The commons refers to the entirety of the resources that we as a society share. In the physical realm, the commons includes such natural resources as land and water, and man made resources as highways and buildings. In order to manage distribution and ownership of these often limited resources, we established rules enforced by law to govern property and access according to standards deemed to best serve the public good. Resources in the digital realm include software, the world wide web, and data files. However, in the digital realm, the commons does not suffer from a limit of resources—it enjoys flourishing abundance. One person’s ownership of a program or a file does not prevent someone else from owning the same thing, but rather encourages it. On the web, this kind of sharing can be as simple as copying and pasting, uploading and downloading files, or publishing to a web site.

The truly revolutionary capacity of the internet is how it changes the way we create, distribute, and share culture. The web is built on user contributions and the power to make nearly unlimited copies at little to no cost. Already, this potential has transformed industries, pioneered new methods of encyclopedic knowledge, and made countless changes in the way we live, think, and act. The common sense that guides our laws of resources and property took centuries to develop, but the Internet has challenged them in recent years. This is a complex and open-ended challenge.

One answer is licensing schemes like Creative Commons that enable creators to cede certain rights under copyright. Another answer is developing content that is meant to be shared, adjusting business models to the natural strengths of the internet.

Image by the waving cat

More info:
Creative Commons
The Workbook Project
The Cluetrain Manifesto
Rip: A Remix Manifesto
Sita Sings The Blues

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