Thanks for all the great solutions, I’ll be looking into your advice. Like you said it is definitely a massive project for a beginner, I’m going to take it a step at a time, and maybe do a smaller experimental app first to get my bearings. The good thing is I’m not in too much of a rush so I have time to learn.

My current thinking is that the vote is electronic but you get a paper receipt with a bar code or something. Not sure how it will turn out, like many of these apps it’s a whole project in itself

I was thinking lemmy because of the voting structure. Since it’s internal discussion it could be used by the management to gauge sentiment in the company. It wouldn’t be for federation.

You’re probably right about it being too complex though, just not sure if there’s a lightweight option that’s a closer match than discord discourse (does discourse having voting?). Something to consider.

Sorry I know that’s a bit unclear. The “staff roles” and “managers” are roles that the CEO is able to assign to staff through the software. In other words, it’s the mechanism the CEO uses to construct their hierarchy. Same with performance metrics, those are written expectations that would be entered into the system for each person’s role.

Hmmm, doing some research on containers now, and it does seem like the right way to do this. I’m still learning about server architecture but I didn’t mean to imply it had to be a monolith, the key is it having the capabilities I need.

I’m going to look into Docker and see what I can deploy on it. Seems like a good first step.

Thanks

Yes definitely a beginner with anything networking or web design.

Modular is good though, ideally I would like to bring them all together as one package to share as open-source. I don’t know how that would work with permissions for the applications, but I imagine it would be OK with most (foss) licenses.

There are also some things that might need customization. For example, the value of someone’s vote is determined by the equity recorded in the accounting books, so those two applications will need to share information.

In any case you have given me some direction and I appreciate it, thanks.

I paid $160 for my electricity last month. This month the bill came and the watt-hours used was the same but the bill was for $200.

Hello Jacob,

Great post, I think it’s important for us to have discussions about actual solutions that we can begin implementing now for the future we want to see, which is why I’m working on a management structure for a new type of worker’s co-op. I think it fits right into the solar punk ideal, or at least I hope it does. More importantly it answers your question.

In your wiki article you mention that hierarchies in the workplace are often abusive, and I wholeheartedly agree. The problem, as I see it, isn’t the hierarchy itself, it’s that the hierarchy was never elected to their positions, so they have no reason to act in the best interest of the workers. Normally a CEO or other officer gets their position through generational wealth or nepotism, or some other corrupt reason. I would like to correct that.

Most co-ops remove the hierarchy entirely, and while that does remove the abuse, it comes at the cost of lowered overall productivity and strategic direction. So instead of removing it, in my co-op the hierarchy component of management is still there, led by a CEO, but that person has to present a business plan to all the worker/owners and be elected in a popular election. I call this Hierarchy by Consent. They are then empowered by the group to enact their business plan.

I posted earlier today on this sub if you want a more detailed explanation, but if you like you can instead head straight for the draft Articles of Association. I also plan to create open-source management software to go with it, so that will be a big project.

Happy to talk more here but you’re also welcome to PM if you want to see more of my project.

Cheers!

Yes, specifically with a hierarchical management structure for productive work. The idea is to put together a standard template for people to use to found these companies.

Are you aware of a comparable template?

EDIT: Just wanted to expand a bit on this. In my research I did come across this document, which is a template for a set of bylaws for a co-op. It has a Board and it does have a President, but the President’s responsibilities are as follows: “preside at board and membership meetings and will exercise and perform such other powers and duties as may be assigned from time to time by the board of directors.”

So it lacks a CEO or any kind of executive officer, and unlike my AoA, it doesn’t mention business plans at all. I have other issues with it, but I did consider it when writing my template.