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Informatik Spektrum

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05-02-2020 | HAUPTBEITRAG

User trusts: broad-based ownership for online platforms

Author: Nathan Schneider

Published in: Informatik Spektrum | Issue 1/2020

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Abstract

This essay introduces what promise a novel broad-based capital strategy—trusts serving platform users—might hold for the online economy, especially as an enabler of more widespread, organized, and democratic user accountability. It draws on lessons from the experience of employee ownership alongside emerging opportunities for other kinds of broad-based ownership structures. User-oriented trusts could enable meaningful co-governance and profit sharing among essential stakeholders, a prospect that merits research and experimentation.

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Title: User trusts: broad-based ownership for online platforms
Author: Nathan Schneider
Publication date: 05-02-2020
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in: Informatik Spektrum / Issue 1/2020
Print ISSN: 0170-6012
Electronic ISSN: 1432-122X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00287-020-01242-x

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