They hang the man and flog the woman
That steal the goose from off the common.
But let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose.
 -Folk poem, circa 1764

Many of the resources that Americans own as a people -- forests, minerals, government R&D, the broadcast airwaves, public schools, cultural spaces -- are increasingly being taken over by private business interests, often with the full complicity of our government. This trend represents a modern-day "enclosure of the commons" -- a vast appropriation of common assets that is siphoning revenues from the public treasury, shifting ownership and control from public to private interests, and eroding democratic processes and shared cultural values.

Visit OntheCommons.org for the latest blog posts about the commons. The website, a project of the Tomales Bay Institute, also has useful databases of literature, organizations and activists involved in defending the commons.


SELECTED PRESENTATIONS ON THE COMMONS:

Heinrich Boll Foundation conference, "Citizenship and Commons," Mexico City, December 8, 2006, Plenary speech, "On the Political Value of Talking About the Commons."

Canadian Association of University Teachers conference, "Controlling Intellectual; Property: The Academic Community and the Future of Knowledge," Ottawa, Canada, October 29, 2006, "The Perils of Property Speak in Academia"

McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, conference on "Biotechnology and Intellectual Property: Reinventing the Commons," September 25, 2005. Presentation: "Leveraging Scientific Commons to Foster Innovation, Access and Affordability."

French translation of "The Rediscovery of the Commons," translated by Olivier Berger (PDF version)

Action Speaks! Rhode Island Council for the Humanities and AS20: "1976: The Fair Use Doctrine Incorporated into Copyright Law (Whose Idea is That, Anyway?)," October 23, 2005.

Canadian Library Association, annual convention, Calgary, Canada, June 17, 2005. Plenary speech: "Librarians as Stewards of the Commons."

American Meteorological Society, Summer Policy Colloquium, Washington, D.C., June 13, 2005. Workshop lecture: "Commons and Enclosure"

Smithsonian Institution, UNESCO and Cultural Policymaking: Imperatives for U.S. Arts and Culture Practitioners and Organizations, Plenary speech, "Globalization, Cultural Diversity and the Commons", January 11, 2005.

Georgetown University, Research, Funding and the Public Good, November 16, 2004. Keynote speech, "Defending the Scholarly Commons."

Wizards of OS3: The Future of the Digital Commons, Berlin, Germany, June 12, 2004. Plenary speech: "Is the Commons a Movement." (Audio version of speech.)

Oxford University Department of Politics & Centre for the Study of Democratic Government, "The New Politics of Ownership," June 4, 2004. Workshop paper: "Using Stakeholder Trusts to Protect Common Assets."

Science and Environmental Health Network, The Commons, the Public Trust and the Precautionary Principle, Wingspread Conference Center, Racine, Wisconsin, May 13-16, 2004. "An Introduction to the Commons."

Simon Fraser University, University of Victoria, and The Innovation and Science Council of British Columbia, Conscience and Science Forum, Vancouver, British Columbia, April 29, 2004. Plenary speech: "The Clash Between Marks and Commons - and How It Affects Science, Economic Performance and Democracy."

Sirsi SuperConference 2004 [librarians], St. Louis, Missouri, April 18, 2004. Plenary speech: "Reclaiming the American Commons."

Social Science Research Council, Intellectual Property, Markets and Cultural Flows, New York City, October 24-25, 2003. Workshop presentation: "Intellectual Property & Creativity in Fashion."

Environmental Grantmakers Association, annual convention, Ottawa, Canada, September 23, 2003. Panel: "Beyond Borders: The Commons."

Fortune magazine/Aspen Institute, Brainstorm 2003, Aspen, Colorado, August 2003. Panel: "The Commons."

American Association of Law Libraries, annual convention, Seattle, Washington, July 15, 2003. Panel presentation: "The Information Commons."

American Association of University Professors, annual convention, Washington, D.C., June 13, 2003. Keynote speech, "Preserving the Academic Commons."

International Federation of Library Associations, strategy workshop, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, March 11-12, 2003. Workshop presentation: "The Commons, Libraries and Culture."

