Show threadWouter Tebbens ⁂4d ago

We could see democratic tech as building on top of several important traditions: the commons & commoning as a thousands year old way of organising, the cooperative social and solidarity economy - with us since the 19th century - and the free/libre open source movement with us for several decades now.

Can we combine these traditions in such way that we build up democratic tech, under our collective control? A countermovement against authoritarian tech, to #ResistTechMonopolies which can help us build collective autonomy and resilience.

Show threadWouter Tebbens ⁂Mar 10
@douwe absolutely, but in the US many communities and networks are also working on this transition. Just one example are the fine folks of #ResistTechMonopolies @rtm in Seattle. They are a group of former bigtech workers organising knowledge sharing, #DiscoTech to discover the ethical tech alternatives and participating in the @coopcloud federation. They are in the process to set up a multistakeholder cooperative, combining these three traditions. And of course our friends at @mayfirst who need no introduction here.
Show threadFree Knowledge InstituteFeb 26
We are initiating this with a growing list of organisations, such as @commonsnetwork, @waag in Amsterdam, @platoniq and the Goteo.org crowdfunding platform in Spain. Recently also eCommons.space and the housing coop movement (PWA) in Amsterdam have joined. With them and Amsterdam University College @OpenTech_AUC (part of UvA and VU) we’re designing a transition community, building on experiences of so many movements going in this same direction, like the @rtm #ResistTechMonopolies in Seattle, or the #VamonosJuntas and #MakeSocialsSocialAgain or #DIDay networked actions.
pompeianJan 22

Today I learned that #seattle Public Library has their own streaming platform where they pay local artists a licensing fee and then library card holders can listen for free! https://playback.spl.org/

Shout out to Mood Machine by Liz Pelly for introducing me to local library streaming services. #resisttechmonopolies