<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Nathan Schneider</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nathan@therowboat.com">nathan@therowboat.com</a>></span><br>Date: Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 1:14 AM<br>Subject: Owning Is the New Sharing<br>To: <a href="mailto:michel@p2pfoundation.net">michel@p2pfoundation.net</a><br><br><br><u></u>
<div marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" style="margin:0;padding:0;background-color:#ffffff">
<center>
<table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%" style="border-collapse:collapse;margin:0;padding:0;background-color:#ffffff;height:100%!important;width:100%!important">
<tbody><tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse;margin:0;padding:20px;border-top:0;height:100%!important;width:100%!important">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" style="border-collapse:collapse;border:1px solid #bbbbbb">
<tbody><tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" style="border-collapse:collapse;background-color:#ffffff;border-top:0;border-bottom:0">
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top" style="padding-top:9px;border-collapse:collapse"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="left" width="600" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="padding-top:9px;padding-right:18px;padding-bottom:9px;padding-left:18px;border-collapse:collapse;color:#808080;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:10px;line-height:150%;text-align:left" valign="top">
<h1 style="display:block;font-family:Arial,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:100%;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0;text-align:left;color:#202020!important">Owning Is the New Sharing</h1>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" style="border-collapse:collapse;background-color:#ffffff;border-top:0;border-bottom:0">
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" style="border-collapse:collapse;background-color:#ffffff;border-top:0;border-bottom:0">
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="left" width="600" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="padding-top:9px;padding-right:18px;padding-bottom:9px;padding-left:18px;border-collapse:collapse;color:#505050;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:14px;line-height:150%;text-align:left" valign="top">
<a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=4f90ac888f&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank"><img src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492/images/13bfaf70-9b57-4924-a862-7ecd076f812b.jpg" style="width:400px;min-height:346px;margin:0px 0px 10px 15px;border:0;line-height:100%;outline:none;text-decoration:none" align="right" width="400" height="346"></a>What if we owned the Internet? Would we get paid for our likes and comments? What privacy policies would we write for ourselves?<br>
<br>
Last month, the Silicon Valley-based network Shareable dispatched me to write a report on the growing movement to experiment with new forms of economic democracy online. The folks at Shareable recognized that, more and more, the so-called "sharing economy" is being recognized as <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=ab9ab28bb3&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">extractive and invasive</a>. In search of alternatives, I looked at cooperatives, networks of freelancers, cryptocurrencies, and more. A popular mantra among sharing-economy boosters has been "sharing is the new owning." <strong>What I found is the opposite: <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=dd7167f713&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank"><font color="red"><b>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "therowboat.us5.list-manage.com" claiming to be</b></font> Read my report at Shareable.net</a>.</strong><br>
<br>
As soon as the article appeared last week, I started hearing from entrepreneurs and activists around the world who were excited about it. Trebor Scholz, who recently hosted an extraordinary <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=56bf074c37&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">conference on digital labor at the New School</a>, told me that he had been polishing an article on the same topic. It's up now at Medium, and is a helpful companion to mine: "<a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=e57edd43b8&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">Platform Cooperativism vs. the Sharing Economy</a>."<br>
<h2 style="display:block;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:100%;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0;text-align:left;color:#404040!important"> </h2>
<h2 style="display:block;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:20px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:100%;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0;text-align:left;color:#404040!important">So old that it looks like new?</h2>
<br>
I said that this stuff is new, but I was kind of lying. Lately I've been trying to keep my eye out for things that are old and new at the same time—or, as Catholic Worker founder Peter Maurin put it, "so old that it looks like new." That's why I also wrote about cooperative ownership in <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=928f95b14b&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank"></em>my latest column for <em>America magazine</a>, with a focus on the long legacy of Catholic cooperativism, from monastic communities to Mondragon, the largest network of cooperatives in the world.<br>
<br>
In the column, I said that this tradition is mostly dormant in the United States and should be awakened—but readers wrote back to tell me that, happily, I was wrong. Though they're not terribly visible, faith-driven cooperatives are <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=244bc0aa58&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">making a comeback</a>. Pope Francis once recalled something he heard his father say about cooperativism: "It goes forward slowly, but it is sure."<br>
<br>
This deeper kind of sharing is present in many traditions—especially those suffering gross injustice. As we wrestle to come to terms with the disparities of economic and police power that plague our communities, now is a good time to be reading Jessica Gordon Nembhard's <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=65ebde206b&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">recent book</a>, <em>Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice</em>. But business will only get us so far; now is also a good time to be <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=c6ce636f4f&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#eb4102;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">in the streets</a>.<br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center" valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" style="border-collapse:collapse;background-color:#f7f7f7;border-top:0;border-bottom:0">
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top" style="padding-bottom:9px;border-collapse:collapse"><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<table align="left" width="600" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse">
<tbody><tr>
<td style="padding-top:9px;padding-right:18px;padding-bottom:9px;padding-left:18px;border-collapse:collapse;color:#808080;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:10px;line-height:150%;text-align:left" valign="top">
This is a list for very occasional updates about major milestones in my work. <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage1.com/unsubscribe?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=1b0df9aab0&e=d0bac2f27a&c=c98c13865c" style="color:#606060;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank"><font color="red"><b>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "therowboat.us5.list-manage1.com" claiming to be</b></font> Unsubscribe michel@p2pfoundation.net, entirely guilt-free, </a><a style="color:#606060;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important">here</a>. For more regular and obnoxious updates, you can always follow me at <a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=bd037ad120&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#606060;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">@nathanairplane</a>.<br>
<br>
Nathan Schneider
Leaves of Grass
Brooklyn, NY 11205
USA
<div style="text-align:right">
</div>
<a href="http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/profile?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=1b0df9aab0&e=d0bac2f27a" style="color:#606060;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:break-word!important" target="_blank">update subscription preferences</a>
<div style="text-align:right">
<a href="http://www.mailchimp.com/monkey-rewards/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=monkey_rewards&aid=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&afl=1" target="_blank"><img src="http://cdn-images.mailchimp.com/monkey_rewards/MC_MonkeyReward_15.png" border="0" alt="Email Marketing Powered by MailChimp" title="MailChimp Email Marketing" width="139" height="54"></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</center>
<img src="http://www.mailscanner.info/images/1x1spacer.gif" width="1" height="1" alt="Web Bug from http://therowboat.us5.list-manage.com/track/open.php?u=9f3ed41904eeb9d7c3a139492&id=c98c13865c&e=d0bac2f27a" /></div>
</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: <a href="http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan" target="_blank">http://en.wiki.floksociety.org/w/Research_Plan</a> </div><div><br></div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br><br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br><br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div></div>
</div>