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diff --git a/presentations/common-goods/proposal-en.mdwn b/presentations/common-goods/proposal-en.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3bb63c --- /dev/null +++ b/presentations/common-goods/proposal-en.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ +--- +title: 'Communication infrastructure – a form of resistance?' +subtitle: 'Fripost: digital technology as a common good for user freedom and control' +author: 'Gustav Eek <gustav@fripost.org>' +date: tor 13 jul 2017 20:18:26 CEST +... + + +Proposal to FSCONS 2017 + +# Abstract + +In this lecture the democratic principles of Fripost, the free email +association (founded in 2010) will be presented. Infrastructure for +electronic communication will be resembled with a common good (a +resource). That using a critique of the *public--private* dichotomy, +and the tragedy of the commons. I will then demonstrate how also +complicated resources can (and must) be made subject to democratic +control. + +# Description + +The importance of Internet as communication medium can not be +questioned. For those who take user freedom seriously it is saddening +to see how the Internet has changed from being a common and highly +distributed network to the increasingly privatised web we encounter +today. + +In this lecture I will present the democratic principles of Fripost, +the free email association which was founded as a reaction to that +development. I will resemble infrastructure for electronic +communication with a common good (a resource), and I will demonstrate +how also complicated resources can (and must) be made subject to +democratic control. + +Fripost and its foundation and democratic principals has been +presented several times since its constitution in 2010, also at +FSCONS. This is why the lecture also will take a different and broader +stand, inspired by some recent readings. The Fripost initiative will +also be put in context of local struggles with global implication. + +In short, the idea that every resource needs an single responsible and +managing owner is unsatisfactory as well as the dichotomy +*public--private*. What is not managed can not yield profit. But some +things are to important even to be managed. Naturally this touches on +a critique (which has been presented many times before) of Hardin's +classical tragedy of the commons. Regarding the enclosure of the +commons, management in it self causes the scarcity, The commons are +not scarce resources that requires management. + +It is not obvious, however, how digital technology and technology +based on Internet can be recognised as a resource and common +good. Though "friendly" in its usage, digital technology is +intrinsically intricate and complicated in its internals, and the +distance is far between the providing and consuming ends. What is the +interpretation of democratic influence and control in the case of +digital technology? And what is user freedom for Internet services? + +Here Fripost becomes an example of central communication +infrastructure that implements democratic "ownership", maintenance, +and development. And democracy is *equal influence*: it does not stop +at the gathering of opinion. + +Equal influence is ambitious, and how it is interpreted in Fripost +will be discussed in its details, but in short the key is that +Fripost's commitment is equally much social as it is technical: all +decisions originates from the members, short term as well as +strategical; activities are balanced between the association's three +legs: (a) technology, (b) adult education, and (c) propaganda; and +sustainability is the leading word. + +I humbly recognise that what we do is small in scale and ambition. But +I still want to put it in the context of important local struggles +that with global implication. In the world, farmers fight for land, +urban folks for water, and students for independent universities. We +fight for the right and free access to Internet and the means for +communication. Internet is designed to be distributed and for equal +unlimited access for everyone. That sounds quite much like a common +good, and commons require equal influence. + +The moral of the presentation is of course that we should fight back +against the privatisation process, particularly that of the +web. Fripost illustrates that it is possible and also suggest how it +can be done. |