events

Conflict Systems Zine Launch

Nathan Schneider — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 14:55:36 +0000

Conflict Systems Zine Launch Nathan Schneider Wed, 07/15/2026 - 08:55

August 12, 2026

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time
Virtual

Join us for the release of Conflict Systems, a new zine from the Media Economies Design Lab at CU �ֲ��ý.

The zine contends that many recent sites of community building, especially online, have lacked the tools and norms for the practice of conflict. Many reasonable expectations that go by names like due process, justice, accountability, or mediation are unavailable or not even considered in emerging communities. The platforms that communities rely on treat conflict as a corporate liability, not a chance to strengthen relationships.

Conflict Systems offers an invitation for design, for skill-building, and for tool-sharing. We gather here the ideas of people with experience and expertise that ranges from social-movement facilitation to digital court systems, from user-experience design to family law. Where these perspectives meet, there is the chance to cultivate far healthier systems for supporting conflict in the spaces where people find each other today. Drawing together many lineages of knowledge and the lessons of recent research, this gap is an opportunity.

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Protocol Ecologies Symposium

Nathan Schneider — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 19:53:15 +0000

Protocol Ecologies Symposium Nathan Schneider Tue, 03/10/2026 - 13:53

March 24, 2026
8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain Time
CASE E330, �ֲ��ý

The fate of the world may depend on protocols—from climate treaties to AI guardrails, from Indigenous stewardship to diasporic cultures. It is a concept that has spread far and wide, but scholarship has yet to take seriously the breadth and power of the concept.

This event introduces both the theory and practice of protocols. It features a keynote talk by a leading theorist of protocol media, Johannes Bennke, followed by a panel including Colorado protocol practitioners.

Agenda

8:30 a.m. / Breakfast
9:00 a.m. / Welcome: Nathan Schneider (Media Economies Design Lab, �ֲ��ý)
9:15 a.m. / Keynote: Johannes Bennke (Media Lab for Digital Sovereignty, Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf), "Protocol Ecologies: The Art of Governing between Control and Emancipation"
Respondents:
- Eric Alston (Leeds School of Business, �ֲ��ý)
- Júlia Martins Rodrigues (Media Economies Design Lab, �ֲ��ý)
10:45 a.m. / Break
11:00 a.m. / Panel: Protocol Oral History Project
- Asia Dorsey (Bones Bugs and Botany)
- Drew Hornbein (Ritual Point Art & Divination)
- Rick Williams (People of the Sacred Land)
- Moderator: Nathan Schneider (Media Economies Design Lab, �ֲ��ý)

Hosted by the Media Economies Design Lab at the �ֲ��ý

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From Survivor, to Researcher, to Steward

Nathan Schneider — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:08:01 +0000

From Survivor, to Researcher, to Steward Nathan Schneider Tue, 02/10/2026 - 15:08

March 12, 2026
12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
CASE E330, �ֲ��ý

Watch video

In this talk, Dr. Kay will discuss how their own life's experience fueled their decades-long research on digital harm and how Blacksky Algorithms is taking what was once considered "me-search" and creating a safer internet rooted in self-determination and self-governance.

Dr. KáLyn “Kay” Coghill is a dynamic and award-winning educator, activist, and practitioner who is an outspoken advocate specializing in online gender-based violence, particularly digital misogynoir. They are currently the Community Safety and Support Steward for Blacksky Algorithms, providing content moderation, research, and trust and safety services. Blacksky Algorithms builds open-source, community-driven infrastructure for decentralized social media. With their extensive background in working with Black women and non-binary people to create innovative harm reduction tactics online to combat issues like misogynoir, they seek to work diligently as a trust and safety steward for Blacksky to help mitigate the harms of anti-black harassment and misogynoir. Dr. Coghill addresses pressing issues not only through their research but also through digital content creation on topics such as misogynoir, race, technology, and the nuances of gender-based violence in the digital realm, particularly on social media platforms. They have a passion for protecting Black womxn and girls and dedicate their work to doing just that. Their mission is to continue to build communities online that are safe for Black people across the globe while also finding ways to protect them from harm in the process.

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Launch Event: Open Social Cookbook

Nathan Schneider — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:36:01 +0000

Launch Event: Open Social Cookbook Nathan Schneider Tue, 10/07/2025 - 09:36

November 3, 2025
9:00 a.m. Mountain Time
Virtual

MEDLab is hosting a launch event for the Open Social Cookbook, a product of the 5-month Open Social Incubator. Join us and the participants in the program for a virtual cook out, in which you can hear directly from the contributors to the publication, learn about alternative social network technologies, and interact with members of virtual communities around the world. You will also have the opportunity to order a physical copy of the Cookbook printed and distributed by Binch Press and Queer Archive Work.

Contributions to the publication include tutorials for launching self-hosted servers, explorations of best practice when migrating to new social media platforms, docu-fictional storytelling about community praxis, and much more.

RSVP here, and a link will be sent to you prior to the event to join the virtual space.

