“Cities of the Sun: Urban Revolutions and the Network Commons.” Keynote lecture at Hybrid Cities conference, University of Athens, 17.09.2015

In this talk, I want to bring together two notions: the city as utopia and project; and the recent developments, over the past 10 to 15 years, with regard to the development of a network commons. The network commons is one among a number of other initiatives that propose alternative future developments, from alternative and creative uses of technology, to alternative energies to alternative economies and ecologies. Those propositions, however, have remained separate. The thesis that I propose is that as long as those propositions remain separate, they will either be absorbed or destroyed by capitalism. There will be some change but ultimately nothing really will change, the world will not become a better place, which is, as I assume, that what really interests us all and brings us together here. We thus need a coherent and collective vision that is anchored in reality. As the locus of this vision I have identified the city as utopia and project (Full text on Thenextlayer.org http://www.thenextlayer.org/node/1358).