Dear

November's First Wednesday kicks off later today (5pm UTC - click here to find out when that is for you) looking at the subject of Data Trusts and Data Commoning. We'll be in conversation with community builder, software developer, journalist and political economist Anouk Ruhaak, and ODI policy team alumnus Peter Wells, knowledgeable in data infrastructure, ethics, trusts, and more. Common ownership of data is a lovely idea, but the devil, so they say, is in the detail. How can we start to dive in to the complex problems of data commons? What questions do you have about this topic at the leading edge of governance? Join us! Link for the event is below.

As always, you can join the First Wednesday calls here: https://ca.meet.coop/b/gra-wdz-ujr. Everyone is welcome, not just Collective members, so please feel free to forward.

Also, don't forget to save the Date for December's First Wednesday: Looking to help offset pandemic gloom, we'll celebrate cooperation across cooperatives with a look at the new Meet.Coop, which we are now using for our calls. DigLife members will talk with Open Co-op's Oliver Sylvester-Bradley and Hypha Coop's Benedict Lau about how this virtual meeting cooperative came to be, where it's going, and how learning from that cooperative effort can inform further inter-coop cooperation. Mark your calendar!

If you missed October's First Wednesday with Ben Parsons on matrix.org, click here to watch on demand. You'll learn all about this decentralized communications protocol and how you can join the Collective's Matrix instance, hang out in our Matrix rooms, and interoperate in decentralizing wonder with every other Matrix instance and a variety of centralized, proprietary platforms via Matrix bridges. (You have to connect to them to free people from them.) 

Generative Identity

The Collective is supporting important work on the topic of digital identity as you can see at https://generative-identity.org. While many approaches to digital identity extend and amplify the concept of legal identity, that is but one narrow facet of identity in the context of the human condition and community. Such amplification with the concurrent neglect of more natural forms of identity in the information age is degenerative, reducing our capacity to adapt and create. In short, generative identity approaches digital identity with an emphasis on psychological, sociological, and ecological health.  

Events and Must-Reads

Nov 4: Data Trusts and Data Commoning / First Wednesday with the Collective

Nov 14–15: IndieWebCamp East

Dec 2: Walking the Cooperative Walk / First Wednesday with the Collective

Dec 7–11: 1st International Workshop on Distributed Infrastructure for Common Good

Coop Exchange article: "One of the world's most cited computer scientists wants cooperatives to be the future of how data is owned" by Leo Sammallahti

Grounding cooperation in ecological basics: “Life’s economy is primarily based on collaborative rather than competitive advantage” by Daniel Christian Wahl

Hope to see you at our First Wednesday next week.

Best wishes, 
Christina (on behalf of the member relations team).