interested in how we share data for the new economy, please sign up for Data-Mapping for the New Economy:

The movement needs good data about itself—and to be relevant data must be FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. This gathering will bring together organizations and researchers working on gathering information on the “new” (social/solidarity/cooperative) economy to come to a shared understanding on basic issues such as taxonomies (categories and definitions), technical infrastructure needs, and good practices for gathering, sharing, maintaining, and displaying data. All are welcome, but this will make most sense to those who spend time and resources on these tasks.

If you can’t be there, no problem! We are going to be broadcasting live through Zoom, so you can join by video conference or phone. Here is the invitation (please forward it to your friends and networks):

Hi there,

Noemi Giszpenc is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Data Sharing for a New Economy
Time: Jun 22, 2018 2:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: [https://zoom.us/j/526468289](https://zoom.us/j/526468289)

Or iPhone one-tap :
US: +16699006833,526468289# or +16468769923,526468289#
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 876 9923
Germany: +49 (0) 30 5679 5800 or +49 (0) 30 3080 6188
Mexico: +52 554 161 4288 or +52 229 910 0061
Canada: +1 647 558 0588
United Kingdom: +44 (0) 20 3695 0088 or +44 (0) 20 3051 2874
Meeting ID: 526 468 289
International numbers available: [https://zoom.us/u/cPGobaxUV](https://zoom.us/u/cPGobaxUV)

We are going to be populating this document on data sources and methodologies. Feel free to add comments and questions before, during and after.

Looking for Credit Union data?

Thanks to solidarity economy researcher Craig Borowiak, one of the lead researchers behind solidarityeconomy.us, for these tips on getting the latest information on credit unions from the National Credit Union Administration.

  1. Go to the NCUA homepage: https://www.ncua.gov/Pages/default.aspx
  2. At the bottom of the page, look for heading “Credit Union Analysis”. Beneath that you will see a link to “Call Report Data”. Click on that.
  3. That takes you to: https://www.ncua.gov/analysis/Pages/call-report-data.aspx. Click on “Quarterly Data”.
  4. That takes you to: https://www.ncua.gov/analysis/Pages/call-report-data/quarterly-data.aspx. Click on whichever quarter you’d like.
  5. That will download a zip drive of files. To find current credit union addresses, select “Credit Union Branch Information”, which is a comma separated text file. You can then convert that to a CSV file in Excel.
  6. There’s loads of other credit union data besides contact info.

Happy credit union data updating!

2017 AGM & Call for Nominations

The Data Commons Cooperative is having its next Annual General Meeting on September 8, 2017, from 3-5 pm Eastern.

This will be a Zoom video conference meeting. See instructions below.

Interested in nominating someone or running for the board? Each member may nominate up to two people! We have up to four board seats open and are looking for candidates. Nominations are due IN WRITING by Wed, August 30. Please include the candidate’s name, relationship to the DCC member, preferred pronouns, and short bio. Send nominations to info@find.coop. Thanks!

Topic: DCC Annual General Meeting

Time: Sep 8, 2017 3:00-5:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/508777659

Or iPhone one-tap (US Toll): +16465588656,,508777659# or +14086380968,,508777659#

Or Telephone: Dial: +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll) or +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll)

Meeting ID: 508 777 659

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