Shooting for the World

What Customer Commons wants to restore isn't just what was lost when the Internet got real — privacy, for example. Customer Commons also wants to restore personal agency that was lost when Industry won the Industrial Revolution. That's when jobs replaced work, labour replaced teams, and customers became consumers.

Customer Commons was created to change that. It was a purpose inherited from ProjectVRM, out of which it was spun as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 2013 — shortly after Harvard Business Review Press published The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge. That book specifically gave Customer Commons the job of doing for personal privacy terms what Creative Commons did for personal copyright — and to do it by making privacy a contract between customers and businesses, rather than a "consent" to whatever hell businesses wanted to shove down our gullets.

Work on that began in 2017, when the IEEE approached Customer Commons with an offer to host development of a standard for machine-readable personal privacy terms. That standard — officially called IEEE 7012-2025 and nicknamed MyTerms — was published this past January, concluding nine years of work.

Three Goals. Now Within Reach.

MyTerms is a great start toward completing Customer Commons' audacious mission. Here are the milestones we will achieve when that mission is accomplished:

1. 1
   VRM becomes a business category

   Welcomed and actively engaged by CRM and CX functions on the sell sides of markets. Businesses finally compete on the basis of how well they serve free customers.

2. 2
   Proof: Free customers are worth more than captive ones

   To the companies they engage, to whole markets, and to themselves. This was ProjectVRM's original mission in 2006.

3. 3
   The Intention Economy materialises

   Voluntary signaling from customers to companies outperforms and obsolesces surveillance as the primary means for companies to obtain data about customers.

MyTerms is required for all three, because a contract is the only way for companies to commit to respecting personal privacy — and MyTerms is the standard for doing exactly that.

Who's Moving With Us

Customer Commons won't be the only entity working on these challenges. In the U.S., Consumer Reports has already stepped forward as a natural ally. MyData Global is partnering with Customer Commons in standing up the MyTerms Alliance, headquartered in Europe. Other natural partners include Mozilla, the EFF, and many others yet to join.

Happening Now — Show Up

Development work on MyTerms is underway. Meet the builders in person: April 27 – May 1 at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley.

Big Ideas on the Table

Here are ideas that have been floated for Customer Commons — a taste of how large and influential this movement could become:

The Creative Commons Playbook — What It Took

Let's look at how Creative Commons got rolling in 2002 and kept moving. Given inflation, multiply all figures by roughly 1.5×.

• 2001–2002 $1M Launch Grant — An hour after the Supreme Court's Eldred v. Ashcroft decision, the Hewlett Foundation handed over $1,000,000 to launch the movement.
• 2002–2004 +$1–3M Early Build-Out — Additional foundation support fuelled the first wave of infrastructure and licensing work.
• 2005 $750K MacArthur — Three years of general operations support.
• 2008 5×5 Challenge — Hewlett issued a 5-funder challenge: 5 supporters × $500K/year × 5 years. Omidyar Network and others answered the call. Google pledged $300K/year. Mozilla and Red Hat: $100K/year each.
• 2008+ $4M Hewlett Grant — $2.5M for general support over 5 years, plus $1.5M for ccLearn.
• 2005→ Continuous Operations — ~$1–3M/year sustained the movement through to global reach.