Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet

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 Author :
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)

Review :
Selected praise for Ours to Hack and to Own Named a Top Tech Book of 2017 by Wired In the utopia that Scholz, Schneider, and dozens of contributors illustrate, the technologies we've come to take for granted--from Uber to Amazon and Airbnb--would be refashioned as cooperatively-owned and collectively governed entities. Mark Zuckerberg, they suggest, might put his Facebook shares in a user-controlled trust, so that those billions of people could have a say in what happens with the data that the platform collects. That's just one of the bold proposals put forth by dozens of contributors, who envision a more just online future. At times, Ours to Hack and to Own may read like a pipe dream--but it's also a much needed reminder that a better internet is possible. --Wired, The Top Tech Books of 2017 An extremely timely publication covering the legal, social, technical and economic aspects of the platform co-op movement. If you've ever wondered about how a new, collaborative, sustainable, democratic economy might work, the new book Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet, is for you. --OpenDemocracy.net What if Uber drivers set up their own platform, or if a city's residents controlled their own version of Airbnb? How about if enough Twitter users got together to buy the company in order to share its ownership? The latter idea comes from Nathan Schneider, co-editor of one of the best guides to this emerging area Ours to Hack and To Own. It's a fascinating collection of not-all-that-techy articles on cooperative initiatives to resist the cooptation of the Internet --The American Conservative Not all of the essays in this book focus or touch on open source; however, the key elements of the open source way--cooperation, community, open governance, and digital freedom--are always on or just below the surface. ....The book is more a manifesto than user guide. Having said that, Ours to Hack and to Own offers a glimpse at what we can do if we apply the principles of the open source way to society and to the wider world. --Opensource.com The internet is pretty cool. After all, where else could you order super-fancy organic tea at 3 in the morning? Or look up who played the main conquistador in Aguirre, The Wrath of God? But, as cool and world-changing as the internet is, Nathan Schneider thinks there are some major flaws in it. Namely, that we don't have a stake in most of the services we use. Schneider is the editor of Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, a New Vision for the Future of Work and a Fairer Internet, and he talks with us about making the online world more equitable. --Innovation Hub, WGBH