roots.coop
┤ ~/roots ├

$ cat purpose.txt

We are gardeners, not builders. We cultivate living information systems rather than construct machines.

Roots is a Colorado Limited Cooperative Association and Public Benefit Organization — a collective agency evolving cooperative principles for the networked age. Systems here grow like trees:

> clear purpose, a bounded context, a minimal viable kernel

┤ what ├

A new kind of organization

Traditional cooperatives were designed for factories and stable jobs. Roots is designed for how people actually collaborate now — across distances, on multiple projects, with varying levels of involvement.

Participation rights scale with contribution, not employment. Decisions are made by the people closest to the work. What we create is stewarded as a commons: shared code, knowledge, and methods governed to stay open without being exploited.

┤ principles ├

Seven principles

  • 01Permeable participation — engagement scales with contribution, not membership status.
  • 02Distributed governance — decisions sit with those who hold the knowledge and the stake.
  • 03Value circulation — money, access, learning, and recognition flow back to contributors.
  • 04Commons stewardship — shared resources grow stronger through use, not weaker.
  • 05Autonomous interdependence — distinct identity inside a wider network of allies.
  • 06Continuous learning — knowledge is developed, preserved, and shared deliberately.
  • 07Ecological alignment — our work regenerates the systems that sustain it.
┤ engage ├

Ways in

contribute

Join a project team. Code, design, writing, facilitation — participation begins wherever your skills do.

collaborate

Engage Roots to grow an information system with your organization, from seed to forest.

steward

Help govern the commons — the shared libraries, methods, and knowledge we maintain together.

┤ contact ├

Reach us

$ mail hello@roots.coop

Roots Trust, LCA · Colorado, USA