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.

• Something to Say Yes To1. Nathan Schneider and Trebor Scholz: What This Is and Isn’t About2. Nathan Schneider: The Meanings of Words3. Trebor Scholz: How Platform Cooperativism Can Unleash the Network4. Susie Cagle: The Seven Cooperative Principles5. Jessica Gordon Nembhard: Eight Facts about Cooperative EnterprisePlatform Capitalism6. Douglas Rushkoff: Renaissance Now7. Juliet Schor: Old Exclusion in Emergent Spaces8. McKenzie Wark: Worse Than Capitalism9. Steven Hill: How the Un-Sharing Economy Threatens Workers10. Christoph Spehr: SpongeBob, Why Don’t You Work Harder? 11. Kati Sipp: Portable Reputation in the On-demand Economy12. Dmytri Kleiner: Counterantidisintermediation13. David Bollier: From Open Access to Digital CommonsAn Internet of Our OwnShowcases: Cooperative Platforms14. Yochai Benkler: The Realism of Cooperativism15. Janelle Orsi: Three Essential Building Blocks for Your Platform Cooperative16. Caroline Woolard: So You Want to Start a Platform Cooperative17. Melissa Hoover: What We Mean When We Say “Cooperatives” 18. David Carroll: A Different Kind of Startup is Possible19. Marina Gorbis: Designing Positive Platforms20. Cameron Tonkinwise: Convenient Solidarity: Designing for Platform Cooperativism21. Seda Gurses: Designing for Privacy22. Danny Spitzberg: How Crowdfunding Becomes Stewardship23. Arun Sundararajan: Economic Barriers and Enablers of Distributed Ownership24. Ra Criscitiello: There is Platform-Power in a Union25. Saskia Sassen: Making Apps for Low-wage Workers and Their Neighborhoods26. Kristy Milland: The Crowd: Naturally Cooperative, Unnaturally Silenced? 27. Tom Slee: Platforms and Trust: Beyond Reputation Systems28. Michel Bauwens and Vasilis Kostakis: Why Platform Co-ops Should Be Open Co-opsConditions of PossibilityShowcases: infrastructure29. John Duda: Beyond Luxury Cooperativism30. Brendan Martin: Money is the Root of All Platforms31. Carmen Rojas: From People-Centered Ideas to People-Powered Capital 32. Karen Gregory: Can Code Schools Go Cooperative?33. Palak Shah: A Code for Good Work34. Micky Metts: Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Tech Co-op35. Michael Peck: Building the People’s Ownership Economy through Union Co-ops36. Mayo Fuster Morell: Toward a Theory of Value for Platform Cooperatives37. Francesca Bria: Public Policies for Digital Sovereignty38. Miriam Cherry: Legal and Governance Structures Built to Share39. Rachel O’Dwyer: Blockchains and Their Pitfalls40. Astra Taylor: Non-CooperativismContributorsAcknowledgments

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.

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.

