Barnes defines the commons as "the sum of all we inherit together and must pass on, undiminished and more or less equally, to our heirs." The commons includes watersheds, air, DNA, playgrounds, Main Street, radio waves, political systems, and numerous other natural resources and social innovations. Barnes suggests that the commons should be held in trust for the benefit of current and future generations as a way of countering the power of the market and its search for short-term private profits.
On Betraying Principles
Why Creative Commons must be about more than reducing friction on reuse This week, I had the experience of being told the work we are doing at Creative Commons right now is betraying the founding principles of the organization. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last.
Who Pays for the Commons?
Three and a half years after the emergence of generative AI as a new technology paradigm, there is broad agreement that AI companies have extracted enorm...
Protecting our FLOSS commons from LLMs — Codeberg News
In Brief: Two motions regarding
Composable Trust, Part 3: 1 Community, 3 Sovereigns, No Landlords - Eclectic Corvine Muses
An architectural model to yield members, Rosters, and Venues sovereignty over their own domains, and none over each other’s.
BETTER THAN FREE | Edge.org
This super-distribution system has become the foundation of our economy and wealth. The instant reduplication of data, ideas, and media underpins all the major economic sectors in our economy, particularly those involved with exports — that is, those industries where the US has a competitive advantage. Our wealth sits upon a very large device that copies promiscuously and constantly.
Three schemes for shared-private storage - Paul's Leaflets
The politics of decentralization and the libertarian allure of Mastodon – Structural Integrity
I am currently reading the fabulous “Hayek’s Bastards” by Quinn Slobodian. It made me think about decentralisation in Mastodon (yes, the federated social network). And it made me think about the lack of a coherent progressive vision for the digital age. I will explain what that book has to do with both. But let’s go back to the political meaning of “decentralisation” in digital discourse first.
npmx: converging communities
The story of the many people and communities that converged to build npmx together
Money for mutual resilience: Introducing Blacksky Cash
Mutual aid has always been about more than money. But money, shared intentionally, can be a powerful expression of solidarity. This is us building toward that future.
SCA - News and views from across our networks
Over the last few years, SCVO has been engaging with organisations across the voluntary sector to collect evidence on the issues and barriers faced around access to funding. The evidence collected clearly demonstrates the urgent need for Fair Funding. We, along with many of our intermediary network members have contributed to this work, providing case studies relating to Government priorities as well as sector wide themes, illustrating why implementing Fair Funding is an investment in Scotland’s essential voluntary sector for a sustainable future.
Evaluating permissioned spaces for community contexts - meri's missives
A look at Bluesky's proposed approach to private data on ATProto
Center for a Stateless Society
All content on this site is available for republishing under a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication.
Implicit Feudalism — Rushkoff Archive
Too many of us think it doesn’t matter when a platform like X/Twitter has a single, all-powerful owner. Most of our online worlds are simply run by what we hope are benevolent dictators. After all, we figure, if we don’t like what they’re doing or allowing, we can just leave, right? But in most cases we’re just jumping from one rich dude’s idea for how the world should be to another rich dude’s idea for how the world should be.
Montesquieu, "The Spirit of Laws," Book XX
1. Of Commerce. The following subjects deserve to be treated in a more extensive manner than the nature of this work will permit. Fain would I glide down a gentle river, but I am carried away by a torrent.
After Capitalism: A Cooperative Economy (Documentary)