We are on the verge of something called the Big Data Revolution: all facets of soci­ety are beginning to be shaped by data mining and behaviour products - constant mass surveillance, in the form of online tracking, is dangerously close to becoming the ‘new normal.’ Today, in the Web 2.0., private corporations and powerful governments hold a monopoly over all flows of information – by owning the infrastructure of the internet (the data centres, the broadband networks, the ISPs) they own the data. With our private information sold to the highest bidder and with one person’s yearly email correspondence costing 0.6 tonnes in carbon dioxide – the system, as we know it, requires an overhaul.

At its core, the commoditization of data has created a fundamental asymmetry in power between institutions (who know everything) and individuals (who know nothing): The Cloud Cooperative was created to correct this power imbalance, to give people power over their own data. Starting with a pilot project in Edinburgh, the Cooperative proposes a phased evolution towards a decentralized internet. Members are provided with access to secure cloud storage and anonymous peer-to-peer browsing: their data is processed and stored within infrastructure that is transparent, local, and community-owned.