On Friday 13th June friends gathered at Hermitage Community Mooring to celebrate the London launch of The Rise of Network Commons by Armin Medosch. This book was drafted over a decade ago and serialised on Armin’s blog The Next Layer but didn’t get published as planned before his untimely death in 2017.
Only now after the efforts of Adam Burns and Volker Ralf Grassmuck with support of Geert Lovink – Institute for Network Cultures, is it presented for print on demand at £10.00. PDF
“The book in your hands is a message in a bottle that washed ashore ten years after it was sent. Armin Medosch began documenting self-managed local networking initiatives with his book Freie Netze published in the German language in 2004. “
The Rise of the Network Commons is a cultural history of ‘the exciting world of wireless community network projects’ that spread from its origins in London, Berlin, Vienna, Copenhagen to Spain, Greece, North- and South America, and Africa. While deploying cutting-edge technology, the movement is made up of technical, social, and artistic hackers with a range of backgrounds and skills.
We read passages from the book to each other over marine ambiance and sonics by Mukul Patel and Gavin Stark. Then rewinding the clock to 2000’s viewed a gallery of workshop images featuring many of us in our passionate youth.
Similar book launch events have been arranged in Berlin and Vienna where the extended family of free network infrastructure activists meet to continue their work interlinking communities and celebrating ingenuity with open minds. See more images from London here
