the co-matter podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Sarah Drinkwater is the Director of Responsible Tech at Omidyar Network, a social change venture that works to bring about structural changes that will fundamentally shift the systems that govern our daily lives.

Sarah is on a mission to make technology more ethical and responsible. In 2020 she and her team launched the Ethical Explorer, a collection of tools to help people building software and technology navigate its impact.

In our conversation we talked about:

• The responsible tech movement and what it takes to build software more responsibly and ethically
  
• The future of community organizing on the internet, micro movements and decentralization
  
• Renaissance literature, business books and where to find inspiration to break out of our own bubbles

Listen to the co-matter podcast anywhere by subscribing to iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting app (search for "co-matter").

Follow Sarah at @sarahdrinkwater on Twitter and Medium. Thank you Omidyar Network for making this conversation possible. You can download the Ethical Explorer here.

Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi believes that content on the Internet should be free - a cause he famously went to jail for as a co-founder of the controversial file sharing service The Pirate Bay.

Now, Peter has released a documentary called THE ACTIVIST; a 5 part series for Finnish television where Peter meets with Edward Snowden, Greenpeace captain Paul Watson and other activists to find out what makes them fight for their causes.

Reasons enough for us to take a train to Malmo, Sweden, to catch up with Peter.  In our conversation we talk about:

• How Peter thinks about activism, internet freedom and changing the world today
  
• What Peter learned from activists around the world: how moral integrity drives people to become activists, engage in civil disobedience and break laws to fight for a more just world
  
• Why we can’t fix the system within the system, power is more centralized and activism as a tool is more accessible today than ever before; and what that means for our future

Listen to the co-matter podcast anywhere by subscribing to iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting app (search for "co-matter").

Follow Peter at @brokep and watch THE ACTIVIST wherever you can access it.

More of this, please? Join our mailing list for our monthly digest about the future of community.

Franziska from Adobe Germany talks about their Creative Residency, a program that empowers creatives to spend a year focusing on a personal creative project, while sharing their experience and process with the creative community.

The Guardian's Amanda Michel shares how asking readers to contribute led to one of the most significant turnarounds in recent British media history.

Scott is the founder of Meetup, the platform for people to host and join real-life meetups in their area. Describing Meetup is almost like describing the social web: it's been around since 2002, connects millions of people and is often named in the same category as Facebook, Twitter and other global social networks. Scott has been running Meetup for more than 16 years (he moved into a chairman role shortly after it got acquired by WeWork) and remains one of the most prominent advocates for community in the digital space. It was therefore a special moment when we finally met at a WeWork in New York City in October 2019, sat on the floor and had a chat about the past, present and future of connecting people online. We talked about: - The story of Meetup: how it started in the early days of the social web in 2002 and grew into a global platform used by millions - What happens when people meet in real life. Why the stories that Meetup enables are more important to Scott than milestones achieved - Sustainability: How Scott navigated Meetup over 16 years and sees sustainability as part of the fabric you engrain in your company - The next 10 years of bringing people together. Why we need to deepen our connections, increase our sense of belonging and lean onto each other more Here is episode #25 of the co-matter podcast with Scott Heiferman. Follow Scott at @heif on Twitter. Host or join a Meetup via www.meetup.com Hungry for more insights? Join our mailing list via co-matter.com/mailinglist for a monthly update from the co-matter network covering new episodes, insights, summits & more.

Pop-in calls are short, hands-on conversations where members of the co-matter community call in to share insights about a specific project they currently work on. Today we're joined by the fantastic Kathryn Geels, director of the Engaged Journalism Accelerator based out of London, UK. We talk about: - The Engaged Journalism Accelerator and its mission to inspire, connect and support news organisations across Europe to empower communities and their conversations - The shift in journalism to become more audience-focussed. Not just in terms of subscriptions / advertising revenue, but more in how readers can participate in all aspects of a news organization - Germany's membership-based news platform Krautreporter.de and how they share their insights in their playbook for engaged journalism to help other news organizations break out of their silos - Spain's Maldita.es that established an ambassador program called "Malditos" and an open CRM that allows its community to contribute to the organization - How traditional news organizations can adapt to becoming more community-driven through opening up processes, decision making and letting people participate more Follow Kathryn at @girlondon and @ejcnet. A special shout-out goes to Kathryn's team Ben Whitelaw and Madalina Ciobanu who Kathryn chose to greet in her final remarks on the conversation. Hi Ben and Madalina!

