Ex Cooperative Members Where are they Now
This is an attempt to set up a link page for all the Ex Poptel Members What was Poptel you ask?
Poptelwas a pioneering British internet and on-line services provider that was run by an employee co-operative (worker cooperative) from 1986 to 2002.
Poptel was a partner in the Manchester Host and became known as provider of Internet services to the Labour Party (UK). Working with the National Cooperative Business Association of the US, it launched the successful bid to create a top level Internet domain for use exclusively by cooperatives – “.coop” .
Due to a few external issues delays by ICANN over the .coop project being a major one Poptel was “demutualised” and broken up into smaller businesses in September 2002. Staff from the web design department formed a new co-operative (Poptech), and OSG Co-op (now Midcounties Co-operative) took over the .coop registry operation.
Where Are they Now:
At Poptech.coop
Pana,
Paul, and at Never Trust a Hippy
Charlie
Gone away
Jeremy Boucher – Laureate Education
Amanda Carno – www.amandacano.co.uk
Joski Cottee (All,Style Guitar and Bass Tuition)
Suzy Goodsir (Herriot Watt) and Greener Kirkcaldy
Melanie Burke (Electric Putty Ltd)
Malcolm Corbett (CBN) Community Broadband Network
Shaun Fensom (CBN) Community Broadband Network
Ben Schneider (It Guy)
Maurice Walshe (Dac group (make it rain) )
The Phone CO-OP
Haunting Thunder - Maurice Walshe's Blog 
Well i think the delays caused by ICANT and the other issues that where not related to the VC investment may have had a lot to do with it.
If of course the coperative movement had actualy got behind the new .coop domain things might have been very different.
I can’t Comment on what happened after I left though.
Actually, Poptel was taken over and run into the ground by Sum International, all the socialist principles of the once proud company were undermined by accepting dirty VC money in return for shares until piece by piece the VC owned the whole shooting match. .coop was developed with the same dirty money, the socialist contingent left wholesale and took back all of their clients when a new entitiy called Real Poptel was formed by merging with another proud company called Real Data, the VC continued to bleed any possibility of success out of the future by withholding earnings against “investment” until the new team also left, Real Poptel ceased to trade with massive debts in 2006 after “long firming” from major ssuppliers and dishonouring a CVA made by the Directors implemented from the VC. Simple story.