There’s a quote by Cornel West: “Justice is what love looks like in public.” To riff on that, I think social infrastructure is what love looks like in public. It listens and responds to the needs of people. It’s a fabric that weaves people together towards a shared community thriving. If we’re to survive the worst of what’s to come, we need to build and embolden public systems of care. 

Introducing the 2022 DWeb Fellows

Internet Archive Blog
August 25, 2022

“As the Director of this year’s Fellowship program, one of my strongest hopes is that the DWeb Fellows are able to build lasting, fruitful relationships with each other and other DWeb Campers. My other hope is that the Fellows’ projects and approaches continue to shape the DWeb community overall – to connect and empower the most under-resourced, and ensure that the decentralized web we’re building truly addresses the needs of all.”

“With all the DWeb events, we aim to create spaces for people to share their ideas, projects, and research among warm, supportive peers who believe in a plurality of approaches and solutions to build a decentralized values-driven web. By meeting in-person, outdoors among towering redwood trees, DWeb Camp is about manifesting that ethos as we invite all those participating to bring their full selves. We’re designing this event to be a place for us to be curious and humble. Not to come with all the answers but to be open to having your mind and heart changed.”

The Debate Over DWeb vs. Web3 & The Decentralized Elephant in the Room

Dripline (Hypha Worker Co-operative blog)
May 17, 2022

“The disagreement over these labels, and what is even included in the purview of each, felt like a distraction from what’s actually being negotiated as people define and claim allegiance to DWeb or Web3. What matters in this discussion – in any discussion over a technology really – is who’s designing it, who controls it, and who stands to benefit?”

It Glitches at the Sight of Our Nipples

Coven Berlin
March 4, 2022

Without manipulation, being aligned with others’ attention and energy levels feels pure and good. We scream, sigh, and process. Strategize about what to do about what’s broke. We compensate each other for our time and care. It’s arousing to live in abundance, where we’re valued for our labor.

At the edge of this dream lies the nipple — a nub of life and pleasure. 

Many initiatives, for instance, fail because of toxic leaders or cultures. Sutton noted that “even the most well-meaning projects can collapse, or just sputter along because the organization is mismanaged.” Thus it’s important to have explicit conversations about how people work together. Think codes of conduct at the very least. Being aware of these dynamics is key, Sutton says,“If your aim is to create some kind of alternative interoperable system, the social and organizational aspects of the project needs to be addressed seriously from the beginning”.

Issue 02: Foreword

COMPOST Magazine
September 15, 2021

“This issue is about how we Inoculate networks with our consideration and attention, against the flattening, homogenizing forces of the internet. The dominant platforms have constructed an unimaginative reality, designing networks where the only visible relations that exist are those made legible and useful for extractive ends.

We are taking a step back; widening our scope and probing how we shape digital networks and how they shape us back. We explore how knowledge systems and authentic relationships can be made more accessible with digital infrastructure, while noticing how networked tools never fully reflect the boundless beautiful chaos of those living, breathing ecologies.”

Emergent Practices from the Decentralized Co-operative Web

Dripline (Hypha Worker Co-operative)
May 27, 2021

“Decentralization has become a buzzword the last several years, particularly in the realms of technology and grassroots organizing. From the promise of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, to the natural metaphors inspired by fungal networks, organizers have been fascinated with de-centering power structures and building more resilient systems that are stronger than the sum of their parts.”

“To me, if decentralization has any political meaning, the people building it have to be very different from the types of people who built the World Wide Web. We can’t just replace the platforms and protocols we have today with other purely profit-driven companies that can only call their product “decentralized” because the technology functions in a more distributed manner.

For decentralization to be a remotely revolutionary concept, we need to question the internal logic of the tech industry itself—how people are incentivized to build things, how people are treated in the process, and how the relationships and systems we operate with are controlled. How does decentralization redistribute power? That’s the fundamental question.”

Community Networks Adapt to New Realities Under COVID: A DWeb Meetup Recap

Medium - Stories from the Decentralized Web
August 12, 2020

“People’s access to accurate, reliable information is always essential. Of course, it becomes ever more critical during a global pandemic like COVID.

