We just sent out our last newsletter of 2025. Highlights include... 💻 We’re hiring a part-time full stack developer (21 hrs/week): deadline 10 Jan 2026 🗺 The Co-operative World Map just passed 84,000 co-ops, with major new data added And more.. ✉️ subscribe here: digitalcommons.coop/contact/

We’ve been working on a big update to the Co-operative World Map this month 🌍 It’s built with our tool Mykomaps & will soon show >84,000 co-ops worldwide, giving a much clearer picture of the scale and diversity of the global co-op movement. If your co-op isn’t on it yet, get in touch!

We just sent out our last newsletter of 2025. Here's a preview... 💻 We’re hiring a part-time full stack developer (21 hrs/week): deadline 10 Jan 2026 🗺 The Co-operative World Map just passed 84,000 co-ops, with major new data added And more... Subscribe here: digitalcommons.coop/contact/

As Big Local comes to an end after 15 years & £200m+ invested, @londonfunders.bsky.social and @localtrust.org.uk are launching a new learning series to explore what happened. The series will draw out lessons to apply to future place-based funding. Learn more:

💻 We’re hiring a Full Stack Developer! This is a fully remote, flexible role (~3 days / 21 h/week). You'll be contributing to the delivery pipeline across our open source tools. Come help make the digital commons a reality! 🔗 👉 for more info + application form: digitalcommons.coop/we-are-recru...

🌱 The Powys Food Map is live! Built with Mykomaps + launched by the coop Cultivate. It brings together farms, food projects, hubs + community groups across Powys, Wales so people can actually see their local food system in one place. Take a look 👇 www.cultivate.uk.com/bwyd-powys-f...

The Countryside Right of Way (CRoW) Act succeeded in giving partial access across the nation.

New analysis of 1960s land use maps, many created by schoolchildren and students, reveals fresh insights on the timing and extent of habitat losses caused by post-war agricultural intensification and urban growth in England and Wales. www.ceh.ac.uk/press/maps-c... 🧪 1/ #maps #LandUse

Swore you’d finish that project by the end of 2025? I can help.

Please support this! It's not just about rivers/woods/moors. It's also about communities being able to refer to 'environmental' interests in towns/cities, things like buying a building with plans to retrofit it, or create habitats in & around a building...

James Dyson owns more UK land than the actual KING. But he pays an effective tax rate of LESS THAN 1%* on his total wealth. Here’s a novel idea @keirstarmer: to fund schools and hospitals, TAX THE BILLIONAIRES. 📍Station Lane, Bristol - near James Dyson’s £20m country estate Dodington Park

Food for thought: hosting HIV PrEP research dinners. "Hosting dinners like this for Black queer men is a valuable way of including perspectives & creating spaces for us to freely talk about sexual health." @idiosyncraticxl.bsky.social @benvyle.bsky.social www.thelovetank.info/news/bqmdin

"CyanLines is the bold plan to link & transform Manchester’s green and blue spaces...The vision is to develop a network of over 100 miles of...routes over ten years, starting with the city centres of Manchester & Salford...& linking to the rest of Greater Manchester’s boroughs" Link: cyanlines.com

Access to green and blue spaces shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for the few. It should be something everyone can enjoy, explore, and connect with. Why do you support a Right to Roam, and what does it mean to you? Tell us here -> forms.gle/zCmuYkevUAov...

Some end of year projects have pushed to 2026, so I’ve got time and space for new ones! DM or @ko-fi.com link in bio! #writing #editing

Questionable safety advice from @themerl.bsky.social on bonfire night

thank you for the outpouring of support! those of us laid off from Teen Vogue yesterday are now sharing our GoFundMe to help us cover our emergency expenses now that we've lost our incomes, as we get back on our feet.

'Communities must have the right to own environmental assets' Great letter from @tomchance.bsky.social of the Community Land Trust Network to @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social, asking her to amend the Devolution Bill to strengthen Community Right to Buy: www.communitylandtrusts.org.uk/news-and-eve...

The Love Tank urges continued mpox vaccination uptake as new European cases identified. www.thelovetank.info/news/mpox

🐏 New Absolute Units 🐏 Same-sex relationships have always been part of rural England, but they've been underrepresented in our collections. In the first of 2 episodes, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares his work tracing queer rural lives in The MERL archives. merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

Could We End Corporate Money In Politics? open.substack.com/pub/thinkbig...

15 years ago the Supreme Court decided corporations are people under the First Amendment. Today, sold-out politicians block progress on all fronts to appease their corporate donors. Citizens United is among the worst decisions in history. It corrupts our system every day.

In our latest blog, Kathie Pollard explores how Scotland’s next Land Use Strategy could play a vital role in bringing coherence across government policies that set the direction how land is used and managed in the years ahead. Read more: buff.ly/DwBwqZt

This is a really welcome development - IPPR called for land to be included in the government's plans for a Community Right to Buy, to facilitate more community ownership of environmental assets at a time when nature is in managed decline See our full report here: www.ippr.org/articles/dri...

