(2019-04-27) Thompson When Workers Control The Code

Clive Thompson: When Workers Control the Code. Back in 2016, with the help of Morse and Robin Hood, a local nonprofit, they decided to set up their own local, grassroots rival to Handy, the venture-funded (and sometimes worker-maligned) “Uber of household chores.”

When customers use Up & Go to hire a house cleaner, only 5 percent goes to the app (3 percent for transaction costs and a wee 2 percent for business costs

Stocksy is a high-quality stock photography cooperative run by its members

they opted not to give users the ability to rate individual workers.

Trebor Scholz, a New School professor who has popularized the concept of “platform cooperativism.”

of worker-owned apps, where they own and run the market­place themselves. It's a trend that could save the gig economy from itself.

One of these apps is Up & Go, which lets you order house-cleaning services in New York City. The cleaners are trained professionals—many of them Latin American immigrants, who formed worker-run cooperatives long before they ever started thinking about an app.