Silke Helfrich ^[1] gave an important introductory talk on the Economics and the Commons Conference ^[2] (May 22 – 24, 2013, Berlin). The presentation reflects the progress of self-understanding of the commons movement. After some remarks by the moderator Armin Medosch the talk starts around 5:00 showing some commons projects illustrating the variety of the commons. At 21:30 Silke enters the more conceptual part discussing what all the different approaches have in common. The presentation ends at 54:00 and is followed by a discussion. Below, I summarize some of the conceptual statements.

These are some theses Silke developed in her talk (without discussing them here):

• Commons is beyond (categories of) resources
• Every commons is a social commons
• Every commons is a knowledge commons
• Every commons needs protection and is thus beyond (unconditional) openness
• Commons do not scale up, but rather crystallize
• Going forward to Commons Creating Peer Production

At the very end of the talk (45:00) Silke phrased six principles of a Commons Creating Peer Economy:

1. Use value trumps exchange value
2. He/she takes from the commons has to contribute to the commons
3. Commoning includes self-organization and self-healing
4. Share what you can and defend the right to share
5. Produce commons first, not commodities
6. Foster relationships, not transactions