Why Our Digital Lives Need Community Control — and How People Are Rebuilding the Cloud From the Ground Up
We talk a lot about community gardens, community energy, and community land trusts.
But what about the most valuable resource of the 21st century?
The resource that powers our identities, our economies, our public services, and our democracy?
Data.
Digital infrastructure.
The cloud.
Right now, most of it is owned by three or four corporations.
And that creates extraction, surveillance, and systemic risk.
Communities are flipping the script.
Scene 1 — The Old Digital System Was Built for Extraction
For decades, our “cloud” has really been:
Someone else’s computer —
someone else’s rules —
someone else’s profit model.
This created predictable harm:
• schools dependent on surveillance-heavy edtech
• cities locked into expensive private cloud contracts
• hospitals hacked after storing data in centralized systems
• Indigenous knowledge scraped for AI training
• small businesses priced out of “premium” cloud features
• communities cut off during outages because everything ran through a corporate server
When you don’t own your digital house, you don’t control your digital life.
Scene 2 — Flip the Script: Community Ownership = Digital Sovereignty
Communities are rebuilding the digital world the same way they rebuilt food and energy systems —
with cooperation, transparency, and local governance.
They’re creating cooperative clouds, community data trusts, edge computing hubs,
and digital commons where people own, manage, and govern their information.
This is happening right now.
Scene 3 — Real Examples of Community-Owned Cloud & Digital Commons (2024–2025)
1. Cooperative Cloud Hosting Networks
Communities pooling resources to build shared digital infrastructure.
Examples:
• Germany’s Hetzner-inspired regional co-op clouds expanding in 2024
• Canada’s Co-op Cloud helping nonprofits run email, storage, and apps without Big Tech
• UK community tech collectives hosting local media and civic data
• France’s CHATONS network providing privacy-first, cooperative cloud services
Shared infrastructure → no extraction.
2. Tribal & Indigenous Digital Sovereignty Clouds
Indigenous nations building self-governed cloud infrastructure.
Examples:
• Māori-owned digital cloud systems protecting language, genealogy, and ecological knowledge
• Navajo Nation & Pueblo communities operating local data centers
• Indigenous AI labs in Hawaii and Australia creating culturally governed data models
• First Nations OCAP/CARE protocols controlling how any cloud stores or processes Indigenous data
Cultural protection encoded into technology.
3. Municipal Data Trusts & Public Clouds
Cities managing data as a shared public good.
Examples:
• Chicago’s South Side data governance project managing health & climate data collectively
• Barcelona’s “City Data Commons” giving residents veto power over smart-city data use
• Amsterdam’s public cloud pilot moving essential services off corporate platforms
• Taipei using open-source cloud for participatory governance tools
City-owned cloud = democratic cloud.
4. Edge Computing for Resilience & Privacy
Local servers processing data close to the community —
not in a far-away data center.
Examples:
• U.S. wildfire regions using edge servers for emergency alerts
• South Korean schools installing local servers for privacy-preserving learning apps
• Community-owned micro data centers in Africa reducing outages and costs
• European “edge collectives” powering neighborhood mesh networks
Local compute reduces surveillance and increases resilience.
5. Digital Commons Platforms
Shared knowledge infrastructures owned by everyone.
Examples:
• OpenStreetMap mapping cities more accurately than commercial maps
• Wikipedia — a global knowledge commons resisting corporate capture
• PeerTube — decentralized video hosting
• Lemmy — community-run discussion forums
• Mastodon — federated, community-owned social networks
• Municipal open-data commons protecting public access while maintaining privacy
The digital commons is becoming the backbone of civic life.
6. Cooperatively Governed Data for Public Health
Where communities decide how data is used — not corporations.
Examples:
• Community-led maternal health data systems in Black and Indigenous communities
• Collective asthma data tracking in polluted neighborhoods
• Co-op-run mental health information hubs protecting sensitive data
• Local air-quality sensors uploaded into community-owned clouds
Health data becomes a tool for liberation — not exploitation.
Scene 4 — Why Community-Owned Cloud Systems Work
They replace extraction with empowerment.
Community-owned digital infrastructure creates:
• more privacy
• more resilience
• less surveillance
• lower cost
• cultural protection
• local autonomy
• stronger public health systems
• ethical AI training
• democratic governance
• community wealth-building
Digital sovereignty → community sovereignty.
Scene 5 — What Mobilized News Can Help Build
Mobilized News can accelerate this shift by:
• hosting a global directory of cooperative cloud solutions
• building a federated “Solutions Cloud” for creators and communities
• sharing toolkits for data trusts, digital commons, and municipal cloud models
• elevating Indigenous sovereignty protocols (OCAP, CARE)
• syndicating digital commons stories across the Fediverse
• teaching communities how to build mesh networks + edge computing hubs
• creating “public cloud explainer videos” for youth and elders
• supporting a global alliance for ethical, community-controlled AI training
Mobilized becomes the world’s storytelling hub for digital sovereignty.
The cloud doesn’t have to be a corporate fortress.
Data doesn’t have to be extracted.
Digital life doesn’t have to be owned.
We can build digital systems the same way we build strong communities —
cooperatively, transparently, and governed by the people they serve.
This is how we reclaim our digital agency.
This is how we protect culture and identity.
This is how we build a democratic digital future.
Flip the script.
Own your digital world.
Mobilized News.
