Plurality, Data, and the Necessity of “Internets”

Today, the internet is often understood as a monolithic entity. This depiction is increasingly inaccurate and needs to be radically re-examined. The pluriverse concept of the internet examines local and international models of community building in interdependent but separated digital contexts. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems some articulations of the pluriverse describe a universe of separate, but connected and interdependent worlds, understood with reference to the concept of communities. Unlike today’s internet-based communities, organized in specific siloed venues and forums where users with specific interests rarely face opposition or differences of opinion and where these interests are constantly reinforced by recirculated data and opinions, the pluriverse offers an imaginative frame where we can imagine a series of ‘internets’, made up of localized networks, community-driven social spaces, open source data sharing, and truly collaborative production at a replicable scale. This paper presents an exploration of the potential for pluriversal “internets.”