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This week thousands of sites – including Wikipedia, Mozilla, Wired – went “dark” for 24 hours in defense of a free and open Internet. Needless to say, we at Socialsquare are also worried about the US bills SOPA and PIPA.

The DNA of the Internet is based on freedom, anarchy and the free flow of knowledge – to limit these basic dynamics will amputate the creativity and the opportunities on the Net. If SOPA and PIPA were adopted, content owners and the US government could hinder the very infrastructure for sharing (not only the illegal sharing!). And without sharing the Net will not have co-creation – which in our opinion might be the single most important feature of the Internet. It is therefore positive that the Senate and House of Representatives now has decided to postpone the vote on the bills. But the threat is not over – new unhealthy and ignorant initiatives will come.

The value of the Internet should be created by developing new solutions and not by limiting. Assets are volatile – especially on the Internet – and if the established companies feel that their markets are being disrupted they must join the competition instead of limiting it. The Internet is free, humane and creative – and it would be fatal to force and build up the same institutions and legal frameworks that we find “IRL”. At Socialsquare we are therefore following the development closely.

Take a minute to enjoy John Stewart’s take on all this.

The conflicts here at Nørrebro are a little less dramatic. Sourdough and rye bread baking is the focal point in a situation where Rasmus (one of the students that are writing their master thesis with us) has challenged yours truly in baking the best rye bread. The dispute is pretty pathetic. But the rest of the Socialsquare welcomes it at lunchtime.

Everyone at Socialsquare has been working hard the last week. On Friday, we completed our project with European Glass Context on financing and organizing the coming biennale through crowdfunding and open source principles (a blog post will follow). And we are also progressing on our “The Book” and “The Farm” projects.

Stay tuned!

Kim