Realizing the current legal and economic limitations, we have democratically decided to register Coopon SciTech, as LLP firm, under Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India. We desire to operate with Cooperative principles, with a Free Software and Hardware Ethos, making us a Worker Owned Cooperative, in particular a operational cooperative.

• Firm Deed - common rules, protocols - for legal requirement.
• Legal Procedure - formal registration/renewal process to follow

Apart from working members, Coopon requires proper material and immaterial infrastructure to operate and function properly. This includes Place to work, Tools, Services, Learning Resources, Tutorials, Books, Guides etc…

• Infrastructure, Tools, Resources
• Learning Tools & Skills

Only if digital sources are made freely available on the Web, only if the same tools can be applied because they share compatible structures, only if diverse digital collections can be integrated to yield an interconnected whole, and only if it is possible to combine the power of computing with the power of the human mind in the analysis of sources, will a set of data turn into a meaningful representation of human knowledge.

It is fundamental to know that the ownership of the cooperative is equal for its registered members (legal and organizational). To properly manage labour and revenue we need to have proper understanding of :

1. Quantification of Contribution (Labour).
2. Quantification of Skill & Experience.
3. Quantification of Remuneration derived from overall Revenue of Coopon.

Quantification means measuring something and representing that measurement with a number and a unit. For example, 10 commits, 5 hours of work, etc.,

Experience dictates that without a system of measurement of contributed labour, it is cumbersome and impossible for a member to self manage so that they could not effectively get better at what they are interested or skilled in. With time when we engage in more number of projects as a business firm, we are going to get more entangled with tasks, time and revenue missharing.To avoid this dirty situation (the tragedy of commons) and unnecessary confusions and keep things simple, there is a need for:

• System for Project Management: Client requirements dictate the number of tasks and feature a project required to complete. A system to help track and manage tasks, commits, contributed work hours, all focused towards managing projects that a member contributing for. It is a social strategy where completion of tasks/features/issues/tickets needs account of - finally to derive how much a contributing member has worked for? Depending upon the complexity, skill, and experience, completion rate varies, and thus the number of working hours varies. This not only helps quantify how much a member contributes to a particular project but also how one must manage the total optimum/reference working hours for the cooperative. We have decided to use Gitlab cycle management system for it.

• Time & Health Management: From improper delivery (rough, incomplete follow-up, internal conflicts, nonlinear situation) - a proper time management practice is necessary, for every member to manage short & long term responsibilities, goals, learnings. This might require a simple timetable customizable for each member, associated with git issue boards for micromanagement, logging, accountability. This, in turn, might avoid :

1. members to working overtime per day.
2. members tired due to late-night work.
3. disturbed sleep cycle
4. cognitive dissonance or idiosyncrasy
5. increased internal conflicts due to labor mismanagement
6. depression, inferiority because of difference in skill, expertise
7. self-hating because of inability to complete tasks
8. self-hating because of inability to spend the necessary time with family, loved ones, have fun…

• System for Calculating Remuneration: From the project management system we shall derive how much a member contributes for a particular project from the available 120hr reference working hours for the cooperative. If one finishes early depending upon the skill and experience, the remaining hours shall be used to contribute to some other tasks/issues or might be spent to skill up themselves again through contribution (active learning). This is an accounting process where we have to address equality not limited to coopon ownership, but also in remuneration - until we reach a stage where each of us gets decent financial sustenance to support us and our families - reality.

• System to self assess skill and knowledge: While actively contributing and earning entitled remuneration, with measurement and feedback, one also gains skill, experience and knowledge of how cooperative is functioning and what one needs to know, share, learn, practice for cooperative to sustain and walk on its vision, goals, and dreams. Thus working makes us learn, and it needs a periodic self-assessment in qualitative and quantitative means from each member of coopon. Having transparency in this will also allow others to see to others know. Thus through this, we can able to answer: known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns. This will also give us confidence at individual member level to assess our collective skill and confidence, the courage to work on flagship projects, take on new, challenging and projects that align to our principles. For now, we are using the wiki, to address skills associated with project particulars as well as skills as a collective too.

The strategy illustrated above not only allows us to normalize revenue based on projects, duration, and labor. This reinforces, that any particular member is not isolated and always has influence in collective sustenance, which in turn will influence their sustenance. This will eradicate/minimize the incentive/greed for any member to freeload or think selfishly, while also act in favor to generate more mutual benefit or revenue - by participating in self-managing and organizing, allowing them to practice principles of cooperative in reality, by upholding transparency.

Above management requirements necessitates proper self organized, self paced, self disciplinary strategies and habits among each member of the cooperative. Organizing policies must guide the cooperative and its members to stay healthy on organizational track and roadmap. Such as:

1. Office Timing Policy
2. Leave/Attendance Policy
3. Adversary/Questioning Policy
4. Knowledge Transfer Policy

We like to self-finance ourself through some investment strategy. However we are also open for collaborative funding, crowdsourcing for a common cause, Government or Institutional or Foundation fundings that does not seek any profit-maximizing goals. We shall be answerable and accountable to the promised deliverables and reasonable returns but any preemptive strategy from the funder to extract profit from us or using Coopon as scape goat, we must terminate such contracts beforehand. If sensed late, we must adopt protocols to terminate for good.

Current Full-time or Part-time members can contribute to the financial supply along with their labour contribution whenever they feel comfortable with it. Every payment will be routed to coopon's account, as cobudget, which will then be routed to the respective member who works as a full-timer for coopon - as they have natural priority as full-timer.

A project that addressing both social/economic problem because of technological disruption requires both intellectual labour and capital supply

We are not a cooperative business that works with the capitalistic enterprise fueling their goals. We commonly agreed to work on projects that has to be connected with the people, to a degree making the solution usable. Thus our revenue is not the only returns we will have. Based on our degree of engagement with the people movements, unions, cooperatives, etc… we will have to worry about the following returns :

1. Labour (Skill) Returns
2. Labour (Work) Returns
3. Political Returns
4. Financial Returns

Bank accounts of individual members will be helpful for other members of Coopon, to be beneficiaries, to credit shared salaries, benefits.

• Bank Account Details

Members who would like to take up projects of cooperative, or in the name of the cooperative, must have an invoice generated to prove transparent in accountability. This requires a standard document to create an invoice for projects that we cover. Such a document can be accessed from the meta repository.