Introducing PlatformX: World’s First Worker-Led, Owned, and Focused Online Jobs Platform

PlatformX is an online jobs platform powered by a cooperative social enterprise (business with a purpose).

A Series of World Firsts

PlatformX will be the world’s first and only one of its kind to simultaneously:

• promote various fair-pay job types (microtasks and macrotasks)
• give workers a voice in improving and steering the platform
• have a built-in charitable component and conduct charitable initiatives (thru democratic or community-driven philanthropy)
• provide pro-worker dispute resolution and other benefits
• provide a genuine, supportive community
• offer zero commissions
• promote the spirit of giving, volunteering, and paying it forward to help make the world a better place — faster
• and more!

Backed by volunteer advisors highly experienced in the gig economy, commons, social enterprise, and cooperative sectors, PlatformX will address 15 out of 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) directly and indirectly through various initiatives.

History

PlatformX has roots going back to 2013 and is building on various initiatives I’ve led and joined since 2014, including my website OnlineJobsPlus (Over 50,000 freelancers from 160+ countries have visited my website; mentoring and volunteer-coaching over 5,000 online workers one-on-one) and Stanford University’s Stanford Crowd Research Collective which I’ve joined for three years until 2018 (our published papers are listed here; search for “Jeff Regino”).

At the Stanford Crowd Research project, our PlatformX-related project has been featured in:

• the ILO (International Labor Organization)
• various websites like Wired, Medium, Pacific Standard, The Nation, P2P Foundation, Shares & Workers, Comune Info (Italian), Il Manifesto (Italian), InternetActu.net (French), Le Monde (French), Wired Japan, Gartner’s Talent Daily, Civic Hall’s Vital Sensors
• research-related websites (including Arvix, CiteSeerX, SemanticScholar, Academia.edu, ACM.org, ResearchGate)
• and in books like “Design Thinking Research. Looking Further: Design Thinking Beyond Solution-Fixation” by Christoph Meinel and Larry Leifer, and “The Job: Work and Its Future in a Time of Radical Change” by Ellen Ruppel Shell

Vision

Our vision is an online jobs industry with no exploitation, scams, precarity, and financial instability.

Mission

Our mission is to provide and promote fair pay, financial security, voice, and a genuinely supportive community to online workers worldwide.

Goals

Initial ambitious goal: create at least 100,000 to 500,000 jobs worldwide in 5-10 years.

“50 in 15”: an audacious goal to create jobs, provide skills, and impact the lives of 50 million freelancers (and people around them) in 15 years.

The ultimate goal is to create a Mondragon Corporation-like federation of social enterprises, cooperatives, community land trust/affordable housing co-ops, credit unions, and other impact and job-generating enterprises that will benefit a billion people or more worldwide.

Volunteer Advisors

I’m extremely privileged and thankful to have five volunteer advisors so far (4 public, 1 private). With over 80 years of combined experience, they’re highly accomplished in the gig economy, commons, cooperative, and social enterprise sectors and will help guide me in this arduous but exciting journey.

• Michel Bauwens, Founder of P2P Foundation (Thailand/Belgium)
• Kristy Milland, Labor activist and Founder of TurkerNation (Canada)
• Cliff Southcombe, Founder of Social Enterprise International Ltd. and FairShares Association (UK)
• Sion Whellens, Co-founder of Worker Co-op Solidarity Fund and an advisor and director (UK)

What Experts and Practitioners Have to Say…

PlatformX: Finalist and Top 3 in an Online Global Incubator

In February 2019, I joined the 3-month Leap program by Bridge For Billions, a Spain-based online incubator for purpose-driven entrepreneurs. As part of our cohort’s graduation, we had to announce our work publicly thru social media. And that includes the simple video pitch you saw above.

I did not win our cohort’s competition, but I reached the Finals and became Top 3. And the unexpected icing on the cake of publicizing on Facebook was…

New York Conference Invitation!

In June 2019, I had the honor of getting an invitation from Trebor Scholz (Director, Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy at The New School ICDE) to share PlatformX at the Platform Coop Conference in New York (unfortunately, my non-refundable US visa application was denied!).