Navigating Pandemic Crises: Encountering the Digital Commons

Abstract

Since the 19th century, sociologists have grappled with understanding the dynamics of social change. In this article, I explore three key changes that emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic. First, professional workers, students, and others who could manage it used platforms like Zoom to shift their work and social activities online to minimize exposure to the virus. At the same time, this surge of online activity expanded the opportunities for corporations and governments to engage in surveillance by collecting user data. I call this the “pandemic surveillance paradox.” This paradox posed potential threats to civil liberties, and particularly the right to privacy, since many users were unaware of the nature and extent of this data collection process. Second, free software and other privacy advocates built on their prior work to educate software and Internet users about strategies to protect their privacy and encounter the digital commons. In the digital commons, all participants can access, use, modify, and share software, the Internet, scientific, educational, and cultural resources. Third, during the pandemic, open science and open education advocates made vital contributions to the digital commons. They accelerated the scientific research process to develop vaccines and treatments for the virus, and disseminated key public health information and other educational resources. Through these diverse activities, digital commoners navigated crises arising from the COVID-19 pandemic by forging alternatives to the dominant capitalist system rooted in profit and proprietary control.