Commons transition: what about the IT infrastructure?
Michele Kipiel
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Hi all,
there's a great deal of debate in the P2P community about the ways the commons transition will take shape in fields as diverse as energy production, farming, housing, industrial production and so on. Almost all proposed solutions take the IT ifrastructure as a given: the internet is assumed to always be there for us to use, no matter what. This seems to me like a naive and dangerous assumption, as it greatly downplays the importance of ISPs (which are private companies) as both gateways and gatekeepers of our access to the internet. There are many ways both governments and private institutions could get in the way of the commons transition by disrupting our communication channels.
Has this been debated here before? Are there any resources/articles/papers around this problem I should be aware of?
Thanks,
MK
Graham Thu 2 Mar 2017 10:58AM
"NGA" = Next Generation Access (aka industry jargon)
Michele Kipiel Mon 27 Feb 2017 2:35PM
Thank you all for sharing your knowledge on this topic! I'll look up all the shared resources and try to figure out what's the status-quo regarding commons-based IT infrastructure, which in my opinion is a vital topic for the movement.
Thanks,
MK
Simon Grant Mon 27 Feb 2017 3:03PM
The vision of a complete user-owned and co-op run infrastructure is beautiful to think about!
In case anyone is interested more in https://b4rn.org.uk/ I have personal experience of helping build the network, and this message is sent through them!
Simon
Michele Kipiel Tue 28 Feb 2017 8:38AM
Hi Simon,
that's exaclty what I have in mind: co-op infrastructure to serve as the IT backbone of the commons transition. Are there any legal frameworks available for this kind of co-op ?
Thanks,
MK
Simon Grant Tue 28 Feb 2017 9:44AM
For the official position of B4RN, see https://b4rn.org.uk/about-us/ as you see in the UK it's a community benefit society, but I haven't looked deeply into the legal framework. What I know more about is the practical aspect of building the physical network.
Danyl Strype Wed 1 Mar 2017 1:01AM
The big issue threatening non-corporate use of the internet at present is the person Trump has put in charge of the US FCC, who is busy undoing a lot of the good work his Obama appointed predecessor did towards protecting net neutrality. Especially important is the classification of broadband as a public utility, like water, electricity, or telephone, which is now under threat in the US.
Of course, if all the critical internet infrastructure around the world was owned by for-benefit cooperative bodies, rather than for-profit corporations, the role of regulators like the FCC would likely be much less important.
Nicolas Stampf Wed 1 Mar 2017 7:58AM
Then maybe we should rely less on government controlled (in one way or the other) big infrastructures, and more on ourselves and commons-managed ones.
I'd say that for everything not natural (ie, humanly built) we should build the comm-unity at the same time of building the commons.
Simon Carter Wed 1 Mar 2017 8:33AM
So hypothetically, if someone had the means to build a big on-line community, how might that community go about building it's own IT infrastructure?
Simon Grant Wed 1 Mar 2017 10:25AM
Great reply from @nicolasstampf -- to add to that, I'd say, let's start by listing all the components (a wiki would be great for doing this, then we can have a tree-structured breakdown of what is needed) and look at each component in turn. We need to know what the easier parts are, and the harder parts, then we can take forward the easier parts, and make a start on thinking creatively about the more difficult parts.
Let's investigate: has anyone started this kind of wiki-style planning resource? Fragmentation would be really unhelpful.
Josef Davies-Coates · Wed 1 Mar 2017 5:37PM
Maybe one for CoTech?
I had a very quick look at the site and immediately though "wtf are 'NGA projects'?"