Dear members,
Meet.coop started as a project in the early days of the pandemic to provide a commons-focused, cooperative video conferencing option running free-libre software. The project has now reached a point where the current organisational and financial structures are no longer sustainable. We (the Board of Stewards and Operational Members) have therefore made the decision to fold meet.coop and end the service within the next six months.
We are hoping to find a new host organisation to step in, but what this transition looks like is still in development. We will keep you informed as our plans evolve, most directly in our forum. We are connecting with other interested co-ops to better understand our options.
Our overriding goal in this transition process is to ensure that existing meet.coop members can continue to enjoy the service in the knowledge that it is being managed by an organisation that is aligned with the founding values and principles of the project.
What does this mean for members of meet.coop?
We are cultivating two scenarios:
- Finding another co-op to take on meet.coop as it exists now, i.e., a BigBlueButton platform service, and a multi-stakeholder co-op with a community of members. This would likely result in some minor disruptions and process changes, but the service would be available to members through the transition. We don’t know whether the meet.coop brand would continue, but the service, and perhaps the community, would.
- Identifying other tech co-operatives that provide similar services, and encouraging meet.coop members to take up with one of them instead. This option means that you would no longer be using meet.coop as a service; however, you could still support other commons-focused platforms. These co-ops would offer video-conferencing services, but they might not be BBB-based. We would aim to give you at least three months notice in this case before closing our service, so you have time to adopt another video conferencing option.
We’ve accomplished great things in the past three years, starting from an idea, prototyping some practices, and proving that there is a demand for services outside the Big Tech paradigm. Thank you for joining us in this wild and evolving journey! We could not have made it this far without your support and belief in the meet.coop project.
Please post any questions you have in the forum thread… We’ll update you and invite responses, as we know more.
meet.coop Ops Members
Members of the Board of Stewards
. And to ALL our network friends, for contributing and reviewing options over this past half year.