• Something to Say Yes To1. Nathan Schneider and Trebor Scholz: What This Is and Isn’t About2. Nathan Schneider: The Meanings of Words3. Trebor Scholz: How Platform Cooperativism Can Unleash the Network4. Susie Cagle: The Seven Cooperative Principles5. Jessica Gordon Nembhard: Eight Facts about Cooperative EnterprisePlatform Capitalism6. Douglas Rushkoff: Renaissance Now7. Juliet Schor: Old Exclusion in Emergent Spaces8. McKenzie Wark: Worse Than Capitalism9. Steven Hill: How the Un-Sharing Economy Threatens Workers10. Christoph Spehr: SpongeBob, Why Don’t You Work Harder? 11. Kati Sipp: Portable Reputation in the On-demand Economy12. Dmytri Kleiner: Counterantidisintermediation13. David Bollier: From Open Access to Digital CommonsAn Internet of Our OwnShowcases: Cooperative Platforms14. Yochai Benkler: The Realism of Cooperativism15. Janelle Orsi: Three Essential Building Blocks for Your Platform Cooperative16. Caroline Woolard: So You Want to Start a Platform Cooperative17. Melissa Hoover: What We Mean When We Say “Cooperatives” 18. David Carroll: A Different Kind of Startup is Possible19. Marina Gorbis: Designing Positive Platforms20. Cameron Tonkinwise: Convenient Solidarity: Designing for Platform Cooperativism21. Seda Gurses: Designing for Privacy22. Danny Spitzberg: How Crowdfunding Becomes Stewardship23. Arun Sundararajan: Economic Barriers and Enablers of Distributed Ownership24. Ra Criscitiello: There is Platform-Power in a Union25. Saskia Sassen: Making Apps for Low-wage Workers and Their Neighborhoods26. Kristy Milland: The Crowd: Naturally Cooperative, Unnaturally Silenced? 27. Tom Slee: Platforms and Trust: Beyond Reputation Systems28. Michel Bauwens and Vasilis Kostakis: Why Platform Co-ops Should Be Open Co-opsConditions of PossibilityShowcases: infrastructure29. John Duda: Beyond Luxury Cooperativism30. Brendan Martin: Money is the Root of All Platforms31. Carmen Rojas: From People-Centered Ideas to People-Powered Capital 32. Karen Gregory: Can Code Schools Go Cooperative?33. Palak Shah: A Code for Good Work34. Micky Metts: Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Tech Co-op35. Michael Peck: Building the People’s Ownership Economy through Union Co-ops36. Mayo Fuster Morell: Toward a Theory of Value for Platform Cooperatives37. Francesca Bria: Public Policies for Digital Sovereignty38. Miriam Cherry: Legal and Governance Structures Built to Share39. Rachel O’Dwyer: Blockchains and Their Pitfalls40. Astra Taylor: Non-CooperativismContributorsAcknowledgments

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.

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.

• Something to Say Yes To1. Nathan Schneider and Trebor Scholz: What This Is and Isn’t About2. Nathan Schneider: The Meanings of Words3. Trebor Scholz: How Platform Cooperativism Can Unleash the Network4. Susie Cagle: The Seven Cooperative Principles5. Jessica Gordon Nembhard: Eight Facts about Cooperative EnterprisePlatform Capitalism6. Douglas Rushkoff: Renaissance Now7. Juliet Schor: Old Exclusion in Emergent Spaces8. McKenzie Wark: Worse Than Capitalism9. Steven Hill: How the Un-Sharing Economy Threatens Workers10. Christoph Spehr: SpongeBob, Why Don’t You Work Harder? 11. Kati Sipp: Portable Reputation in the On-demand Economy12. Dmytri Kleiner: Counterantidisintermediation13. David Bollier: From Open Access to Digital CommonsAn Internet of Our OwnShowcases: Cooperative Platforms14. Yochai Benkler: The Realism of Cooperativism15. Janelle Orsi: Three Essential Building Blocks for Your Platform Cooperative16. Caroline Woolard: So You Want to Start a Platform Cooperative17. Melissa Hoover: What We Mean When We Say “Cooperatives” 18. David Carroll: A Different Kind of Startup is Possible19. Marina Gorbis: Designing Positive Platforms20. Cameron Tonkinwise: Convenient Solidarity: Designing for Platform Cooperativism21. Seda Gurses: Designing for Privacy22. Danny Spitzberg: How Crowdfunding Becomes Stewardship23. Arun Sundararajan: Economic Barriers and Enablers of Distributed Ownership24. Ra Criscitiello: There is Platform-Power in a Union25. Saskia Sassen: Making Apps for Low-wage Workers and Their Neighborhoods26. Kristy Milland: The Crowd: Naturally Cooperative, Unnaturally Silenced? 27. Tom Slee: Platforms and Trust: Beyond Reputation Systems28. Michel Bauwens and Vasilis Kostakis: Why Platform Co-ops Should Be Open Co-opsConditions of PossibilityShowcases: infrastructure29. John Duda: Beyond Luxury Cooperativism30. Brendan Martin: Money is the Root of All Platforms31. Carmen Rojas: From People-Centered Ideas to People-Powered Capital 32. Karen Gregory: Can Code Schools Go Cooperative?33. Palak Shah: A Code for Good Work34. Micky Metts: Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Tech Co-op35. Michael Peck: Building the People’s Ownership Economy through Union Co-ops36. Mayo Fuster Morell: Toward a Theory of Value for Platform Cooperatives37. Francesca Bria: Public Policies for Digital Sovereignty38. Miriam Cherry: Legal and Governance Structures Built to Share39. Rachel O’Dwyer: Blockchains and Their Pitfalls40. Astra Taylor: Non-CooperativismContributorsAcknowledgments

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.