Ever wonder what it would be like to be able to submit an new idea or vote on new features with your service and actually have your ideas put into a production environment? As I wrote in my previous post (http://www.davincismind.com/2019/01/25/the-internet-is-evolving-business/) , the internet is evolving business as we know it.

If your a developer, you may want a new kind of cloud infrastructure with a specific configuration that no one else has.  Imagine petitioning for a new cloud infrastructure to have pre-provisioned inside your control panel? Imagine the possibilities and the amount of configurations which a server cluster can have. 

This has become more and more important to have this kind of service due to the the many new kinds of programming languages and platforms coming out. It would be a dream for a developer to decide what kind of environment they need on the fly. Those environments can be pre-provisioned and tweeked toward their liking. Developers would be able to also communicate with others who are interested in the same type of cloud configurations. If by any chance the developer doesn’t want to be on their current cluster, they can migrate to one that is more toward their liking or they can petition to have a whole new type of web cluster created.

The amount of innovation which would occur by developers working together socially and communicating about specific cloud configurations is endless. Imagine if a code share option was integrated into it. The main  idea is to provide as much flexibility into a cloud hosting platform as possible. 

For the novice users, they can vote on specific features they would like to see in their service or recommend changes that they don’t like. Instead of having to find another hosting provider that offers that kind of service and experience all the headaches of migration, they can just vote in their request. An example would be if they wanted to see their website traffic on their homepage instead of having to dig through the control panel to find the option.

Now some people may think a cooperative sounds communistic but in reality it is a true democracy.  Imagine this… You have the United States… Each state is a server configuration with its own users and rules. Each user can migrate to different clusters (or States) if they choose to. Users could also choose to vote in completely new clusters with new configurations. (Create New States). The main difference is there is no limit to how many new kinds of clusters or (states) you can have. While you can vote on different individual clusters, you still have the option to vote on company wide issues. This would be similar to voting on a federal level. Imagine our current democracy digitized and all the bureaucracy removed and ran on a hosting company. 

Now keep in mind, the coop is still under complete control from its elected directors, but their main goal is to veto anything that would be harmful to the company from a vote and to maintain operations of the company. Board members are elected by the customers just as we have elections within our own government.

Note: BAD GUYS CAN NOT GET ON THIS PLATFORM! The reason because each new member is vetted to find out the purpose of the website they are using the service for before they join the service. This will wipe out the spammers and bad or illegal websites before they get on the platform. Instead of finding out about the bad sites later and then having to take action, we prevent the problem before it becomes a problem. This is also why we start our pricing at $100/year and not a monthly option. Though if a user wants to cancel, we will provide a prorated refund. This prevents a lot of fraudsters who just get a cheap hosting account to abuse it via spam or phishing sites.

Last but not least,  If you also calculate the price for the year of service and compare it to other companies you will find that the $100/year is much cheaper than competition, especially with the amount of resources we provide. Since the company is run as a non-profit, money can be reinvested to the company for providing members discounts based on loyalty instead of the worry about new customers. We can also provide better hardware, server and website redundancy, so their websites are never taken down or hacked.

As we continue to grow, we need your help. WebHosting.coop is based on it’s community members and need your input. We want to thank our current members for being with us through our growth and wish to see our community grow and gather more talent to help us bring our vision to life. 

The internet has evolved everything from how we communicate with each other, to how we purchase products online. It has revolutionized commerce and created new industries which operate solely online. Witnessing this evolution we ask ourselves, what’s next? I believe the internet will evolve business much further. I believe a revolution transforming “the way” an online business operates will occur.

A Web Hosting company’s mission is to house websites (e-commerce, blog, etc). Anyone who has a website online has a hosting account at a web hosting company. There are millions upon millions of web hosting customers currently housed at these companies. What would happen if these customers had the ability to speak and interact with each other on an internal social network regarding their service? We have seen the benefits of social networks and we have also seen the growth of the web hosting industry. I believe these 2 types of businesses can merge and become organized under the member owned cooperative association business model.

In business, there are several types of business models. LLC, INC, NonProfit, Cooperative Association. Each business offers really unique benefits to both the employees and the customers. Just as the internet has evolved LLC, Corp, and NonProfit, I believe the internet will also allow cooperative associations to evolve. A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise”. I believe that this kind of business model can evolve to become digital and operate solely online with the main role as a web hosting provider.

Imagine merging a social network within a web hosting company and ran as a digital cooperative association. All customers would be able to talk with one another who share the same service, vote, and help direct the direction of the company. Customers would be able to petition for new features and services and be added so they don’t have to switch hosting providers to get the service they want.

Every company will tell you how important it is to listen to their customers. We have all seen how social networks can benefit or cripple a business. Usually, this is determined by how well the business listens to their customers. Ever wonder what business would be like if the customers had more say in their service? Not just a simple suggestion which can get ignored, but one that could actually have a legal binding impact and force the company to change direction? Maybe you might want just a simple button that does a unique function added inside your online control panel or maybe you want the company to add a new service altogether.