England's Community Right to Buy must enable communities to own environmental assets. Excellent to see this cross-party amendment to the English Devolution Bill tabled by @vikkislademp.bsky.social @simonforstroud.bsky.social @sianberry.bsky.social: publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbi...

As land ownership becomes increasingly concentrated, real freedom to access and enjoy nature is at risk. That’s why it’s more important than ever to keep pushing to protect and extend our right to roam. What does a Right to Roam mean to you? Tell us here - forms.gle/X6FnwL82paNg...

“Scotland’s land is owned by the few—and the Government is letting it happen…. “And why? Because land is power.” www.heraldscotland.com/politics/hol...

100s of groups use Land Explorer to uncover who owns the land around them & improve their communities. Community groups & campaigners should not be priced out of this data. Here are our recommendations to the Land Registry 👇 digitalcommons.coop/community-ac...

For a high profile politician to be speaking to the nuance and truth of queer history, and to be making full throated policy promises in support of trans rights, shouldn’t feel this important or rare. But it does and it is.

"Make ownership of large landholdings public" Great report from the @digitalcommons.bsky.social with key recommendation that HM Land Registry should make the ownership of landholdings above a certain area threshold publicly available: digitalcommons.coop/content/file...

Last week the Digital Commons team (minus the wonderful Lynne) met in Birmingham for our away day 🌱 It gave us a chance to step back and plan what’s next for our tools and partnerships and to reconnect on what drives our work. 👇

Hello! We’re Digital Commons Co-op. We build tech for social change. We’ve built: 🌱 Land Explorer: a tool for finding & evaluating land for community projects landexplorer.coop 📍 Mykomaps: a platform for connecting & collaborating with co-ops worldwide digitalcommons.coop/mykomaps/

Who owns land is one of the most opaque & important questions in the UK today. Communities cannot tackle the housing crises, respond to environmental changes, or protect local green spaces w/o this info. That’s why we built a tool that makes it simple to see who owns what. 👉 landexplorer.coop

thrilled that the phrase “male to male transition” has broken containment and entered the august pages of the LRB

Yeah … cos @zackpolanski.bsky.social clearly hasn’t got the backing of his party @theguardian.com ?!

A new map revealing inequalities in access to local green space from @cprelondon.bsky.social - check out the event cpre-london.eventcube.io/events/87581...

With the acquisition on 7 Aug of the French forestry portfolio, Woodland Invest, Gresham House partnerships now become the second largest owner of privately-owned rural land in Scotland with more land than Buccleuch Estates. andywightman.scot/2025/08/gres...

Exciting new post-doc fellow post just announced at University of Edinburgh - working alongside The Love Tank on the new Medicine Without Doctors collaboration. Closing date 02 Oct 2025. elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Yikes - the land surrounding the Cerne Abbas Giant is up for sale! Lot 1 is top-quality chalk downland bursting with wildflowers & butterflies - orchids, skippers… going for £950k. It absolutely needs to be preserved. Hope the NT or similar can buy wdcdn.co/media/pdf/0f... wdcdn.co/media/pdf/0f...

FLASH SALE! 1 day only! 12% off writing and editorial services! CODE: FULLMOON ko-fi.com/eamato/link/...

Important new research on mpox - this research supports the targeted, routine vaccination of gay and bisexual men in the UK.

Come & work with me @benvyle.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social & @thelovetankcic.bsky.social Research Assistant with funded PhD within multidisciplinary project on Syphilis & STI control in the UK. Working with us to understand stakeholder & community perspectives on novel STI control strategies

They call it talk therapy, but it’s more like being really listened to therapy.

The Love Tank's groundbreaking HIV PrEP programme - PrEPster - relaunches for our 10 year anniversary. A totally new website brings PrEP info to a whole new generation of PrEP users and those who could use PrEP. www.thelovetank.info/news/prepster

“People can't get their heads over the nuts & bolts that make a thriving community centre happen - from your toilets being cleaned to meeting regulations”. Sam Kirkby on what it takes to run a flourishing community centre - and why funders need to take note. More on our podcast 🎙 buff.ly/hREVJ2q

England is not a modern country. The graphic below by @guyshrubsole.bsky.social in today's Observer underlines this fact.

One of my all time favourites

Duncan is a dedicated and committed social entrepreneur who has already achieved a LOT Now he needs YOUR help so MPower Kernow can open in September offering accredited training in STEM & green skills vital to Cornwall’s future Please donate & share www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/introducin...

I was interviewed about co-operative governance by the Corporate Bodies project corporatebodies.substack.com/p/episode-7-...

New UK guidelines for prescribing doxyPEP for syphilis prevention launched today by @bashhuk.bsky.social The Love Tank played a key role in community engagement for the guidelines, with @benvyle.bsky.social and @idiosyncraticxl.bsky.social on the writing group. www.thelovetank.info/news/doxysyph