The Commons
by David Rovics
Kategorie: English
Ten Theses About Global Commons Movement
[Diesen Artikel gibt es auch auf deutsch]
The International Commons Conference (ICC) which took place from Oct 31 to Nov 2 2010 in Berlin, was a mirror of the global commons movement. I try to outline this state from my viewpoint in ten theses.
1. The global commons movement exists as an assemblage of movements spread around the globe beginning to become aware of its global and interrelated character. As a global movement it is still establishing its own self-confidence rather than being a coherent agent.
Self-organized Plenty
[Eine etwas ausführlichere Version dieses Artikel gibt es auch auf Deutsch.]
This is a handout of the slides of the talk which I gave at FSCONS 2010. So far, a detailed written version of the talk exists only in German (1, 2, 3, 4), but I hope to prepare something similar in English in the foreseeable future.
The Emergence of Physical Peer Production
Commons-based Peer Production
- Commons
- Goods which are jointly developed and maintained by a community and shared according to community-defined rules.
- Peer production
- People cooperate voluntarily on an equal footing (as peers) in order to reach a common goal.
- Commons-based peer production
- Peer production which is based upon commons and which creates new commons or maintains and fosters the existing ones.
Fake Commons
The more the commons gets attraction, the more false riders will use the idea. Today I what to point to one of these examples, which did not yet name themselves a »commons«, but it only takes them a minute to realize, that what they doing can be successfully labled a »commons«. I am talking about the ColaLife project. Due to explicitely putting a copyright stamp and »All rights reserved« on their pages, I can’t display images of their idea to »safe children’s lives«. Check out yourself.
The basic idea is to use existing distribution channels of Cola to spread »social products« such as rehydration salts, vitamines, or other medicine. These »social products« are transported in a specially designed small lenghty containers called »AidPod«, which fit between the bottles in crates. Sounds nice.
However, did you ever think of these facts:
The Generative Logic of the Commons — Slidecast
During the International Commons Conference in Berlin (Oct 31–Nov 2, 2010) I gave a keynote speech in the stream »The Generative Logic of the Commons« together with Roberto Verzola. I slidecasted (slides+audio) my talk which you can watch and listen to here:
If you wish to see me speaking at the desk—which isn’t really interesting—you may switch to the Böll conference page and choose part 10. There you’ll also find Robertos presentation (part 9) and all other ICC talks, which have been recorded. And I can recommend the discussion after Roberto’s and my talk (part 11), which was loaded with a lot of critical but constructive energy 🙂
An Architektur: On the Commons
It’s always great to see in which diverse fields the idea of the Commons is applied. One wonderful example is the summer issue of »An Architektur — Produktion und Gebrauch gebauter Umwelt«. Despite its German title — which means »production and usage of built environment« — An Architektur is an English-language magazine.
Main part of the summer issue entitled »On the Commons« is an interview with Massimo de Angelis and Stavros Stavrides: »Beyond Markets or States: Commoning as Collective Practice«. The interview was made together with e-flux journal and can be read online on e-flux webpage. The text of the interview is marked with footnote-numbers, but instead of footnotes there are complete articles referenced explaining some backgrounds of aspects being discussed in the interview.
Memorable quotes from the Berlin Commons Conference
During the first two days of November, the International Commons Conference organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Commons Strategies Group took place in Berlin. Throughout the conference, I wrote down various remarks by participants which I considered insightful, interesting, or amusing. The following quotes are meant to convey the spirit of what the quoted person said, but not necessarily the precise wording (since I often wasn’t fast enough to exactly get the latter).
Welcome
- The commons philosophy is that we don’t wait for governments or leaders or big business to solve our problems; we solve them ourselves, together.
Keynotes
Ruth Meinzen-Dick (president of the International Association for the Study of the Commons):
- The real tragedy of the commons is that they are so misunderstood, so undervalued. (mehr …)
Impressions from the Free Culture Research Conference in Berlin
This is really a rich autumn in terms of conferences around peer production. The CPOV conference in Leipzig, the FCRC in Berlin last weekend and the upcoming conference in Amsterdam. And when I think of the CPOV in Amsterdam and the Hull conference in spring then it is even a rich year.
One of the interesting things is that for instance on the Free Culture Research Conference there were a couple of talks which could have been given on an Oekonux Conference very well. Seems like we adopted some topics very early when we had our first conference in 2001 🙂 . Of course I kept a couple of speakers as possible speakers for [ox5].
Commons Report in english
The commons report (german: Gemeingüter-Report) entitled »The Commons Prosperity by Sharing« is now available in english. Read on at CommonsBlog.
The Goose and the Commons
[EN below] Einige Commoners haben die schwierige deutsche Übersetzung eines Commons-Gedichts aus dem 17. Jahrhunderts gegen die Einhegungen in England ausgetüftelt. Hier das schöne Ergebnis (englische Originalfassung unten):
Das Gesetz sperrt ein Männer und Frau‘n
Die der Allmende Gänse klau‘n
Doch dem größ‘ren Schurken es erlaubt,
Dass der Gans er die Allmende raubt.Sühne das Gesetz befiehlt,
Für den, der andern etwas stiehlt.
Doch es verschont die Herrn und Damen,
die uns allen die Allmende nahmen.Das arme G‘sind wird eingesperrt,
wenn zum Gesetzesbruch es sich verschwört.
Dies sei so recht; doch duldet man,
die Verschwörung, die solch Gesetz ersann.Das Gesetz sperrt ein, Männer und Frau‘n,
die der Allmende Gänse klau‘n,
Doch bleibt der Gans die Allmend gestohlen,
bis wir das Land zurück uns holen.
Engl. Autor unbekannt, 17. Jhd.