ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature of the digital commons as a new form of globality that poses an alternative to both neoliberal globalization and informational capitalism. It focuses on two examples of localized struggles that contributed to the development of the digital commons in the 1970s and 1980s. The chapter considers Creative Commons and Wikipedia as two later projects where participants expanded and strengthened the digital commons after 2001. It explores the contributions of free software and net neutrality advocates to developing the digital commons as an alternative to neoliberalism and informational capitalism. The chapter shows free software and net neutrality communities as prime examples of what Sassen calls "elementary forms of transboundary public spheres or forms of globality centered in multiple localized types of struggles and agency." It discusses the neoliberal discourse emphasized the freedom of corporations to expand into markets throughout the world under terms that were most profitable to them.
