In this episode of The Learning Curve, I spoke with Daniel Bingham, the founder of Communities. Communities is a new social media platform, similar to Facebook, for building and organizing community. Daniel is building it into a multi-stakeholder co-op model, where users and employees will have a voice in platform decisions. 

We discuss:

• What Communities is, why Daniel started it, and what he hopes to build with it

• What the Fediverse is and Mastodon vs. Bluesky

• Limitations of the Fediverse & Bluesky

  • Check out my Social Media Alternatives article for more information on Bluesky, their AT Protocol, and Blacksky, Skylight Social (platforms built off of Bluesky’s AT Protocol)

• Why starting a Tech Co-Op from scratch is hard

• How tech funding typically works (I learned a lot!)

• Building out the Democratic Economy through co-ops 

Through our conversation you can hear the huge amount of thought, dedication and work Daniel has put in to create a co-op social media platform, despite being on "legendary mode" to start a tech co-op.  

Communities Links

• Website

  • iOS App Link

  • Android App Link

• Ways to Donate & Contribute

• Contact Daniel

Links to Items Discussed

• Facebook & Instagram Content Moderator Abuses in Africa and around the world: 

  • Kenyan sub-contractors working for Meta suing for better labor protections, April 2025

  • Institution for Human Rights and Business article on Meta’s worldwide labor abuses, June 2025

  • Sama, Meta’s contractor, lays off 1,000 staff in Kenya, April 2026

• 99% Invisible podcast episode on NYC 311 System

• REI Union & Boycott

• Andor: Nemik’s Manifesto

• Enshittification Wikipedia Overview, the book Enshittification by Cory Doctorow

For more information about co-op structures across the economy, check out Episode 1 with Matthew Epperson (Video, Audio). 

Listen to THE FIRST EPISODE of The Learning Curve!

I spoke with Matthew Epperson, a solidarity economy practitioner, educator, and community organizer by passion and by training, on shared ownership structures.

We discuss shared-ownership models like Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP), worker and consumer co-ops, different company examples, how employee ownership works with unions, and what is giving us hope in the shared ownership space.

Join Matthew on Zoom April 29th at 2 pm EST for the Boston Impact Initiative's Advancing Regenerative Capital (ARC) fellowship showcase! He'll be presenting for the Hive Mind Community Investment Cooperative, a multistakeholder cooperative permanently affordable housing fund focused on housing historically marginalized folks in the Deep South.

Resources & Ways to Connect

• Matthew Epperson’s LinkedIn

• Employee Ownership Centers by state

• Local Co-Op Development Centers affiliated with CooperationWorks!

  • I also recommend searching for “co-op development center [your city/town]” to find those unaffiliated with CooperationWorks!

• US Federation of Worker Cooperatives: Co-op directory to find ones near you

• Co-Op Development & Work Resources: job-finding, professional development, training and education, and connection among the co-op and solidarity economy sector.

• Union Toolkit for Cooperative Solutions: report from CUNY (City University of NY) School of Labor & Urban Studies on strategies used by labor unions to support shared ownership like co-ops and employee-owned businesses.  

Links to Items Discussed:

Companies: 

• Mondragon

• Resonate: Note, Resonate seems to be defunct/not accepting new members, but Subvert is a similar music streaming co-op. 

• FairBnB (Website seems to be down temporarily)

• Driver’s Cooperative (NYC) 

• New Era Windows Cooperative

• South Mountain Company

• Apis & Heritage Capital Partners 

• EB PREC (East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative)

• Walmart & other major national chains’ employees requiring government assistance. 

• More info on REI, Patagonia. 

• Room & Board

• Bob’s Red Mill 

• Correction: Joann’s Fabrics article

Media:

• The Take documentary

• “From Founder to Future” by John Abrams 

• Margaret Mead Quote: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Notes on Production

This is my first time making a podcast, let alone a video version! I produced and edited it myself, so if there are some minor audio issues I apologize. I am learning, and while there are always ways to improve I'm really excited with how this first episode turned out.

I also made the theme song myself! I hope you like it, it's the first piece of music I've published and I'm quite proud of it too :)

Feedback: I'd love to hear from you on the episode content - was it helpful, clear, or felt like something was missing? (Please be nice - I'm aware that I say "um" too often, I'm working on it for the next one!)