About Us

ParIT was born out of a four-month series of weekly meetings, discussing the general information technology (IT) needs of activists, local co-ops, community-based organizations and free software radicals. This sometimes large group distilled a vision of a worker-owned co-op dedicated to providing free software IT solutions that aided a participatory economy. ParIT was incorporated in and began its first year of operations in early spring of 2006.

Our mission is to change the way the world thinks about software, the workplace and economics.

We provide a variety of services, but a major part of our mission is to participate fully in the free software community's effort  to provide a complete free software business suite. Thanks to others in the global free software community, much has already been accomplished and we are able to concentrate on a free software financial system (accounting and payroll software, etc.).

Our members are not just geeks, although we share more than a half-centruy of experience with computers. We are not just progressives or activists, although we share just as much experience with community-based activism and a good variety of progressive commitments. And no, we aren't just accountants, although we share almost a half-century of experience with the financial operations of small enterprises and organizations. We currently have six members.

The Name ParIT

The dictionary definition of parity is

1. The state or condition of being equal in any respect
2. The even or odd quality of the number of 1's or 0's in a binary code, often used to determine the integrity of data especially after transmission.

The name ParIT can be thought of as parity without the 'y' (why). We like the implied radicalism and the geekish flavour. The name was originally derived from joining information technology (IT) to the par of participatory economics (yes, as in parecon). If in long form, our name would be participatory information technology. We went with ParIT Worker Co-op, Ltd. in our incorporation papers.

Parecon?  What?

A parecon is a participatory economy, which can be thought of as a radically democratic form of community-based economic development writ wide. The idea of a parecon springs from the various writings of progressive economists such as Michael Albert and Robin Hamel. In Winnipeg, a considerable effort is underway to bring these ideas to practical fruition, and ParIT is proud to be part of the effort.

Free Software?

Participation is also the fundamental essence of the software we support. All of it comes with the freedom to share and modify, so we call it free software.