Let’s say, you as a member of a digital web hosting cooperative association, and want a new feature added inside your control panel which allowed you to view your website traffic from the homepage. First, You would submit a petition through the control panel. This petition is then viewed by all other members of the service when they log in. Members can then vote on the petition. If the petition gets enough votes and achieves the threshold, then the petition will be placed on the agenda for the publicly viewed monthly director meeting for final approval or veto. Directors will hold a monthly online webinar where they discuss all petition’s details. During the meeting, Directors will have the opportunity to review and discuss the petition. They then have the opportunity to decide if they want to allow or veto the request.

Sometimes a director may want to veto a request because they find that the request may hinder the company in some way. An example would be if members decided to vote to lower the price of their service beyond a maintainable price. If this request is implemented it could hurt the company. If by any chance a director has to veto a petition then they have to formally write a response and describe the reason why they vetoed the decision. All members will have the opportunity to vote on the response, to determine the validity of the veto. Members still have full authority and can overturn that veto with a ¾ majority on a revote of that response.

If a request is approved, then it will be added to the publicly available company roadmap. When a new feature is added to the roadmap all members will be able to track its progress while in development through an inverted project management system that can be accessed from inside of their control panel. Members will be able to comment on the project status, view code, and make suggestions for that feature during the development process of their idea.

In the process of evolving technology, digital cooperatives can also plan a new way for how our monthly online director meeting will occur. Digital cooperatives could evolve online meeting technology by adding new features to online video conferencing software. Robert’s rules of order are very important in official meetings and they could plan on digitizing this process and pushing through online conferencing software. Members will have the ability to view where on the agenda the meeting is, what they are discussing, and have options for interacting with the organizers. Members will have the ability to 2nd, motion, and all other interactive options offered through traditional robert’s rules of order, within the control panel.

Let alone, having the opportunity to have a say in how the company operates, imagine having the availability to speak to other members who offer the same service as you. What if you could get advice from another member of the service who offered the same service or sold the same product you did? Or maybe get advice from someone running the same kind of software for your e-commerce website is running? There are many yet to be discovered benefits of this kind of service. The potential for growth is astonishing.

Now the above sounds interesting to some but what about developers?

Developers will actually find this business model very intriguing. Imagine a developer having the opportunity to petition new kinds of cloud hosting configurations for the service to automatically provision.  Let’s say they want to petition a whole new service that they need and find out that they were not alone and that other developers in the community want the service also. This business model will accommodate their needs. They would not need to build it on their own and the digital cooperative would be able to pre-provision their needs.

The best part that developers will like is that they will have a say in how the development of the digital cooperatives internal software is coded. Since the development of the software will be shown through an inverted project management system, then they will have the opportunity to make suggestions, view code, and submit suggested code to the project within this system. If a developer submits code and contributes to the project they will be awarded credit toward their service. All digital web hosting code will remain open source.

Good service always starts with the customer in mind first. This idea will revolutionize what it means to be a customer. Customers will have rights and have the opportunity to not only determine what happens with their data but also decide the future of their service.

It’s only when we glance deep into the ordinary do we actually see the extraordinary
Sounds can alter your vision
Your hearing can be deafened by a touch
What is this ordinary thing you see?
Is the sun rising every morning ordinary to you?
As crazy as it sounds, our sense of ordinary is just a variable in the math problem of life
Some answers are finite while others never end
In the search for the extraordinary we find ourselves in a maze of acceptance
It is only when we look beyond our understanding and glance into the unknown do we understand that we really do not understand
Dogs and cats tend to hear noises we can not hear but yet we can see colors they can not
If they could only speak, could they answer what color the couch was?
Although these questions may never get answered we know that all of these extraordinary elements in life share a common thread
Love somehow seems to be the avenue for which the extraordinary hides within

In the transition from night to day
Some might say
There is a sound
That is unbound
The taste of sunlight
And the birds take flight
From day to night
There is much delight
The moon lights up the sky
You just can’t deny
Life in all it’s phases
Spinning in mazes
The good and bad
The happy and the sad
We love and learn
With each of earth’s turn
Each day is new
Each night is blue
Nature flows
And life grows
What a gift to live
To find joy within a parable about a siv
Enjoying life’s drama and glory
Such a wonderful story
In each breath there is meaning
While believing and not seeing
There is a hidden purpose of each step
In my heart a secret is kept
With each season
There is a reason
Love is always there
Even when life doesn’t seem fair
Life transitions from young to old
Remembering what you have been told
Feeling the depth of a soul spilling out
And without any doubt
Understanding history
And not repeating misery
Transitioning from the unknown to the known
The seeds are sown
Love your neighbor as yourself
And don’t put your heart on the shelf
<3