The Villager’s Dispatch

035: Newsflash—everything else

Hey there, it’s Harry again, welcome to part 2 of our newsflash—last time we looked at our project work, now we turn our attention to everything else that happened over the last months. Let’s dive in!

Posted by Harry on Nov 12, 2024

New villager approaching: We finally hired a designer!

In August we published a job posting looking for a designer to join our team and also become a co-owner of the company. We did not anticipate the response: 450 people applied from all over the globe, sending us very personal emails, often augmenting them with illustrations, playlists, videos and even a physical letter reaching us all the way from Kairo. We’ve been busy ever since to scan portfolios, conduct interviews and discuss whom to hire. Earlier this week we finally sealed the deal. We’re quite humbled by the amount of applications we got and it’s been tough to turn away so many amazing people. Wish we could’ve hired ten of you! 🥲

Photo of someone sitting across the table at a bar, signing a working contract — Mystery villager signing their contract—we’ll do a proper announcement soon

Last month: team week in Berlin

We are a distributed team, but roughly every quarter we get together in person, to tackle the most wicked challenges or simply hang out together. Again, Sev came to Berlin all the way from Yorkshire and we spent three days co-working, brunching and looking at photos of Berlin in the 90s at c/o. We had a great time, as per usual, and we’ll see each other again in December. Thanks go out to our friends at taz for providing us with a meeting room.

Photo of a team of five people standing in a half circle in an office setting, discussing and pondering a heavy topic — Discussing our hiring decision

Photo of two people standing in an art gallery with large photo prints on the walls, dimly lit, one person blurry in motion — Lost in Berlin nostalgia

Village One turned two in July!

Hard to believe we didn’t write a newsletter about our anniversary: Our company turned two on the 1st of July and we celebrated with many friends, old colleagues and project partners. We had a blast!

Photo of the outside area of a bar, with approximately 20 people sitting and walking around in a casual setting, at night — Can’t wait for our third anniversary already!

Professional development: design, trends and accessibility

Learning new skills is important and this summer we sent Julia to Barcelona, to take part in a “Trends & Brands & Culture” course at Elisava. We also treated ourselves to Sara Soueidan’s fantastic Practical Accessibility course, to level up our web accessibility game further, before the European Accessibility Act comes into effect next year.

Photo of a beat-up suitcase with several stickers on it, two of them saying “Village One” and “People over Profit”, wooden floor below — Village One on tour (not really, but the image was a good fit)

The first #GenoDigital barcamp

Our friends from #GenoDigital organized a barcamp (a conference with a fluid program) all about cooperatives—approximately 70 cooperators from all kinds of contexts met for a day of spontaneous sessions and conversations. Topics included feminist leadership, steward ownership, updates to cooperative legislation, platform cooperatives, digital tooling, community management and raising awareness. What an inspiring and optimistic day! Here’s a LinkedIn recap with a few impressions. The next barcamp is already planned for Feb 28, 2025—get your ticket!

Photo of a large crowd of people, standing on a roof terrace in summer, cheering at the camera and holding up signs that read “Cooperatives build a better world for all”

Doro and Harry teach at HTW, channeling their utopian spirit

In April we went back to school, spending a week with a group of students at HTW University, discussing utopias, dystopias, and their hopes, dreams and ideas around work. This collective social dreaming exercise was super fun and we probably learned more from the students than they did from us. We hope to be back!

Photo of a large workshop room in an industrial building, very bright, with large windows and approx. 10 people sitting around across the room, studying and writing. Table in front, with laptops, cups and bottles. — Beautiful space in the industrial buildings of HTW

Photo of a man and a woman looking at the camera – the former drinking a “Durstlöscher” drink through a straw, with the woman laughing, sitting in a bright room — Fitting right in

Looking Beyond the Tellerrand

Recently I shared a love letter about the Beyond Tellerrand conference on Linkedin, explaining why it’s my favorite design/tech event. Christoph and I are attending the Berlin edition this week on Thu/Fri—say hi if you see us!

