Basic DisCO Terminology

DisCO uses some specific terms that you'll want to get a handle on. This wiki in particular contains a thorough, evolving DisCO Glossary. Many of the terms used on the wiki, our main DisCO.coop and DisCO Basics website, link to Glossary entries. We believe that reclaiming ownership of language is key for DisCO's aim and, in a sense, DisCO can be described as an "economic-relational vocabulary" that gets us away from the unseen biases and assumptions of normative language.

The Basic DisCO Terminology whittles down the many entries of the main Glossary into a few "essentials" to get you started.

Why so many funny words? Why can't we just talk like normal people?

After 40 years of bullshit neoliberal language (risk premium, derivatives, there is no alternative, there is no society!) it's time to rebel and revel in terminology more suited to changing this dystopian reality we inhabit. If the current language of economics is equivocal and, arguably, specifically designed to keep normal people out of self-determining their economies, we can co-create a new one to describe the much-needed alternatives. We don't expect you to know these terms, this is why we've created the DisCO Glossary.

To better explain our position on language and terminology, here is the introduction to the Glossary, written by Guerrilla Media Collective's Timothy McKeon:

It’s shocking that our mainstream societies have been so removed from the concepts of cooperation, collectivity and caring for each other that as soon as we begin to talk about these ideas in any depth, we enter into the often alienating and exclusive realm of jargon. We live in a world in which terms such as “value sovereignty” and “care work” are used and understood by relatively few people, even though they describe concepts that are very basic and human.

This is why education is such an important part of the DisCO Project. We realize that everyone is entering the DisCO with different levels and manifestations of experience and knowledge. However, if we all want to share in the same discussion, it helps to speak the same language. To this end, we’ve put together this glossary to help navigate the sometimes intimidating language used to describe our specific approach to feminist, commons-oriented cooperativism.

Don’t let this new vocabulary scare you – it just describes concepts that you already feel deep inside, concepts that maybe you haven’t found the words for yet. We have coined some of these terms ourselves, but many will be recognized outside of DisCO as well. Take this language and use it well – it will open up new worlds for you.

You can find the full glossary here. It is continually being added to and reimagined. Because language, like value (and values), is a living thing, never static, never dead.

Basic DisCO Terminology

Beyond the glossary, we also want to clarify some of the nomenclature used around DisCO (the project) DisCO.coop (the "brand") and the DisCO Mothership (a DisCO carrying out the DisCO project).

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DisCO

DisCO stands for "Distributed Cooperative Organizations", and is the name of the overall project.

If we say "a DisCO", we are talking about a single DisCO LAB (see below). We use DisCOs (plural) when we refer to various separate DisCOs.

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DisCO.coop

DisCO.coop is the "brand" name, hashtag and what we use in social media to distinguish us from platforms and mirror balls (although we love those too). It's also our main website domain. We also use DisCO.coop to refer to the DisCO Mothership, although DisCO.coop encompasses more than the Mothership.

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DisCO Mothership

The DisCO Mothership is the organization that stewards the development and implementation of DisCO methodology and tools. The DisCO Mothership is a DisCO Non-Profit (or DisCO.NP) and the organization stewarding development and implementation of DisCO methodology and tools. We are in the process of creating the DisCO Foundation. Unlike our cousins in the DAO-space, we think that organizations are built around people not code, which brings us to…

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DisCONauts

The DisCONauts, who are the crew of the DisCO Mothership. Meet us here! We are working to develop this unique system of governance, related documentation and other educational materials, and DisCO-related projects. DisCO has a federation protocol, where we recommend that any particular DisCO should not exceed 20 members. At present we are 16, and will soon be adding several team members. We're cautious and selective because joining this crew is a commitment that needs to be well understood. In the meantime, we collaborate with people in our close orbit, whom we call the DisCO Satellites of Love. These include past or current collaborators, board members, etc., and can be found here.

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DisCO LABS

DisCO LABS are the individual DisCOs. Every single DisCO is a DisCO LAB, including the DisCO Mothership. There are no hierarchical relations between the Mothership and the other DisCO LABs, we operate heterarchically. The main difference is that the DisCO Mothership is a DisCO Non-Profit that spends 100% of its time creating resources for DisCO generally. Currently active DisCO LABs are showcased here. Other organizations wanting to become a LAB are listed here. The other Labs are DisCO Cooperatives and spend most of their time creating goods and services for their communities, and DisCO is just one part of their mission and/or development plan. TLDR, it's part of who the LABs are, but not what they mainly do.

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DisCO Nodes

DisCO Nodes are individual, but related "sub-DisCOs" that operate under a shared umbrella, or "Mother" DisCO. Nodes may overlap in terms of members, value accounting, mutual support, etc. For example, in Guerrilla Media Collective, there is a translation and copyediting node, a graphic design node and an “agitprop” node (a historical political term which we use lightly to encompass various forms of outreach); Cooperation Jackson has nodes for Economic Democracy and Development, Sustainable Communities and Community Production.

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The DisCO Project

The DisCO Project is the journey the DisCONauts have embarked on, going boldly beyond and all that jazz. The project entails many relationships and partnerships and has been conceived as a series of modular DisCO Blocks. You can read about the project and its many components on the DisCO Project Matrix page. The project was initially plotted as an initial 4-5 year development phase. If you want to help us achieve this, please support us.

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The DisCO CAT

The DisCO CAT stands for Community Algorithmic Trust. It is also DisCO's mascot and the enigmatic author of the DisCO Beat Newsletter and the voice behind DisCO's social media channel. In its algorithmic existence, DisCO CAT refers to all the cultural and structural components of the DisCO Project. All components are modular, concurrent and in Perpetual Beta.

Trust is used in two senses here: first in the sense of the ability for team members to operate with a specific relationship to one another, according to defined principles and common goals. Secondly, “trust” is used as a description of a legal entity that holds the ability to maintain tangible functions like contracts and agreements, and more intangible ones like commonly held values. To build this trust, in both senses, we need to develop and test systems, platforms, software, research and experiments. Our related mission is to spread the word and teach people the magic of DisCO. We’ve organized all of this work into four pun-filled CATegories:

1. The DisCO FLOOR: Our educational web platform. The DisCO FLOOR houses educational resources for cooperators to set up DisCOs anywhere. On the DisCO FLOOR you will find MOOC courses, a reference handbook and wiki, articles, audio and video content, and much more.
2. The DisCO DECK: Our value tracking platform. The DisCO DECK is the interface and back end of the DisCO CAT. This will be a user-friendly, accessible online tool featuring value tracking, accounting, and other tools to support DisCO operations.
3. The DisCO STACK: Our collaborative online tools. The DisCO STACK will be a toolkit of Free/Libre Open Source Software platforms to help people work together using the DisCO Methodology and resources.
4. The DisCO EXPERIENCE: Our research and pilot program. The DisCO FLOOR and DisCO DECK will be developed based on the experiences, data and input of real cooperatives. The resulting case studies plus the mentorship that these pilots will receive make up the immersive DisCO EXPERIENCE.

The DisCO CAT's legs are starting to grow; development in all four of the components is underway. Some components (such as the DisCO Floor and Experience) are further along. As above, a fuller description of each of these can be found in the DisCO Project Matrix page.