3: DisCO Origins ​

DisCOs didn't emerge from white papers or techno-deterministic visions, but from real-world, lived experience.

Born in Spain amidst the echoes of the Occupy and 15-M movements, Guerrilla Media Collective is the OG DisCO. Officially launched in 2013 as Guerrilla Translation, it evolved the first DisCO Governance Model in the field.

In 2018, DisCO.coop emerged from Guerrilla to share and develop the DisCO model and its Seven Principles with communities worldwide. Our mission was clear and stands today: we want to co-create a bullshit-free future of work that is fit for the challenges we face.

Since then, we have researched, refined and developed real-world DisCOnomics, synthesizing cutting edge, alternative economies into a coherent whole, and spreading the message through two in-depth guides and an upcoming publication to tie everything together for the 2020's and beyond:

If I Only Had a Heart: the DisCO Manifesto ​

The DisCO Manifesto is a deep dive into the world of Distributed Cooperative Organizations. Its 80 colorful pages describe how DisCOs are a P2P/Commons, cooperative and Feminist Economic alternative to Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (or DAOs). The DisCO Manifesto also includes background on topics like blockchain, AI, the commons, feminism, cooperatives, cyberpunk, and more.

Download it here:

Groove is in the Heart: the DisCO Elements ​

The DisCO Elements is the sequel to DisCO Manifesto. Its seven chapters may be read in a non-linear way. The DisCO Elements guide offers a future of work shaped by people, not billionaires, while delving into DisCO's basics, its 7 Principles, DisCO Governance, DisCO-Tech, DisCO Policy and, tying it all together, recognizing how carework is crucial for really changing the world.

Download it here.

Stop! In The Name Of Love (Before You Break Our Heart): The DisCO Pink Paper ​

(Forthcoming 2024) The year is 2023, the time is now. The DisCO Pink Paper completes the DisCO Trilogy by taking an open-eyed look at the artificially intelligent 2020s. This is a time where cyberpunk corporate dystopias a la Blade Runner, Snow Crash or Akira are surpassed in their excess only by the cyber-physically gluttonous, world-destroying algorhythms bent on enclosure. Everything must be turned to ones and zeros so the numbers can make more numbers. The time for Revolution is nigh and the push forward is powered by knowing what power is, where power resides, and how the world’s disenfranchised do have the social and technological resources available to turn the plot around. Oil, money and guns only go so far, so stop! In the name of love, before you break our (collective) hearts. And minds, and spirits, and backs. Just stop.

Find out more here.

DisCO Now ​

With over 30,000 combined downloads, and a website filled with articles, videos , the DisCO Beat newsletter and a growing wiki of complementary resources, DisCO has struck a syncopated chord with people searching for heartfelt alternatives to normative, patriarchal, and crypto economics. DisCO LABS are popping up every day in every corner of the world — and we're here to help.

Since 2018 we've been creating extensive resources (listed here) and honed our own abilities through deeply experiencing what it means to be a DisCO, while reimagining the ways we work and value our work together. We have amassed unique and relevant experiences in these areas. Now it's time to use this knowledge to create better tools and methods to make it propagate wildly — and we are not alone.

DisCONauts in da house ​

At present the DisCO.coop core team consists of Ann Marie Utratel, Stacco Troncoso, Sari Escribano and Irene López de Vallejo. Ann Marie and Stacco are the co-founders of Guerrilla Translation/Media Collective (2013), and co-authors of the DisCO Manifesto (2019). Alongside co-founding partners Irene and Sari, we created DisCO.coop (2021) a not for profit, socially oriented cooperative in Andalusia, Spain. Here's a little more about us:

Ann Marie Utratel ​

Ann Marie Utratel is the co-founder of DisCO.coop (2018) and Guerrilla Media Collective (2013). A native New Yorker transplanted to rural Spain, she enjoys the challenge of helping impossible dreams come true. She takes pleasure in caring for both the small details and the big picture. Happily off-roading life without formal education or career track, Ann Marie is honored to be walking among people dedicated to restoration of balance on the planet.

Web | Twitter | LinkedIn

Stacco Troncoso ​

Stacco Troncoso is an avid synthesizer of information and a radical polymath working towards elemental, people-led change on a burning planet. Stacco lives, breathes, teaches and writes on the Commons, P2P politics and economics, open culture, post-growth futures, Platform and Open Cooperativism, peer governance, blockchain, music, art, poetry and all that good stuff.

Web | Mastodon | Twitter | LinkedIn

Sari Escribano ​

Sari Escribano (they/them) is a member of the founding team of DisCO.coop and a member of Guerrilla Media Collective. An activist, a translator, a language scholar, an avid bookworm, a textual worker and an incurable dreamer, they work closely with communities all around the world in co-designing new governance paradigms based on radical care practices. Their unabashed spirit enjoys creating all sorts of provocative content through art and poetry to ignite dissent from the decrepit dominant system.

LinkedIn | Spotify | Tumblr

Irene López de Vallejo ​

Based between Europe (Spain) and the UK, Irene is a social scientist that holds an MsC on European Economic Affairs and PhD in Architecture. Her curiosity and passion make her a highly collaborative agitator who doesn’t hesitate to put on her gardening gloves for composting regenerative practices. Her ultimate aim is to help build a new generation of radically fair workplaces ready for the challenges we collectively face through the restoration of our relationships with each other and the planet.

Mastodon | Twitter | LinkedIn

DisCO.coop: Close Orbit ​

The DisCO Pink Board is our group of trusted advisors. The DisCO.coop core team works closely with this group, in mutual support, care and commitment to our common vision. We turn to this group to think through, talk about and activate our vision. Click through to learn more about these remarkable allies: