Finding CTRL – arketyp.

In the internet’s 50th year Nesta, the global innovation foundation, has spoken to tech pioneers, artists, activists and social media influencers to reflect on the internet at 50.

Finding CTRL: Visions for the Future Internet, launched today and contains over thirty contributions, ranging from essays and short stories to poems and short films, from over fifteen countries and five continents. This online collection is an important contemplation on the internet’s history so far, and calls for people at all levels of society to become more active in creating positive visions for the future.

Initial internet pioneers dreamt of an internet that would be open, free and decentralised, but the story of the internet today is mostly a story of loss of control. Just a handful of companies are determining what we read, see and buy, influencing our decisions about where we live, who we vote for, and even who we love and who we are. There is an increasing sense of unease about this power imbalance in a time where every week seems to bring a new scandal.

Ordinary people are increasingly reclaiming control. Communities from Catalunya to Detroit are building their own local internet networks, cities are fighting back against Airbnb, and activist Berliners sick of gentrification successfully managed to keep Google out of Kreuzberg.