Summary

This paper contains the proceedings of a seminar on the Internet Identity Marketplace co-organised by D-CENT, ISOC and Teatro Valle. The multidisciplinary seminar included debates and interviews with leading hackers, activists, technologists, economists, philosophers, lawyers and political scientist. They discussed issues such as collective intelligence and the production of subjectivity, surveillance and power, future infrastructures, the commons and the future of identity, citizenship and democracy.

In light of the NSA revelations, the apparent contradiction between “the internet for the common good” and the “capturing and surveillance of collective intelligence” creates a tension that should lead to exploring alternative political and technical strategies to build new structures of autonomy and democracy.

This strong relation between surveillance and the production of subjectivity through marketing and advertising techniques, together with the selling of personal data touches a raw nerve. Subjectivity itself and collective intelligence is the heart of the accumulation process in the digital capitalism, which sees the giant tech companies that aggregate big data, (the "Rentiers of the general intellect") as the new powers.

The debate around data use and data sharing needs to be a debate about autonomy and freedoms. Big Data concerns not only the technology or internet governance, but also a much broader, longer and ambitious debates about the future of citizenship, collective agreements and democracy.

This initiative aims at activating a process of recomposition of thinkers and activists from various disciplines that will raise awareness of the stakes of the political economy of the internet, resulting in a common vision that can lead to the creation of a constituency to work on awareness, rights, claims, self-governance issues, and technical standards: the kind of work necessary in order to preserve a democratic governance of the digital identity ecosystems.

Authors

Francesca Bria and Federico Primosig