Internet Cooperatives: The Future of Business!

Our goal is to change the way business is conducted on the internet. We strive for the good of humanity and believe all people should have a voice!

At WebHosting.coop, our primary objective is not just to provide the best quality shared hosting available but also to change the way people view business. Our belief is that we live in a finite world within an infinite universe. We should not be limited by the ways of our past but be open to new ideas put forth by the people. The first step in doing this is to provide the people with the freedom to make change.

Cooperative associations range from small store-fronts to large Fortune 500 companies. In many ways, they're like any other business. The difference is a coop is owned and governed by its members - the people who use it. Profits are reinvested in the coop or distributed to its members.

With the invention of the internet, a globally connected social networking tool, businesses and individuals have been rewarded by its many social advantages. At WebHosting.coop, we believe that this same technology can be used to run and operate new online based cooperative associations of the future. Evolving the cooperative business model to become digital and run on the internet will guarantee more global stability by instilling confidence in a well developed business model. We believe the internet was created to empower and enlighten its users. Shouldn't your webhosting company do the same?

What are Cooperative Associations?

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.

7 Guiding Principles

For more information about Cooperatives, please see the website for the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA).

Cooperative Guiding Principles

Voluntary and Open Membership

Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and who are willing to accept the responsibilities of membership without consideration of gender, social status, race, political affiliation, religion, nation of origin,, age, or physical disability. We are truly an open community for everyone.

Democratic Member Control

Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives, members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are also organized in a democratic manner.

Member Economic Participation

Members contribute equally to and democratically control the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members may receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing their cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.

Autonomy and Independance

Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.

Education, Training, and Information

Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general - public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of cooperation.

Cooperation among Cooperatives

Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures.

Concern for Community

Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.

Member TownHall

Traditionally, Town hall meetings have been conducted in person for hundreds of years. With the creation of the internet, people from all over the world are now able to communicate and conduct meetings online. Town hall is the name of the software we created to provide our members with the ability to propose, discuss, and vote on ideas regarding innovative ways to evolve the future of the internet.

  • Vote on Member Petitions
  • Discuss Subjects of Value
  • Create Petitions for Change
  • Perticipate and Receive Points / Benefits
  • Help others and get Help on Relevent Topics
  • Transparency Reports Available to All Members

Education Classes

WebHosting.coop believes membership-wide education is vital for the continued evolution of the internet. WebHosing.coop provides FREE live internet classes to all of its members as one of the primary benefits of their membership. It is WebHosting.coop's goal to eventually create a school based on this service. The cooperative uses the best in technology to deliver a solid foundation to assist its members throughout their education. These classes are developed for all kinds of users, ranging from beginners getting a website online for the first time to more advanced users developing their first application.

  • Collaborative Training Classes
  • Question and Answer Sessions
  • Classes for All Types of Members
  • Live Chat Room to Communicate with Your Class
  • Classes Included FREE with Membership
  • Signup for Classes from Your Control Panel

Network / Datacenter

Webhosting.coop strives to provide not only the best possible hardware available but also utilizes the best networks and datacenters in the world. WebHosting.coop's infrastructure consists of a cross vendor "Hybrid" integration of both cloud and dedicated server technology. This provides the co-op with the ability to use the best features from each type of model and provide our members with the ultimate network and safety redundancy. All our members' websites will be in Level 3 Gateway Datacenters while their account management, backups, and redundancy will be in the Rackspace Cloud.

Our Datacenters

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

We know that every second your network is down you're losing opportunities, revenue, and the confidence of your users and visitors. So with that in mind, we designed and built our network to focus on uptime, and we created aggressive Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to show just how much we believe in our network. Your web site is important to us, and we utilize only the best in technology to be the best in class!

Network Partners

Become a member today! Get started for only $100/Yr!