Some information about the #BuyTwitter campaign in the blog of RWGV, my employer (in German):
https://www.rwgv.de/rwgv-blog/auf-dem-weg-zur-twitter-eg/
(We are not involved in the campaign, but we are following it with interest.)
@stefanieschulte is eG in this context "Emanzipatorische Gemeinschaften"? some good info about Mastodon there. From reading what I can from the rest of your employers website the cooperative movement seems to be very advanced in DE and quite entrenched into "normal" society!
@vfrmedia @mattcropp Haha, no, "eG" means "eingetragene Genossenschaft" (= registered co-op). Very German legalese 😉
Yes, #coops are quite "normal" here. The Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken make up an important part of the German banking sector. The organisations behind the EDEKA and Rewe supermarkets are #cooperatives as well. And there are many others... Together, cooperatives in Germany have about 22 million members (among 81 million Germans).
@stefanieschulte I thought it was only in tech that you ended up with the same abbreviation having 2/3 different meanings!
co-op supermarkets are a big player in this region, although the UK co-op bank suffered from bad management and has been sold off to a private hedge fund.
Our co-ops website isn't quite as advanced as EDEKA, which seems to have near real time links to stock levels in stores!
@vfrmedia Yes, but it's important to note that the Co-Op Bank in UK was never a true cooperative (it was a plc, as far as I know). It was never directly owned by its customers, unlike e. g. the local cooperative banks in Germany. This seems to matter a lot in banking. Customers usually don't want their bank to take outsize risk.
@stefanieschulte @vfrmedia @mattcropp a related development is Tridos offering a current account now. https://www.triodos.co.uk/en/personal/current-account-registration/?gclid=CjwKEAjwjPXIBRDhwICRg-DbgHISJADP6QXp60N5MNgYrbagSwmCPg5Dh8sBvvjONMcj7dWjeQAYOBoCHW3w_wcB
Personally I have used credit unions as these have more democratic ownership than the 'co-op' bank did
@NOiDEa @vfrmedia @mattcropp To my knowledge, Triodos is not organised as a cooperative. German GLS Bank, which has a very similar business model, is a coop, though:
@stefanieschulte @vfrmedia @mattcropp no I don't think so - they are an 'ethical' bank. The problem with the credit unions although I prefer their structure is they are quite inconvenient (separate account for your 'debit' card, long way to branch and less developed online). Therefore am tempted by Tridos - wonder if they would consider a #socialcoop model
@NOiDEa @stefanieschulte @mattcropp
there is a well established credit union in my region which has even survived a theft from customers accounts of around €100 000 by a senior manager (he was caught and sent to prison, customers money was protected by security/insurance guarantees). There does seem to be a lower level of online access though (since the decline in use of cheques in UK I've not visited a bank branch in person for years!)
@vfrmedia @NOiDEa @mattcropp Local cooperative banks (and credit unions too, I think) need to collaborate in order to provide good online and mobile banking. This is something German coop. banks have been doing for decades. As a small credit institution, it's usually impossible to do this on your own.
@stefanieschulte @NOiDEa @mattcropp there is also a perception in UK by mainstream that "left" aligned businesses have lower levels of customer service/responsiveness. I think this is falsehood and the level of customer service has declined in *all* sectors as part of the "hidden costs" of 24/7 online society" but progressive orgs may be less likely to use outsourcing in low wage countries to compete on responsveness?
