I've been involved in a platform cooperative myself, CoSocial.ca, though to be honest my participation has mainly consisted of me sending some money (I also bank, buy insurance and sometimes shop through cooperatives). I personally think that's fine - despite what Viraj Desai suggests in this article, a cooperative isn't about everybody getting on the same page to "collectively organize against ceaseless data extraction of our habits, spending patterns, and our deepest selves for the profit of platform giants, and surveillance of us and our communities." Not that I'm not in favour, it's just I have my own priorities, and I'm happy to leave these to someone else. No, the platform cooperative is more about you and me and a few hundred of our friends creating our own version of a service (in this case a social network) so we are not dependent on some company. It's where we meet our individual "economy, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise." So a financial contribution works fine; I don't need to get wrapped up in the politics of it, unless I want to.
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