Rockefeller Foundation, Collective Management of Intellectual Property, Bellagio, Italy, November 21-24, 2002. Workshop presentation: "The Commons as an Emerging Model for Knowledge Creation and Governance."

Georgetown University, Open Source Summit, Washington, D.C. October 18, 2002, Workshop paper: "Why Open Source Software Is Fundamental to a Robust Democratic Culture."

American Library Association, annual convention, Atlanta, Georgia, June 15, 2002. "Saving the Information Commons."

American Library Association, Wye Woods, Queenstown, Maryland, November 2-4, 2001. Workshop paper: "The Information
Commons."

USC Annenberg School for Communication, Norman Lear Center, Artists, Technology and the Ownership of Creative Content, Los Angeles, March 31, 2001. Keynote speech, "The Future of Creative Control in the Digital Age."


ARTICLES ABOUT THE COMMONS:

See blog posts and essays at OntheCommons.org

Law Library Journal, "Why We Must Take About the Information Commons," Spring 2004.

In These Times, "Who Owns the Sky?", March 29, 2004.

Christian Science Monitor, "Control of Creativity? Fashion's Secret," September 9, 2003.

Upgrade magazine (Europe), "The Rediscovery of the Commons," June 2003.

CPR Digest [common-pool resources], "The Missing Vocabulary of the Digital Age," June 2003.

Knowledge Quest, "Saving the Information Commons," March/April 2003.

Academe magazine, "Enclosing the Academic Commons," September/October 2002.

Boston Review, "Ruled by the Market?", Summer 2002.

Adbusters, September/October 2002.

Multinational Monitor, "Commons Sense," July/August 2002.

TomPaine.Com, a series of three articles:

Oregon Humanities, "Rediscovering Our Commons Wealth," Spring 2002.

Yes! Magazine, "The Cornucopia of the Commons," Summer 2001.


REPORTS ON THE COMMONS:

"The Commons Rising"

"The State of the Commons 2003/2004"

"Why the Public Domain Matters: The Endangered Wellspring of Creativity,
Commerce and Democracy," This report for the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge, released in May 2002, gives an overview of the many threats that copyright law, contract law, technological locks and public policy pose to a robust public domain.

"Saving the Information Commons: A New Public Interest Agenda in Digital Media"
This report, which was produced for the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge and released in May 200, describes the "information commons" as a new paradigm for organizing a public-interest agenda in digital media. Numerous creative initiatives and policy proposals are showcased.

"Artists, Technology and the Ownership of Creative Content," (Los Angeles, California: Norman Lear Center, USC Annenberg School for Communication, March 2001). The report summarizes and interprets a major conference at the Norman Lear Center, USC Annenberg School for Communication, on March 31, 2001, which brought together artists, copyright scholars, public policy leaders and industry representatives to explore how new technologies and copyright law are affecting creativity and the commercial control of creative products.

BOOK CHAPTERS ON THE COMMONS:

"Common Land" entry in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition (forthcoming).

"The Growth of the Commons Paradigm" Chapter 2 (pp. 27-40) in Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice (MIT Press, 2007), edited by Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom.

"A Renaissance of the Commons," written with John Clippinger, published in CODE: Collaboration, Ownership and the Digital Economy (MIT Press, 2005), edited by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh.

"Stakeholding and Public Assets," The Citizen's Stake: Exploring the Future of Universal Asset Policies, edited by Will Paxton and Stuart White (Bristol, Great Britian: Policy Press, 2005).


CONFERENCES ON THE COMMONS:

Forum on Social Wealth, UMass, Amherst, six-part lecture series over the course of the 2005-2006 academic year, co-organized with Professors James Boyce and Nancy Folbre.

Ready to Share: Fashion and the Ownership of Creativity, at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, Norman Lear Center, Los Angeles, California, January 29, 2005. Conference materials at
http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=ccc/fashion.

Reclaiming the Commons, New America Foundation, March 12, 2001.
One-day conference with nine panelists. Conference proceedings at
http://www.bollier.org/rc_conf.htm.

Useful books, experts and organizations dealing with the commons.