Cooperative Commons Manifesto

Summary

Everyone now has a digital life. From the more modest, using only email at work, to the more bulimic, using email, personal blogs, facebook, twitter and so on, an increasing number of people have access to the internet and are leaving their traces in virtual space. It involves a life that is becoming increasingly more interwoven with analogical life. No, we will not say unreal, because life on the web is real, because it has an impact, and a strong one, on our ideas, on our actions and on our feelings.

In confronting the reality of digital life,  two types of attitudes emerge. They are are not new reactions, but new versions of two attitudes from the recent past. The first is that of apocalyptic fear where people are terrorized by the dangers of digital life and react calling for stronger protection, heavier security and more draconian measures – privacy, personal data and interaction on the web must be protected and restricted by new laws and stronger legal instruments. Instead, the second is one of enthusiasm, those who can’t wait to roam about even more on the web prairies and want no protection at all, seeing no reason to rein in the innumerable and new possibilities of the freedom offered by new technology.