Violetta is a co-operative technologist who discovered co-ops when the .coop domain was created for the exclusive use of co-operatives. She now leads DotCooperation and Domains.coop, which look after the .coop domain, the Coop Marque and the stories.coop website.
Tell us about yourself! What was your first introduction to co-ops?
I was born in Greece, and I lived there until I was 19 years old, and I decided to come to Britain to study. In 1995 I studied up in the north-east of England, and then in 2002 I moved to London as a young person wanting to start a career. I started working as a temp at a university, and heard about co-ops then because one of the professors had just been involved in creating a top-level internet domain for use exclusively by co-operatives – “.coop”.
Being a kid of the ’90s, I had a fascination with the internet. I joined the team that had worked on this project, a small worker co-operative called Poptel. They’re a lovely bunch of co-operators who have moved on to do other co-op things. So essentially, I got into the world of co-ops through the domain name.
Who looks after the domain now?
DotCooperation LLC (DotCoop) was established by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA-Clusa) of the US in 2002. This is essentially a wholesaler business which has a contract with an internet regulator to run a domain name space, for co-operatives worldwide. But this business cannot sell directly to the users of the “.coop” domain because of regulation rules. And so we have another business in the UK called Domains.coop, a wholly owned subsidiary, and this is the retailer of the .coop domain. But we run them as one, essentially, because the main objective of both is to promote principle six in the digital era and communicate the co-op model using a set of tools – of which the .coop domain is one.
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Through the domain we are verifying that co-ops are really co-ops, and through that, building a database and directory of co-operatives. This directory has been developed by another worker co-op in the UK, the Digital Commons Cooperative, and is being fed into our Cooperative World Map. The directory and map, which also includes a map, open to everybody, not just organisations who have a .coop domain. It also uses the ICA directory and the Co-operatives UK directory and map – which we also helped produce.
How many .coop domains are registered?
The .coop domain was launched in 2002-2003 – and I want to point out the timing, because that was a key moment of the internet. It was still really young back then and over the last 20 years its growth as a marketplace has been exponential. Despite that growth and despite the fact there are 3 million co-ops, we still only have just under 10,000 registered – but I’m proud that so many still understand that your domain is part of your identity and understand how important it is for the co-op movement, that we have our own secure name space that instantly conveys brand identity. If we strip it down, a web address is a string of numbers, but the name becomes part of your brand. And also, because the ICA owns this project, when co-operatives choose to use a .coop domain, their money goes back into the movement.
DotCoop also looks after the Coop Marque and Stories.coop. Can you tell us more about these?
DotCoop’s role now goes beyond managing the domain name space and has the aim of becoming a digital agent for facilitating principle six, promoting the co-operative business model globally and advocating for co-ops. We thought “what other ways can we add value to the users of a .coop domain?”
The Coop Marque was developed in 2014 by the ICA, with the help of UK worker co-op Calverts on the back of the first International Year of Cooperatives in 2012. At the same time, the ICA and global co-op community got together and set up a website called stories.coop to promote the stories of the co-op movement globally.
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There was a lot of traction at the start, but the excitement fizzled out, so DotCoop approached the ICA and said “Well, guys, now 2012 is done and dusted, people have gone back to their normal jobs now, and nobody’s talking about the international co-op movement. How about we take the Marque and stories.coop and add some fire to these two projects?” Because they fit with what DotCoop does constantly – promoting to the world that there is such a thing as an international co-op movement.
Those of us who work in co-ops, believe it’s the best way of working and the best way of living, and so this is our passion. But we have this conflict within the co-op movement, between having an extreme pride in being part of it, then always complaining that we don’t do enough to promote it. Every country is different, but from our global experience, there is a comms and visibility issue, especially in this era of war and rampant capitalism. But the domain, Marque, stories.coop, they are here for all co-ops. These are your tools, co-op movement, come and use them!
It sounds like there are challenges ahead!
Oh, the challenges have been intense all the years that we’ve been operating. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers test, investigate and audit our technology and infrastructure in the same way they do for .com – but there are over 160 million names in the .com domain.
Another challenge is revenue – we’re a very small team of six people trying to do a job that is both technological and sales and marketing, so it’s been a struggle building and sustaining a team and being able to be a good business, while dealing with the cost of living and the cost of international travel as a global business.
And then there is the challenge that the co-op movement itself is so diverse that sometimes there is confusion on how to represent a united identity – so the ICA identity discussion is something we’re watching closely. The Statement on Cooperative Identity guides this. But we need to understand what that does. What does that look like?
The flip side is that all of this provides so many opportunities – if co-ops can tap into them.
How are you going to use the International Year of Cooperatives?
We’re going to be there to support co-operatives around the world in their celebrations. We’re a business that’s owned by the co-op movement, and we’re there to serve them, to provide them with tools. We will also have our own presence – and the Co-op World Map in particular is DotCoop’s way of celebrating the movement, because we’re saying, “Hey, come join this project, because this is going to last beyond 2025 and is the start of another co-operative decade, another co-operative century!” We want to celebrate the diversity of co-op identity around the world and, essentially, celebrate the celebrations.
How do Co-ops Build a Better World?
They build a better world because they have people – their members – at their core. They’re a more human-minded type of business that recognise work is important, but caring for each other while we work is even more so. Different co-ops will have different reasons. For a worker co-op, it’s because of the way people relate to each other and the fact that people are empowered in owning their own business. For a retail co-op, it could be because of what that business is contributing to a community.
But ultimately, I think the main thing is because a co-operative looks beyond a profit, and it’s a business with a conscience.
Find out more at identity.coop and stories.coop