But giving people “internet access” alone is not enough. For information to be useful to people, the means of access cannot be a one-way street. Information is social. Information must be contextualized. What are the spoken languages, levels of reading literacy, ways of life, and the legacies of systemic oppression? Community networks take a holistic approach to information and communication technology. Instead of seeing people as passive users, people are active participants, co-creating media through collaborative processes, thereby making it more inherently more accessible than content produced elsewhere.”

“Across the ideological spectrum, there seems to be a consensus that something must be done about the biggest tech companies — that the legal mechanisms we currently have to address monopolization in the United States are inadequate to deal with the realities of the digital market. While recognizing how powerless our institutions have become in the face of Big Tech's massive lobbying power, there's an idea that's gaining traction as a viable approach to curb the societal and economic impacts of tech monopolies. The idea is to restore the core of a healthy internet ecosystem: interoperability and the revival of open protocols.”

Transforming Ourselves to Transform Our Networks

Medium - Stories from the Decentralized Web
July 17, 2019

“In the decentralized web (DWeb) movement, many innovative technologies have emerged with the promise of building new models for the Web. Yet nearly all of them maintain the status quo. Why is that?

The technologies recreate the same dynamics of power embodied in centralized networks. While the tech may be new and innovative, there is usually very little examination of how the people who build the tech organize themselves. Decentralization technologies will be just as extractive and unethical if we assume that the same types of organizations can create something technologically revolutionary.”

Digital Commoning and a Human-Centered Internet

Our Commons: Political Ideas for a New Europe
May 1, 2019

“The Internet has taken the world by storm — transforming economies, societies, and politics. But the eye of this storm is the Bay Area, where the human cost of the tech boom is acutely experienced day-to-day. Here is where people invest billions of dollars in new apps, gadgets, and services. Here, smart people work overtime to build things that utterly transform the way people live. Yet in the midst of all this exertion, public infrastructure is crumbling and thousands of people have become unhoused. Even on the warmest days in San Francisco, the city has an air of indifference that is chilling.”

An Interview With Mai Ishikawa Sutton, pt. 2

Commons Network
November 28, 2018

“It’s hard to argue that funding sources do not influence the priorities and goals of civil society. At the very least, where they get the money to do their work is a reflection of what they stand for and who they are willing to be friendly with.”

An Interview With Mai Ishikawa Sutton, pt. 1

Commons Network
September 26, 2018

“Mai Ishikawa Sutton joined Commons Network this year as a Digital Commons Fellow. After years of working along side each other, and running into each other all over the world, we are truly delighted that she is now officially part of the family. We interviewed her. Here’s part 1.”

Owning Access - local buyouts could keep ISPs accountable

The Cooperative Business Journal
Winter 2018

"Benefits of a cooperative ISP include better customer service, regular community input in service offerings and transparency about how the ISP operates. A cooperative structure could also keep money local and enable the ISP to do things like spend leftover profits to invest in new economic opportunities. Because the subscribers would control their ISP, they could also ensure that it does not violate net neutrality principles by discriminating against or prioritizing certain types of services or data."

 

"If successful organizing—the kind that addresses systemic injustices—hinges upon having access to online communication tools, then resistance must also come in the form of building alternative digital communication infrastructure that is not based on an extractive corporate model."

A renewable energy cooperative, a community land trust, and a former church building publicly-controlled and used by nearby residents — these are just a few examples of about 500 urban commons projects that are thriving in the Flemish city of Ghent in Belgium. A new research report (in Dutch) shows that within the last 10 years, the city has seen a ten-fold increase in local commons initiatives. The report defines commons as any "shared resource, which is co-owned or co-governed by a community of users and stakeholders, under the rules and norms of that community."

A platform co-op is a digital platform — a website or mobile app that is designed to provide a service or sell a product — that is collectively owned and governed by the people who depend on and participate in it. That includes those who deliver the underlying service by contributing labor, time, skills, and/or assets. Where corporate “sharing” platforms extract value and distribute it to shareholding owners who seek a return on their investment, platform co-ops distribute ownership and management of the enterprise to its participants — those working for the platform or those using the service.

Platform co-ops bring the longstanding tradition of cooperative enterprise to the online economy. The two key traits that these digital co-ops must realize are democratic control and collective ownership. Some advocates insist that in order to be counted as a platform co-op, an enterprise must uphold the International Co-operative Alliance’s cooperative principles.