Re: <nettime> Armin Medosch: The Rise of the Network Commons: A History of Community Infrastructure

[Jip de Ridder via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Wauw,

Thanks for the inspiration and making the ground work visible!

No more tragedy,

Jip

On Wed, May 28, 2025 at 11:06 PM Adam Burns via nettime-l <
nettime-l@lists.nettime.org> wrote:

> Dear Geert,
>
> Thank you so much for your role in making this publication a reality.
>
> The concept of a 'Network Commons' in this sense evolved some good years
> ago from conversations between Julian Priest, Armin Medosch and myself,
> influenced by exposure to Elinor Ostram's work on developing the concept
> of the commons, countering the narrative of the 'tragedy'.
>
> As mentioned in your post, so many people have played their part in
> forming the narrative of this history of community infrastructure.
>
> Book launch events have been organized in Berlin, London, and Linz (with
> additional potential launches in Vienna and Athens in progress).
>
> The up-to-date details of these book launch events can be found at
> https://www.networkcommons.org as they come to hand.
>
> On 28/05/2025 13:08, Geert Lovink via nettime-l wrote:
> > (dear all, i am proud to present this INC theory on demand #58
> publication by the late Armin Medosch, who has always been active on
> nettime till he passed away in 2017, now accessible as pdf, epub on print
> on demand. thanks to volker and adam for this amazing, stressfree
> production. /geert)
> >
> >
> https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/tod-58-the-rise-of-the-network-commons-a-history-of-community-infrastructure/
> >
> > The Rise of the Network Commons: A History of Community Infrastructure
> > By Armin Medosch
> >
> > This book is a message in a bottle that washed ashore ten years after it
> was sent. Armin Medosch began documenting self-managed local networking
> initiatives with his book Freie Netze published in the German language in
> 2004. He iteratively developed The Rise of the Network Commons in draft
> chapters published on his website, The Next Layer, from 2013 until 2015,
> before his death in 2017.
> >
> > The Rise of the Network Commons is a cultural history of ‘the exciting
> world of wireless community network projects’ that spread from its origins
> in London, Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen to Spain, Greece, North- and South
> America, and Africa. While deploying cutting-edge technology, the movement
> is made up of technical, social, and artistic hackers with a range of
> backgrounds and skills.
> >
> > This is the twofold thesis that Armin develops in this book: Involving
> ordinary people in building a network commons has a profound emancipatory
> effects on them. At the same time, doing so contributes to the
> democratization of technology: As a community we can begin to shape future
> technologies to serve our local needs rather than benefit commercial
> interests.
> >
> > As a history of community infrastructure, The Rise of the Network
> Commons is a highly topical narrative for strengthening the resilience of
> our local last mile digital infrastructures and re-enforcing regional
> digital self-sovereignty through direct community participation and
> knowledge sharing. We build the wireless commons by becoming sovereign
> neighbors of practice and expertise.
> >
> > Armin Medosch (1962 – 2017) was an Austrian media artist, journalist,
> curator, theorist, critic, and a pioneer of internet culture in Europe. As
> art activist, he co-initiated the transformation of the ship MS Stubnitz, a
> former GDR deep-sea fishing vessel, into a floating art space. He is well
> recognized as a journalist and as the co-editor of Telepolis. As an
> academic he earned a Master of Arts in Interactive Digital Media at the
> University of Sussex and a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London and
> continued to his last days to publish, teach and research.
> >
> > Author: Armin Medosch
> > Edited by: Volker Ralf Grassmuck and Adam Burns
> >
> > With special thanks to: Ina Zwerger, Elektra Aichele, Panayotis
> Antoniadis, Gregers Baur-Petersen, Andreas Bräu, Sebastian Büttrich, Teresa
> Dillon, André Gaul, Aaron Kaplan, Geert Lovink, Monic Meisel, Mauricio
> Román Miranda, Jürgen Neumann, Ignacio Nieto Larrain, Julian Priest,
> Enrique Rivera, Tim Schütz, Felix Stalder, Thomas Thaler, Ulf Treger, Sven
> (C-ven) Wagner, Simon Worthington, Manuel Orellana Sandoval and everyone at
> Señal 3, TV Piola.
> >
> > Cover design: Katja van Stiphout
> > Book production and design: Ruben Stoffelen
> > Published by the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2025.
> > ISBN: 978-90-83520-92-6
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: https://www.nettime.org
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