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Seeds of Democracy: Learning from the Xingu Network

Nathan Schneider — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:02:12 +0000

Seeds of Democracy: Learning from the Xingu Network Nathan Schneider Thu, 09/04/2025 - 12:02

October 8, 2025
4 p.m. Mountain Time
CASE E330

What if the most effective conservation isn't happening in boardrooms or government offices, but in the hands of Indigenous women collecting seeds along Brazilian riverbanks?

Join us October 8th at 4 PM in CASE E330 as the Media Economies Design Lab welcomes Lia Rezende Domingues from the Xingu Seed Network—a remarkable organization that's proving democracy and environmental restoration go hand in hand.

Beyond Top-Down Conservation

The Xingu Seed Network isn't your typical environmental organization. Born from the grassroots in 2007, this Brazilian collective has grown into a 700-member network where Indigenous peoples, family farmers, and urban communities work together to heal degraded Amazon and Cerrado landscapes. Their secret? Participatory governance that puts decision-making power directly in the hands of those doing the work.

Through their General Assembly—where every member holds equal voting rights—they've created a self-governing system that has:

Restored over 10,800 hectares of degraded land
Collected 220+ native seed species
Generated nearly R$8.5 million in income for collectors (80% women)
Built a transparent governance model documented in their "Collector's Book"

Why This Matters for Governance Ecologies

This event connects directly to MEDLab's Governance Ecologies project, which is building a global repository of diverse governance practices. The Xingu Network represents a powerful example of how traditional ecological knowledge can be integrated with democratic organizational structures to create both environmental and social transformation.

Their approach challenges conventional conservation models by demonstrating that effective ecosystem restoration emerges not from external management, but from empowering communities to govern themselves while working in respectful relationship with their territories.

Join the Conversation

Come discover how seed collection became a vehicle for community empowerment, and how participatory governance can heal both landscapes and social structures. Lia will share insights from the field about building democratic systems that actually work—one seed, one vote, one restored hectare at a time..

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John Abrams: From Founder to Future

Nathan Schneider — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 16:00:35 +0000

John Abrams: From Founder to Future Nathan Schneider Sat, 08/30/2025 - 10:00

October 23, 2025
12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Mountain Time

British & Irish Studies Room
Norlin Library room M549

MEDLab presents author John Abrams for an insightful discussion on transitioning businesses to employee ownership. Drawing from decades of experience and extensive research, Abrams will discuss how mission-driven organizations can implement democratic management, shared ownership, and participatory leadership models.

Learn more about Abrams' new book, From Founder to Future: A Business Road Map to Impact, Longevity, and Employee Ownership.

Please register for this free event. Lunch provided.

Sponsored by the Media Economies Design Lab and the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at CU �ֲ��ý.

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Indigenous Governance and Tomorrow's Democracy: Join the Conversation

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 18:48:55 +0000

Indigenous Governance and Tomorrow's Democracy: Join the Conversation Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/28/2025 - 12:48

Júlia Martins Rodrigues

Every Friday, August 1-29, 2025
8 a.m. MT (11 a.m. BRT)
Trilingual format with simultaneous interpretation in English, Portuguese, and Spanish

Join us for Friday Dialogues: Listening as Governance—a multilingual journey into community-led governance that bridges continents and cultures, and an opportunity to meet representatives from Indigenous communities worldwide.

What if the solutions to our most pressing democratic challenges have been practiced for millennia, waiting in the collective memory of Indigenous and traditional communities worldwide? What if the path toward more equitable, sustainable governance isn't forward but inward—toward the ancestral wisdom that has sustained communities through countless generations?

This August, Meli Bees Network and the Media Economies Design Lab (MEDLab) are launching an exciting initiative to change this narrative. The Community Governance IdeaLAB creates space for Indigenous leaders, researchers, and allies to share their governance practices in their own voices, on their own terms.

The Forgotten Foundation of Democracy

Across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Indigenous and traditional communities have developed sophisticated systems of collective governance that prioritize cooperation over competition, reciprocity over extraction, and mutualism over individualism. These aren't relics of the past—they're living, breathing models of democracy that continue to guide communities in managing their territories, preserving their cultural heritage, and protecting their environments.

Yet these governance models remain largely invisible in mainstream discourse, overshadowed by predominant North Atlantic systems that have historically erased or diminished Indigenous ways of knowing and organizing. The result? A global governance crisis that could benefit tremendously from the very solutions these communities have been perfecting for generations.

A Global Network Takes Action

At the heart of this initiative are the Friday Dialogues: Listening as Governance—a trilingual series that transforms Meli's weekly community calls into intercultural exchanges spanning three continents. Every Friday in August, participants will gather with simultaneous interpretation in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, creating a truly multilingual commons for sharing governance wisdom.

The knowledge shared in these sessions will lay the groundwork for future co-authorship opportunities, policy influence, and collaborative prototyping of what organizers call "pluriversal governance tools"—technologies and frameworks that honor diverse ways of organizing collective life. As democratic institutions worldwide face unprecedented challenges, the governance models of Indigenous and traditional communities offer proven alternatives rooted in principles of care, autonomy, and reciprocity. Their territorial self-management practices demonstrate that another world is not only possible—it's already being lived.

