Platform-Cooperativism

The 3³ Laws of Cooperative Robotics (Plus Zeroth) A Systems Analysis of Platform Economics With apologies to Isaac Asimov, whose Three Laws of Robotics inspired this framework’s structure Authors: Liana Banyan Research Collective Date: February 2026 Status: Working Paper — Peer Review Invited Abstract This paper presents a formal analysis of nine interconnected economic laws governing value flow in cooperative platform ecosystems. Unlike traditional platform economics, which optimize for extraction, these laws create a closed-loop system where value preservation and distribution are structurally guaranteed rather than policy-dependent. We demonstrate that the laws exhibit emergent stability — perturbations in one law are dampened rather than amplified by interactions with others. The paper contributes to platform cooperativism literature by providing a mathematical framework for designing extraction-resistant economic systems. ...

The Solidarity Stack — Built, Not Theorized An Open Letter to Trebor Scholz Dear Professor Scholz, You and Mark Esposito just published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review that a democratic AI cannot simply rent space on the extraction stack — that workers, communities, cooperatives, and public institutions must reclaim ownership of the infrastructure itself, layer by layer, from the earth to the cloud. I read that and recognized every layer. ...

Governable Spaces — Now With an Actual Governance Stack An Open Letter to Nathan Schneider Dear Professor Schneider, Your 2024 book Governable Spaces argues that democracy has been hindered by the dominant designs of social media — and that we need to enable more democratic practice in daily online life. You’ve spent a decade asking: what would it look like if platforms were actually designed for democratic governance? I built one. Nine years. The governance stack is operational. ...