[iDC] Platform Cooperativism: The Internet, Ownership, Democracy

[Trebor Scholz]

Platform Cooperativism: The Internet, Ownership, Democracy

November 13-14, 2015
@TheNewSchool, New York City
The event is FREE and open to the public.

The seeds are being planted for a new kind of online economy. For all the
wonders the Internet brings us, it is dominated by an economics of
monopoly, extraction, and surveillance. Ordinary users retain little
control over their personal data, and the digital workplace is creeping
into every corner of workers' lives. Online platforms often exploit and
exacerbate existing inequalities in society, even while promising to be the
great equalizers. Could the Internet be owned and governed differently?
What if Uber drivers could set up their own platform, or if cities could
control their own version of Airbnb? Can Silicon Alley do things more
democratically than Silicon Valley? What are the prospects for platform
cooperativism?

On November 13 and 14, the New School in New York City will host a
coming-out party for the cooperative Internet, built of platforms owned and
governed by the people who rely on them. The program will include
discussion sessions, screenings, monologues, legal hacks, workshops, and
dialogues, as well as a showcase of projects, both conceptual and actual,
under the purview of celebrity judges. We'll learn from coders and worker
cooperatives, scholars and designers. Together, we'll put their lessons to
work as we work toward usable apps and structural economic change. This is
your chance to get on the ground floor of the next Internet, and to help
make it a reality.

Platform Cooperativism is convened by Trebor Scholz (The New School) and
Nathan Schneider (University of Colorado Boulder). It is sponsored by The
New School's Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts, in partnership with
Civic Hall, Democracy Collaborative, NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives,
Open Society Foundations, Robin Hood Foundation, and Shareable. This is the
fourth event in The New School's series The Politics of Digital Culture,
which included The Internet as Playground & Factory (2009) and Digital
Labor (2014). There will be two additional summits in this series at The
New School, following up on these themes, in 2016.

Further reading:
https://medium.com/@trebors/platform-cooperativism-vs-t
he-sharing-economy-2ea737f1b5ad
<https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40trebors%2Fplatform-cooperativism-vs-the-sharing-economy-2ea737f1b5ad&h=dAQGhKBC0&enc=AZMC8RblSg1K2VQfiRFBweUD5jv7lDLLML0C7i8k2SZo_062qnUCg8PpwwPBFey-ju4&s=1>
http://www.shareable.net/blog/owning-is-the-new-sharing
<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shareable.net%2Fblog%2Fowning-is-the-new-sharing&h=PAQHf4P1d&enc=AZOxHi42H0enI3LJuIK5TnhGWcMc78eidaLzPB5EGlqvaWoYZuYJbFnAub77IXEVqtA&s=1>
http://www.thenation.com/article/5-ways-take-back-tech/
<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenation.com%2Farticle%2F5-ways-take-back-tech%2F&h=9AQEJEzLa&enc=AZNyMgOhER4VOCY9DVZ4cjhc_7-wRZ3QunVFBcnd3JrhTO79iGLF_L0dzoyv6kZHU1s&s=1>

Twitter: @platformcoop

Hashtags on Diaspora and Twitter: #platformcoop
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/platformcoop>

Reedit: http://reddit.com/r/platformcoop

Sign up for the platform coops mailing list:
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/platform-coop
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