Photo of a conference stage with the Beyond Tellerrand organizer Marc Thiele on stage and many people in the audience — Marc Thiele on stage, welcoming everyone to the first conference day

Fingers crossed: We submitted a talk for 38c3

We LOVE the Chaos Communications Congress, organized yearly by the CCC. The first one I attended was 21c3 in 2004 when I was still in school. 👴 Anyhow, a couple of us were in Hamburg last year and also plan to return this December for 38c3. We’ve even submitted a talk in the “Ethics, Society & Politics” track, titled “Democratize work: You should co-own your workplace!”. Go bold or go home, as they say.

Last minute eddit: Unfortunately our talk was rejected this morning, but we’ll attend anyways. 🫠

A woman standing in a sunny street next to a life-sized dinosaur sculpture, smiling — Doro being bold, earlier this year in Bochum

New stickers!

Everyone who’s met us in person knows that we always carry Village One stickers with us. We’ve just printed a new batch and the one saying “Generative AI – Nein Danke” is usually people’s favorite.

Photo of a box of colorful stickers, saying “Democratize Work”, “Village One”, “People over Profit”, “Start Cooperatives, Transcend Capitalism” and “Generative AI? Nein Danke”

Office hours

A while ago we added an open calendar to our website, which allows anyone to book a videocall with us, either a 30min casual chat or a 45min meeting about a potential project. Over the last months more than 60 people did just that—some of those calls were about projects, but most of them conversations about ethical design/tech, worker ownership or cooperatives in general. Truth be told, having multiple of these calls per week can be exhausting, but it’s also wonderful to meet so many lovely and genuinely curious new people. Keep booking those calls!

Photo of two dudes on a video call, smiling, both wearing headphones — Call with the one and only Tommi

German bureaucracy: we passed our first cooperative audit

In Germany, all cooperatives are required to belong to an auditing association (PkmG is ours) which then compiles an audit of the co-op’s activities every two years. We just passed our first audit, which was surprisingly thorough and uncovered a few helpful insights, mostly suggesting small improvements to our statutes. More cooperative procedures: Our board gets elected by all members at least once per year. This time Doro and I were confirmed for another year and Fei will take over Christoph’s role of being the official representative. This may seem like a dull formality, but it’s also democracy at work. Where else can you elect (or unseat) your CEOs?

Photo of a coffee mug that says “Total Fucking Legend“, with red lipstick smeared around the top from drinking

2025 is the UN’s year of cooperatives

The UN officially designated 2025 to be the year of cooperatives, under the motto “Cooperatives build a better world”. Super cool! We shall make an effort to be more visible next year and spread the word about cooperatives, the solidarity economy and worker-ownership.

Photo of benches outside with lots of colorful sticky notes on top and people sitting around, doing an exercise of goal planning — Setting intentions for the next six months, then one year, then five years

Stay in touch, follow us on Instagram!

A while ago Julia started a Village One Instagram account: Find it under @VillageOneCoop. Give us a follow and check out the first couple of posts.

Photo of three people sitting in a café, laughing and smiling at the camera, while drinking coffee and tea — Hanging out at Publix

What’s next?

Onboarding our new designer. Creating clearer roles and more focus. More newsletters and social posts. Planning the end-of-year team week in December. Winning complex, longer running projects next year. Packing Christmas presents. Launching the community we’ve had on our minds for far too long. Publish case studies, at last. Open-source more of our work. Get some rest and stay calm. One thing’s for sure: We won’t get bored!

Photo of three sticky notes saying “Anzug”, “Detailliert” and “Leise”, part of a character scale exercise

Alright, that concludes our two-part newsflash, you’re all caught up now! Got questions, ideas or feedback? You can reach us under hello@village.one. Thank you for being here, take care and talk soon.

Best,
Harry (+ the other villagers)