Platform Cooperativism: Taking Back the Internet

Summary

Platform Cooperativism is a rising and ambitious movement, but based on a simple co-operative principle: to put power back in the hands of the people.

‘Ownership of the internet’ may sound like a lofty aim, but taking control of the online tools we use is really just a 21st century equivalent of owning the shop we run, or the pub we go to. Can the internet be owned and governed differently? And if so, how?

In November, over a thousand people convened for an event at the New School in New York to discuss how this could be achieved. Billed as a ‘coming-out party for the co-operative internet’, it attracted academics, co-operators, business leaders and those just curious about what was happening.