If you were trying to develop software cooperatively, how would you bring in new cooperators? Everyone who writes even a small patch gets copyright and voting power? Everyone gets copyright but voting requires a more substantial time investment? I'm not even sure if it makes sense or not to distinguish between someone who owns the copyright to the published work and someone who owns a share of the organization (and in turn a share of the capital, if there ever is any).
Right now I see two potential models for this in a not-for-profit software co-op: members are those who pitch in a small amount of money which is used to pay for infrastructure and services (the way platform co-ops normally work), or members are contributors that have shown dedication to the project and money comes from donations (like most OSS). Maybe there are others?
@sam coop is always measured by contribution so yes, either material (money, hardware, hosting) or non-material (time, effort) contribution. The question is always - what is the threshold (after which contribution is counted as substantial) and how to measure / evaluate non-material one to match the threshold.
@sam The threshold is usually - "comparable to others" that is for another person to become my partner in coop he needs to contribute at least not less than myself. If there are more of us - to average of others' contribution. Similar could be applied to non-material, conversion from one to another though is always problematic (because is subjective)