'Solidarity Economy' Information Systems

[Yasuaki Kudo]

Hello!

I remember that last time I asked about Free Software "CRM" systems and we had 
a valuable discussion.

Since then my thinking has evolved during countless hours of discussions with 
my friends and colleagues in cooperatives and associates groups.

At this time (it will probably still evolve 😅), I think that we ought to have 
an IT System (I call it something like Solidarity Economy Information Systems) 
with the following characteristics:

* The system will be minimalist and constructivist - the use of complicated 
external libraries are generally discouraged and if we must, to be done in a 
controlled fashion.

* All the core systems to be developed in Free or Open Source License
 
* No black box service allowed

* There will be shared services such as database and messaging for the network, 
accessible by API

* All participants, including "Producers" and "Consumers" are co-developers of 
the system

* There will be General Assembly and various other appropriate organs, 
periodically reviewing the overall system design

* 'Information Asymmetry' is considered very harmful.   Documentation, 
Education, Tutorials, pair programming, etc will be emphasized and everybody 
will be encouraged to provide them unconditionally. Where a person is engaged a 
highly technical domain, the very minimum requirement will be to train another 
person and that person will repeat the process.

* Software contractors will understand the concept and voluntarily register 
themselves as practitioners.

* Contractors for the customer specific code, which can be added in an integral 
part of the system are expected to also make contributions to the core system.

* The aim of this network is to empower the participants - it is expected that 
it will lower the cost of producing the custom software that organizations and 
individuals require.

* Primary target customers are those in what I call 'Solidarity Economy' sector 
- such as worker coops and other cooperatives.

...
and I can go on with so many more bullet points but will stop here 😄😄.

If this interests anyone, let me know - we can do it together!

-Yasu