The DisCO Challenge

Welcome to the DisCO Challenge!

This is a simple exercise to determine if the DisCO Journey is right for you and your group, and is designed to get you up and running as a DisCO in no time. If you're not familiar with DisCO already, check out the DisCO Basics, our introductory website.

The DisCO Challenge takes the first two steps of the DisCO Journey.

Step 1 is all about your group and your reasons for joining the DisCOverse
Step 2 takes you through the Seven DisCO Principles

Just fulfill these two steps, and become a DisCO. For a more thorough experience, we recommend taking the DisCO Journey (DJ), our full featured peer learning experience. The Journey will deepen your interactions within the DisCOverse.

Step 1

The first step in the Challenge involves:

Becoming familiar with DisCO (what it stands for and entails)
Wanting and agreeing to become a DisCO

1.A: Becoming Familiar with DisCO

It’s best if you're familiar with DisCO before you take the challenge. Get up to speed with the DisCO Basics minisite!

DisCO Basics is our online primer. This is an accessible tour of the DisCOverse, with pop-up glossary definitions and resources to create radical economic counter-power. You can read it how you like: start-to-finish, or skip to what interests you first.

Other resources include:

If you're familiar with DisCO, click through to the first exercise.

1.B: Wanting and agreeing to become a DisCO

It takes two to tango, but three to DisCO — the model is aimed at groups, not individuals. Here, we’ll learn more about your group and why it wants to DisCO.

Describe your group, aims and values

Name of your group*

Location*

Number of people*

(Feel free to distinguish between core team members, and collaborators or allies)

Website

Describe your group*

(Tell us about your origins, goals and values )

Why do you want to DisCO*

(Let us know how you encountered DisCO, and why it interests you and your group)

Step 2

Thanks for taking Step 1, you are now a proto-DisCO!

Next, your group can give answers to the Seven DisCO Principles. This is the key aspect of the DisCO Challenge. As soon as you've answered the Principles, you will be a fully-fledged DisCO and listed as such in the DisCO Ball Wiki.

If you'd rather pause here, skip through the next questions and send the survey at the end. You can always retake the DisCO Challenge and progress to Step 2 at a later date.

Some considerations:

We will include short descriptions of the Principles in each question. You can also find more info in:
Your group may already meet some, most, or all of the Principles. It’s more important that you understand and agree with their logic, and describe how you'd like to meet them in the future. Please include any roadblocks and challenges you can imagine.
There is no character count. You can be as succinct or as lengthy as you want.
If you get stuck:
- Post your questions in this thread in the DisCOspace Loomio forum (request access first). Please mention that you're already a proto-DisCO.
- Sign up for the DisCO Journey or contact us for DisCOnsulting.
With your permission, we will add you to a list of Proto DisCO LABS in the DisCO Ball. Give or withdraw your permission below:

I want to be a Proto DisCO Lab*

Yes

No

DisCO Principle 1: Values-Based Design

DisCOs start from values-based accountability: DisCOs are economic organizations where decisions are not guided by profit, but by social and environmental priorities which are embedded in the DisCO's legal statutes and technological accountability tools. In short: DisCOs are no-bullshit and committed to keeping it real.

Describe your group's social and environmental values and how you ensure these are met:*

DisCO Principle 2: Whole-Community Governance

DisCOs build whole-community governance, where decision making and ownership extends to include all who are affected by the DisCO's economic activity. This can include your local communities, clients, suppliers and contributors, as well as the non-human world and its palpable needs.

How do you include members of your extended community into your process, decision making and value distribution?*

DisCO Principle 3: Active Creators of Commons

DisCOs give back to the commons: Commons are self-managed, community-led processes to govern resources and relationships. While capitalism encloses the commons by turning nature into products and relationships into services, DisCO creates capacity by growing new commons in digital and physical spaces.

How does your group nourish, create and steward new commons? What existing commons does it use?*

DisCO Principle 4: Rethinking Global/Local Economics

DisCOs combine local and global in ways that make sense: When a DisCO grows and builds tangible material goods, it does so locally, keeping it real, recyclable and needs-oriented. Meanwhile, any DisCO-created knowledge, solutions, best practices and politics are globally shared over the internet as new commons.

How does your group balance the local with the global?*

DisCO Principle 5: Carework is the Core

DisCOs bring Carework back to the fore: Care, or reproductive, work is routinely ignored or abused in our current economies. Historically, the burden of Carework has disproportionately fallen on women and underprivileged, excluded classes. DisCO values well-being and Carework as much as productive work, and DisCOnauts care for each other and for their living DisCOs.

How does your group put Carework at the center? How do you care for your group's mission, as well as the affective needs of the people within?*

DisCO Principle 6: Origins and Flows of Value

DisCOs are reimagining value: DisCOnomics deal with three types of complementary values: Livelihood work (exchanged on the market), Lovework (voluntarily done for the commons) and Carework (for the DisCONauts and the individual DisCO's mission). DisCO's three value streams inform decision making, payments, work priorities and more.

How do you see the Love, Livelihood and Carework distinction working in your group?*

DisCO Principle 7: Primed for Federation

DisCOs don't scale, they spontaneously self-replicate: DisCO is a copy/paste protocol with an ever-growing collection of tools and resources . It's adaptable by practically any local and cultural contexts. Real-world DisCO LABS are popping up all over the place!

How does your DisCO collaborate with other mission-oriented groups? How can these collaborations lead to Federation?*

Congratulations:
you are now a DisCO!

Completing the DisCO Challenge means that:

With your permission, we will create a dedicated page for your DisCO in the DisCO Ball Wiki. You will be able to update and edit your page. Give or withdraw your permission below:

Consent for wiki page*

Yes

No

The principles will be added to your wiki page, ready to edit as your DisCO evolves.
Your interpretation of the Seven Principles can be added to DisCO's general documentation as examples for other groups.
Most importantly: you're now officially a DisCO, yay! Please tell the world about it:
Add the DisCO logo to your site
Share your DisCO awesomeness on social media!

At this point, you can also book a 30 min call with the DisCO.coop crew to discuss whether you want to join the DisCO Journey or where you're headed next. Welcome aboard! We look forward to hearing about your Journey.