Two weeks ago We Are Open Coop went to Amsterdam to join the MozFest House at Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. For us this was not only another lovely opportunity to meet up but also to join the festival for some great sessions, conversations and free coffee that was actually not free.

This year’s festival was all about trustworthy AI and the things that are connected to it. We joined some interesting sessions about AI ethics, chatted about AI Literacy, listened to panels about online power structures and spoke on a panel focusing on “Collaborating in the Digital Public Space”. We even sat underneath an old beautiful tree and talked about what transparency and bias means to us. Check out all of the official photos here.

We also ran a session called ‘Fostering Transparency and Building a Cooperative Economy’. We introduced the idea why we should build a cooperative economy and gave some co-op history background. Ever fans of participatory sessions, after a short introduction, we collected questions from the entire room. We took notes while people were talking and then broke into themed groups. We answered questions and had meaty conversations aboute governance, workflows and things to keep in mind when setting up a co-op.

Here is a link to the slides.

Want to go further? Great! Here is a course that we wrote for workers.coop that helps people that want to set up their own co-op.

We were pleased to be at the 2023 MozFest House. We felt the energy to advocate and work for a healthier internet and brought a backpack full of ideas back home. We want to thank all the people that organised the event, helped with volunteering and made it a special place to meet.

Co-written with Laura Hilliger & Doug Belshaw

All images CC BY Anne Hilliger