Charles is a co-founder of Are.na, a visual organization tool designed to help you think and create. Some call it the Pinterest for nerds, others an alternative social network that helps you collect and connect ideas with a community of like-minded visual researchers. Are.na has over 100,000 members today and more than 8,000 paying members that financially sustain the platform. In August 2019, we had the chance to sit down with Charles at The Conference in Malmö to chat about topics such as: - How Are.na grew from a group of artist friends in New York City to a global community of over 100,000 members today - Subscription vs advertising: the importance of a business model that aligns the creators of a platform with their members - The Internet as a public square: why we need to create more mindful spaces online to challenge the status quo - Charles' advice to community builders: it's vital to consider yourself a participant of your own community, receive feedback and take your member's opinions seriously Here is episode #24 of the co-matter podcast with Charles Broskoski. ---- Follow Charles at @broskoski on Twitter and sign up to Are.na via www.are.na. Hungry for more insights? Join our mailing list via co-matter.com/mailinglist for a monthly update from the co-matter network covering new episodes, insights, summits & more.

We are introducing a new format to the co-matter podcast: the pop-in call.

 Pop-in calls are shorter, more hands-on sessions than our long-form conversations. For each pop-in call we invite a member of the co-matter community to call in and share insights, learnings and best practices about a specific project they’re currently working on. The goal is to share that knowledge with you.  So we can all be smarter, more inspired and more mindful about bringing people together in the future. Our very first guest joins us all the way from Los Angeles. It’s Annie Malarkey from WeTransfer! We talk about: - Annie's journey to running communications, events and partnerships at WeTransfer after working at Ustwo, Wix.com and NY Media Center.
  - WeTransfer's 10 year history as a creative company and its belief to use technology to support creatives, not make them addicted
  - The story behind "Please Leave", WeTransfer's campaign that encourages creatives to abandon their screens and experience the real world: https://leave.bywetransfer.com
  - Why WeTransfer decided to help pay off $30M of people's medical debt in Los Angeles and how it led to a partnership with meditation app Headspace
  - Annie's approach to partnerships based on shared values and as a way to grow and experiment for a company, rather than purely measuring ROI.
  Here is episode #1 of the co-matter pop-in calls with Annie Malarkey. PS: A special shout-out goes to Sabrina Dridje in NYC who Annie chose to greet in her final remarks on the conversation. Hi Sabrina!

Jennifer and Mara are one half, or two of four co-founders, of Zebras Unite. Spread across 6 continents, 40 chapters and an online community of 4000 founders, Zebras Unite is a global movement that aims to make startup and venture capital culture more ethical and inclusive. At our third Community Leadership Summit, which took place in early September 2019 in Copenhagen, we had the chance to sit down with Jennifer and Mara to find out how it all came about. We talk about: - The story of Zebras Unite: how a movement was born out of an essay on "sex and startups" and the need to change something - How the movement grew from four co-founders to a global community of 40 chapters and 4000 founders - The power of metaphors to change culture, self-organized dance parties and distributing power from the few to the many - A short manual on how anyone can start a movement to solve a problem they truly care about Here is episode #23 of the co-matter podcast with Jennifer Brandel and Mara Zepeda.

Hampus Jakobsson is an entrepreneur and investor based out of Malmö, Sweden. Throughout his career, Hampus invested in more than 80 startups and is now one of the most sought-after investors in the Nordics. Earlier this year, he decided to only invest in technologies that contribute to solving the climate crisis. In August 2019 we had the chance to sit down with Hampus at The Conference in Malmö to chat about topics such as: Why is there no us vs them in the climate crisis? What is the role of nuclear energy in this crisis? Why are we acting like super anxious teenagers amidst this global debate? Here is episode #22 of the co-matter podcast with Hampus Jakobsson.