Evgeny Morozov on the Technological Sovereignity of Cities and the Role of Platform Cooperatives

Platform Cooperativism 2016 presentation via https://livestream.com/internetsociety/platformcoop2016/videos/141868408

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Cities and Technological Sovereignty 1 - Is There Life Beyond The New Feudalism?

"(30 mins) Evgeny Morozov -- Now that tech firms occupy top spots on any list of the world’s most valuable companies, a profound structural transformation of the economy can hardly be denied. The immense size and global scale of operations of many of these firms have produced major savings, with Uber taking on welfare-boosting role that Walmart played during an earlier era. Likewise, the adoption and active promotion of the “home ownership” ideology by governments boosted the popularity of global platforms like Airbnb as a way to cash in on one’s assets. However, the parallel shadow welfare state operated by Silicon Valley is nothing of the kind, paving the way to a new form of feudalism. But how adequate are the alternatives, from cooperatives to new forms of data ownership, and what are the challenges that stand in their way?"

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See also Neal Gorenflo's take on the topic, via https://livestream.com/internetsociety/platformcoop2016/videos/141868569:

"Cities and Technological Sovereignty 2 - United We Stand, Divided We Fall

(9 mins) Neal Gorenflo - In his talk, Gorenflo will briefly explore why policy workers should collaborate with each other, the potential structure of this collaboration, and a few examples of how policy makers have worked together successfully in the past. There is a long and illustrious history across the political spectrum, around the world, and on innumerable policy areas of policymakers collaborating to advance their agendas. For example, much of the success of the Republican Party at the state level in the United States is due to ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a membership organization of conservative state legislators that draft and share model state-level legislation for use in state governments. Because of the tremendous influence of ALEC and other policy exchanges and think tanks in the US, it is probably not an exaggeration to say that collaboration is a prerequisite for the success of public interest policymakers who seek a fair, inclusive and sustainable platform economy."