Join the Conversation

Whether you're a community leader, researcher, ally, or simply someone curious about alternative pathways to collective governance, the Friday Dialogues offer a unique opportunity to engage with governance wisdom. The Community Governance IdeaLAB recognizes that the solutions to our democratic challenges may not lie in innovation but in remembering—in honoring the governance models that have sustained communities through colonization, globalization, and climate change. By creating space for these voices to be heard, amplified, and shared, we're not documenting the past. We're building the future.

Hosted by Meli Bees Network gUG, in partnership with MEDLab. Photo courtesy of Meli Bees Network.

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Coraline Ada Ehmke: Four Reasons to Not Care about Ethics in Open Source

Nathan Schneider — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 16:35:00 +0000

Coraline Ada Ehmke: Four Reasons to Not Care about Ethics in Open Source Nathan Schneider Thu, 01/16/2025 - 09:35

January 28, 2025
2 p.m. Mountain Time

Cristol Chemistry and Biochemistry Building 142

Are we, as technologists, responsible for how our work impacts society?

In a 2022 paper, researcher David Widder published a study on the justifications given by open source deepfake developers when asked about the moral implications of their work. Four main arguments were made by the developers to deny their ethical responsibility: the Freedom Zero argument, the Open argument, the Tech is Just a Hammer argument, and the Inevitability argument. But do any of these justifications really ring true, or are they comforting fictions that separate us from the real-world impact of our work?

Coraline Ada Ehmke is an internationally recognized tech ethicist, activist, and software engineer. For more than a decade, she's worked on practical approaches to promoting the values of diversity, equity, and justice in the technology industry, with a particular focus on open source. She is the creator of Contributor Covenant, the first and most popular code of conduct for digital communities, and the Hippocratic License, an innovative software license designed to promote and protect human rights. Coraline co-founded the Organization for Ethical Source (https://ethicalsource.dev) and serves as its Executive Director.

Sponsored by MEDLab along with the Media Archaeology Lab and the Department of Critical Media Practices's Visiting Artist & Scholar Talks program.

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How Has Structural Racism Held Back the Co-op Movement?

Nathan Schneider — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 16:54:31 +0000

How Has Structural Racism Held Back the Co-op Movement? Nathan Schneider Mon, 10/07/2024 - 10:54

November 4, 2024
10 - 11 a.m., Mountain Time
Free webinar

Watch recording

Despite extensive study of co-operatives' real and imagined benefits, we know little about the conditions under which they achieve the lasting scale needed to be a viable alternative and transform the economy. Under what conditions can co-operatives achieve such scale?

A new book by Jason Spicer suggests one essential answer: The cause of co-operatives' comparative weakness in the United States is identified as reflecting the joint effect of economic liberalism and structural racism. Only in the United States did the co-operative face, in its initial development, two well-entrenched incumbents operating with competing ownership models: the investor-owned firm and the race-based chattel slavery system of ownership of people.

In this discussion, Spicer will share his findings, followed by a response from Jessica Gordon Nembhard and a Q&A with attendees.

Jason Spicer is an Assistant Professor in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at CUNY Baruch College, where he focuses on social and community entrepreneurship. Prior to joining CUNY, he spent five years on the faculty of the University of Toronto (St. George), where he oversaw the economic development concentration in the graduate urban planning program. He holds a PhD in Political Economy from MIT. He is the author of Co-operative Enterprise in Comparative Perspective: Exceptionally Un-American? (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Jessica Gordon Nembhard is Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College, of the City University of New York (CUNY) in New York City, USA, where she is also Director of the McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. She is an affiliate scholar at the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. She is the author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014).

Organized by MEDLab community fellow Danny Spitzberg, and presented by MEDLab and the Exit to Community Collective.

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Lessons on Worker Ownership from the Main Street Phoenix Project

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 22:35:22 +0000

Lessons on Worker Ownership from the Main Street Phoenix Project Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/22/2024 - 16:35

September 23, 2024
10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Mountain Time
Free webinar

Watch the video

At the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns, Main Street Phoenix Project was founded as an audacious, worker-owned holding company to buy and protect food-service businesses. It acquired two Denver companies but ran into trouble. After closing the company down, founder Jason Wiener has done a rare thing: made the company's operating documents available to the world.

In this event, Wiener will share lessons from the Main Street Phoenix experience and ideas for how those lessons can be useful for emerging efforts to build mutual enterprises. Fellow co-op entrepreneur Alissa Orlando will share reflections on the current state of investment and strategy for social enterprises.

Jason Wiener is the Principal of a boutique law and business consulting practice whose specialty is in cooperative law, shared ownership models, cooperative finance, regenerative capital and financing strategies, sustainable economies law, teal lawyering, virtual outside general counsel, and worker-ownership. He serves on the state of Colorado's Employee Ownership Commission.

Alissa Orlando leads Camillus Partners, an entrepreneur-led fund dedicated to buying, leading, and growing a mission-driven business. She was previously co-founder of the Drivers Cooperative in New York, which is currently launching in Colorado. Before that, she headed Uber’s operations across East Africa.

Sponsored by the Media Economies Design Lab at CU �ֲ��ý, Jason Wiener P.C., and the Exit to Community Collective.

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