Collaborating

Version 0.1

Our website outlines types of workers we want to collaborate within creating sustainable systems and culture. Currently, EOTLs code, designs, and other creations are a result of about 70% paid labor and 30% volunteer (or barter) labor. To date, 100% of our funding has been private.

Autonomous Collectivism

We are experimenting with a creative culture we are calling “autonomous collectivism” which to us means allowing people to “do their own thing” but figuring out how to also also lay the groundwork for multiple things to be compatible with a larger group and purpose of EOTL. That larger purpose for us means creating open tools and platforms to empower people, groups, and sustainable producers / suppliers to participate in meaningful labor with a focus on addressing the planets ecological crises.

In simple terms: we don’t like having bosses, nor being them. So let’s figure out how to not “work” for others, but enjoy our labor while we care about (and for) each other. Along the way we can work towards stopping some extinction in the process.

Initial Collaborations

When finding new collaborators, we have found that outlining small, clearly defined projects is a good way of gauging skills, interest, availability, and compatibility. Our process of finding collaborators has, so far, looked like this:

• An interesting new collaborator is found
• A small project outline / goal is defined together
  • If volunteer, non monetary compensation is discussed
  • If paid, a budget of €250, €500, or €1,000 (USD / GBP) is agreed upon
• Work proceeds until the outlined work is sufficiently completed
• Payment is made in cash, bank transfer or bitcoin

We have completed a handful of work arrangements like this, with good results. We are currently creating a short list of proposed projects to make starting new collaborations easier for all participants.

While we wish we had an endless budget to fund whatever inspiring things we want, for as long as we want, the reality is we live under capitalism, and EOTL is not a significant economic actor, yet. As we grow, we hope to balance what money we have, our goals, and offer projects that are “collectively beneficial” as outlined below.

Large Projects

EOTL seeks to create a culture which allows for a maximum amount of autonomy, ownership, and self-determination in peoples daily lives and creative output, in balance with the creation of technologies, tools, and processes which allow for maximum collaboration between parties.

In 2020 the budgets for what we would consider Large Projects have ranged from €1,000 EUR to about €2,500 (USD / GBP):

• Software Engineering
• Digital Hardware Integration
• Design (icons, print, industrial)
• Textiles
• Wood, Metal, or Materials Work
• Bike Courier Work (Currently, Berlin)

Workers retain all rights to their labor. All projects are made open source once they stable and useful for others (if not sooner). Creations will either be strict open source, see Licensing section below

Full Time Work

We want to explore the idea of “hiring” in a way where once a worker is hired they have full autonomy over what work they do and do not do. No masters. No bosses.

Our “hiring” process, to become a Core Team Member is as follow:

• Successfully complete one suggested “Initial Collaboration” project.
• Propose a “Trial Project” in a few short few sentences (or longer, if desired). This can be inspired by one of our proposed collaborations, or be fully a worker’s own idea.
• Core Members of EOTL do a blind vote to accept or deny the proposal. (If denied, the worker can propose another “Trial Project”.)
• When the project is considered completed by the worker, it is submitted.
• Payment of €2,000 (USD / GBP) is made to worker.
• Core Members of EOTL review submitt project and vote to: welcome, decline, or retry.
  • If vote is welcome the worker is “onboarded” to EOTL as a core team member.
  • If vote is retry feedback is given to the worker and they are offered to choose a project from the Initial Collaborations list and given one month to complete it. Another equal payment is made upon completion, followed by another vote.
  • If vote is decline the worker is welcome to retry a year later unless otherwise stated.

Will our ideas produce good, lasting results, and a strong team of collective autonomists? Who knows? Do we want to try experimenting with this? Absolutely.

There is the risk people will work hard to impress us during the Trial Project and then produce little collective value the rest of the year. This would make us sad and difficult to continue the experiment.

That said, we hope to try this experiment with more than one worker at a time to be able to compare results. At present (2020 / Q4) EOTL has spent most of it’s yearly budget and is not capable of offering full time work opportunities. In 2021 EOTL will hopefully formalize it’s legal existence and re-asses our finances. Stay tuned…

Collectively Beneficial

Aside from supporting workers while they labor towards the goals of EOTL, the systems we are creating aim to help people and groups meet their needs in ways which do not always involve payment of money for labor. While we can’t pay traditional rates of the tech industry, working with EOTL automatically makes workers members, which gives them access to the following resources:

• Bulk food sharing like veggies, rice, oats, etc. to reduce the cost of eating healthy.
• Software infrastructure can reduce costs of running a small business or organization.
• Sustainable courier services for free or discounted rates.
• Labor intensive food sharing like tofu, granola, etc. to save costs and be zero-waste
• Equipment sharing of expensive items (video projectors, speakers, food dehydrators)
• Tools commons (drills, electric sanders, soldering kits, etc…)

These resources are all experiments that we are just starting out with. We hope to add many more options in future.

Core Team Members

Being onboarded as a core team member of EOTL gives workers the following benefits for one year following the date of their onboarding:

• Core team members are independent contractors, not employees
• €25,000 (USD / GBP) per year (€2,083 per month or €6,250 per quarter)
• Ability to vote about onboarding new members (budget permitting)
• Automatic eligibility for renewal the following year (vote & budget permitting)
• All other benefits of regular members

The above listed options will be be affected by EOTLs growth rate. The benefits available will likely change. Decisions will be made transparently and collectively. 100% of yearly financial spending will be made available to all members of EOTL with clear and simple explanations.

Licensing

The licensing of work EOTL and it’s collaborators create should be licensed with the following:

• Designs, artwork, audio, hardware: CC-BY-SA
• End-user software: AGPLv3
• Software modules: MIT
• And in some cases: Public domain