Using technology to enable positive social and environmental change.

At Xosia we believe that software cannot exist independent of society and our surroundings. We feel that we have a moral and environmental responsibility to develop software that will make a positive contribution to social and environmental change.

The principles that form the basis of our organisation are:

• No organisation can exist independent of the rest of society. Social and environmental responsibility must inform all our work.
• We aim to design sustainable solutions. Think globally, act locally.
• Collective ownership by the members for the members free of external stakeholder influence represents the best way to fulfil our purpose.
• All members opinions deserve equal consideration and consensus between members should direct decision-making.
• The best software emerges from self-organising and self-motivated teams. Members are free to self-organise as they see fit.
• We embrace agile development methodologies as the best way of delivering high quality software.
• Sharing builds the bonds of community. Members are expected to work on free software projects whenever possible and to use the GNU GPL in all their own work.

Xosia is constructed as a programmers co-operative. All our members have the same share in the company and therefore the same standing within it. The members are the sole owners of Xosia so we are free to pursue projects independent of shareholder pressure. Initially at least, all members have one share in the company and equal voting rights in all company meetings. We operate transparently within the organisation, sharing information relating to prospective projects, contract issues, tools and programming approaches.

Anyone working as a freelance contract programmer can join our organisation. You need to get two members of the collective to vouch for your integrity and ability. We don't select people as such - it's more a case of people selecting themselves because they are aligned with our purpose and principles.

At Xosia we believe our principles are the key to our growth and they will remain constant. However, we encourage innovation and evolution of our organisational structure since our internal structure and practices are mutable. We expect our organisation to evolve significantly over time. Members are free to lobby for changes to the way the organisation is structured or run. Furthermore, a group of members can decide to combine forces in order to bid for larger external contracts.

At all times, members are expected to adopt the approach that best suits the particular task at hand. In most cases, it is expected that this will align with the general philosophy of the Agile Alliance. In particular we aim to be as lightweight in bureaucratic overhead as we can be. In addition we advocate the use of remote working technology wherever possible to lower our environmental impact.