Just to not forget the economic extraction that we're suffering from BigTech. Only the cloud services business in Europe extracts some 264B €, as calculated in the Asterès Report.
That generates an estimated 2 million jobs in the US instead of generating them in our local communities.
That's one of the costs of NOT having #DigitalAutonomy and #TechnologicalSovereignty
Now, of course a #BuyEurope campaign may help mobilise some to Europe, but how do we avoid growing European #BigTech in the process?
I think the answer lies in combining #commons with #cooperativism and free/libre open source as a precondition. These three traditions bring thousands of years, centuries and decades of experience to the table respectively, and bringing them together is the sweetspot, the win-win-win, for people, planet and collective profit.
I see some issues with this frame: US jobs are also sustaining families and communities there. People earning a living is a good thing, and falling for us/them dichotomies is pushing a protectionist agenda.
Let's see how workers can be freed from alienating work aiding big tech/money everywhere on the globe!
"combining #commons with #cooperativism and free/libre open source as a precondition"
Sounds really good for all humans 🙂
@DigitalCoup @andreas @ela
A few months ago I wrote this piece about how #BigTech is dismantling our democratic foundations:
https://freeknowledge.eu/how-bigtech-dismantles-democratic-foundations
The simplest solution would be to impose a tax on all proprietary operating systems to encourage people and businesses to adopt FOSS solutions over US big tech, but that would contradict the ambitions of European govts seeking to impose identity verification on their citizens.
@Wtebbens @DigitalCoup @andreas
I support your strategic proposition, @Wtebbens!
The moment people will understand how much #BigTech has the power to hurt them, chances are that the demand side of things will shift significantly. This is why #campaigning is so essential.
Hi @ela indeed when people hear about the ICC being sanctioned, by Trump to help his friend Netanjahu avoid being brought to trial, and how this most important international court has been banned from the US cloud platforms, and all their credit cards, well that brings down awareness.
And that's already one year!
People ask for alternatives. They're there mostly, but may be harder to find, require a different mindset (culture of commoning!) and also require more effort and a little cost to pay for it ourselves.
Well and sometimes we need to set up a cooperative cloud provider, or join an existing one. A lot of fun! But we can use some help to do these things together. Fortunately we have many friends sharing their work, like e.g. @coopcloud
Wouter Tebbens ⁂
Douwe
Reg
Ela Kagel