Can data collectives help strengthen vulnerable cultures in the face of AI?

Link: Fed up with Big Tech, communities turn to data collectives for control, by Rina Chandran at Rest of WorldIt’s interesting to contrast the current moment to the “information wants to be free” era of Web 2.0, twenty or so years ago. Back then, everyone was talking about open APIs and open data. Now, it’s become clearer that communities need to control the terms of their data if they’re going to avoid being strip-mined for somebody else’s profit.“Workers, producers, consumers, and others have been establishing cooperatives and other community-led associations to pool resources, share benefits, and address socioeconomic challenges for centuries. The United Nations marked 2025 as the year of cooperatives, positioning them as “essential solutions to today’s global problems,” kindling renewed interest in data collectives and cooperatives.”While there’s certainly an argument to be made that communities tend to over-estimate the value of their own data (looking at you, news), some of…