Hi, I’m Austin. I'm interested in collective internet culture, shared ownership, and new models for the online creative economy. Here are some things that I’ve worked on.
Contact me: austin[at]metalabel.xyz
📍Brooklyn, NY
These are projects where I was on the founding core team.
Metalabel builds resources, tools, and infrastructure for collectives and creative communities.
Ampled is a web-based platform for direct community support of musicians, formed as a collectively owned co-op.
Unnamed Fund is a NEW INC member-led, democratically-controlled creative ecosystem grant fund.
Dinner DAO is a global supper club, organized as a playful expression of Web3 tooling to build IRL community.
As background, I studied architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Before working in tech, I was primarily a designer, working within many disciplines. Projects I have worked on professionally span from architecture, jewelry design, fashion design, product design, and experiential design for brand activations. My first entrepreneurial venture was a design/ build studio called Make Mode. One time we made Usher’s birthday invitations. Another time we made a 3D-printed bow tie that Nas wore to the Met Gala.
Friends With Benefits: What Co-ops And DAOs Can Learn From Each Other
Mirror A Guide For Designing Online Community Governance
Refraction: Imagining a New Creator Economy
Forefront: Ways to improve the ownership economy
Forefront: Exit To Community For Crypto Networks
Forefront: Forefront Learn (Social Tokens 101)
Forefront: Friends With Benefits Case Study
Forefront: How community tokens can power cooperatives
The Creative Independent: How to start a cooperative
The Creative Independent: How to create community support systems
Music Ally: Artist ownership is the way to fix Spotify's broken model
Mutual Interest: The future of tech will be an old model, the co-op
Internet of Ownership: Equity-Free Fundraising: Here are our Revenue-Share Term Sheets
Internet of Ownership: Investor-owned platforms vs. User-owned platforms
Ampled: It's time to put new ideas on the table
Betaworks Beyond Decentralization: Designing for Equity, Democracy, and Human Rights in Web3
Crypto, Culture, and Society: Let’s DAO It: Co-ops, DAOs, and the Way Forward for Collectives
IDEO Future Ways of Working
NEW INC Life in the speculative future
NEW INC 2020 Demo Day
Platform Cooperativism Conference NYC 2019
Platform Cooperativism Conference Berlin 2021
CoCap: Nourishing Community Wealth Oakland 2019
Berklee School of Music Innovation Con 2020
Wavelengths Conference 2021
Cooperation Humbolt: Artists Dismantling Capitalism
This Fall semester I am teaching a class at The New School University called "Music and Platform Cooperativism".
I've also either spoken at or given guest lectures at:
Seed Club Alumni (SC02 & SC04)/ Contributor
Friends With Benefits Member/ Contributor
Dirt Contributor
Tally Contributor
NEW INC, Y6 Member "Equitable Platforms" Track 2019 & Y7 Community Member of the New Museum cultural incubator
Forefront Season 1 Contributor
Unlock Protocol Governance Delegate
Start.coop Y2 cohort member, 2020
Exit To Community Collective Mentor/ Contributor
Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator Venture Fellow, 2015-2017
US Dept of Arts + Culture People's WPA
Center For Cultural Innovation AmbitioUS investee
Grant For The Web research grantee
Resident Advisor Decentralized Autonomous Organizations And The Promise Of Utopia
Resident Advisor What Does Epic Games Buying Bandcamp Mean For DIY Music?
Guardian Bandcamp sells to Epic: can a video game company save independent music?
Decrypt: What would Karl Marx think about crypto?
Slate: The Music Industry Is Finally Scaring Spotify
Water & Music Why AmpledDAO Doesn’t Exist (Yet)
Pioneer Works: How to Unlearn Capitalism through Cooperative Ownership
Salon: How a punk-inspired collective beat the streaming giants at their own game
AdHoc: Ampled Hopes to Make the Music Industry More Equitable for Artists
Fast Company: Tech can still live up to its promise as a force for justice
VICE: There’s No Such Thing as Independent Music in the Age of Coronavirus
VICE: Is There Ethical Music Streaming Under Capitalism?
NEW INC: Rewriting the Rulebook: Creating in a Post-COVID World
Friends With Benefits: PROOF OF STEAK: BUILDING A COMMUNITY-DRIVEN FOOD INDUSTRY WITH WEB3
The Spoon: Dinner DAO is Creating IRL Dinner Clubs Built Around NFTs
I've also been interviewed by the New York Times and The Guardian about the future of work & the gig economy, but both stories never ended up running :(
hmu :)