Ours to Hack and to Own

Trebor Scholz

ISBN 10: 1944869336 / ISBN 13: 9781944869335

Published by OR Books, US, 2017

About this Item

A Wired Magazine Top Tech Book of 2017Real democracy and the Internet are not mutually exclusive.Here, for the first time in one volume, are some of the most cogent thinkers and doers on the subject of the cooptation of the Internet, and how we can resist and reverse the process. The activists who have put together Ours to Hack and to Own argue for a new kind of online economy: platform cooperativism, which combines the rich heritage of cooperatives with the promise of 21st-century technologies, free from monopoly, exploitation, and surveillance.The on-demand economy is reversing the rights and protections workers fought for centuries to win. Ordinary Internet users, meanwhile, retain little control over their personal data. While promising to be the great equalizers, online platforms have often exacerbated social inequalities. Can the Internet be owned and governed differently? What if Uber drivers set up their own platform, or if a city's residents controlled their own version of Airbnb? This book shows that another kind of Internet is possible-and that, in a new generation of online platforms, it is already taking shape.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781944869335

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Ours to Hack and to Own
• Publisher: OR Books, US
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1944869336
• ISBN 13: 9781944869335
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A Wired Magazine Top Tech Book of 2017

Real democracy and the Internet are not mutually exclusive.

Here, for the first time in one volume, are some of the most cogent thinkers and doers on the subject of the cooptation of the Internet, and how we can resist and reverse the process. The activists who have put together Ours to Hack and to Own argue for a new kind of online economy: platform cooperativism, which combines the rich heritage of cooperatives with the promise of 21st-century technologies, free from monopoly, exploitation, and surveillance.

The on-demand economy is reversing the rights and protections workers fought for centuries to win. Ordinary Internet users, meanwhile, retain little control over their personal data. While promising to be the great equalizers, online platforms have often exacerbated social inequalities. Can the Internet be owned and governed differently? What if Uber drivers set up their own platform, or if a city’s residents controlled their own version of Airbnb? This book shows that another kind of Internet is possible―and that, in a new generation of online platforms, it is already taking shape.

About the Authors

Trebor Scholz, scholar-activist, is Associate Professor for Culture & Media at The New School in NYC, where he convenes the Digital Labor conference series. Among other books, he is the author of the forthcoming Uber-Worked and Underpaid: How Workers Are Taking Back the Digital Economy (Polity Press).

Nathan Schneider is a Scholar-in-Residence of media studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has written for Harper’s, The Nation, The New York Times, The Catholic Worker, and other publications.