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Welcome to the School of Commoning!

The School of Commoning is a growing worldwide community of people participating in the global and local commons. We support the developing commons movement, as well as interested organizations and individuals, with well-organized knowledge resources and educational programs on commoning and the commons.

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The Commons at the core of our next economic models?

on Sat, 04/28/2012 - 09:04
Every day new voices speak up against the toxicity of an economy based on credit-fueled growth depleting finite resources and destroying much of the social fabric in the process. What could constitute an effective transformational model? An umbrella under which our aspirations could be gathered? A tree from which to grow a wealth of micro and macro solutions? A social object that could mobilize efforts so as not to leave the healing of our ills to the adoption of scattered and confidential initiatives and to the natural evolution of consciousness and behaviors… while time is running out…

Can the commons be a foundation for compassionate institutions?

on Tue, 03/27/2012 - 15:00

Matthew Taylor, the Chief Executive of the RSA (Brtitain's Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Com

Commons: for a new Policy Beyond Market and State

on Sat, 03/24/2012 - 15:01

Below is a message that I've just recieved from Silke Helfrich and David Bollier, editors of new book on the Commons, featuring the School of Commoning. (The launch of the book's English edition in the UK will be hosted by SoC, later this year.)

Dear Contributor,

Introductory e-Course to the Global Commons: a new challenge for a new world

on Tue, 03/13/2012 - 23:13
Starting 1st May and lasting 3 weeks there will be an Introductory e-Course to the Global Commons.
 
This post was re-published from unitar.org

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, are pleased to announce the launch of the new Introductory e-Course t

What is the role of the commons in the economy?

on Mon, 02/27/2012 - 10:51

May 26th Update: Following the Quilligan Seminars, detailed in the announcement made by Anna Betz below, the SoC team and convenors of this landmark event have been busily preparing the information and follow up plans for the exciting outcomes of all the seminars including the last event on the 18th May - Convergence for a Commons-based Economy. 

A News Commons

on Wed, 01/25/2012 - 10:31

The privileged position held by the media in most democracies exists for one reason; in order to govern themselves, people need access to accurate and timely information on all topics relevant to their governance.

Once that information has been distributed, it is not sufficient for the citizens to passively absorb it as a means of entertainment, or even education. In order for self governance to occur, that information must be acted upon to correct flaws in governance.

A World that Works for Everyone

on Thu, 01/19/2012 - 16:57

You would expect Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business to focus its teaching on making profits from the world as it is instead of asking students to explore how to fundamentally change it.

But that means you probably haven’t met business Professor Leo Burke — a former entrepreneur, Motorola executive and, in his student days, manager of the Notre Dame football team.

At first glance, Burke ’70 hardly seems a rabble-rouser. Wearing tassel loafers, navy blue slacks, a tasteful blazer and wire-rim glasses, he looks exactly the part of a business professor. Yet when standing at the podium in an Executive Leadership Seminar — so slender it appears a strong breeze would carry him away — he sounds like a community organizer crossed with a moral philosopher. “When we are able to work out of our deepest values, we can work with a compassion for others that changes systems.”

The liberation of civil society through p2p working - Creating Commons in our life.

on Mon, 12/26/2011 - 20:02

Freed up creativity enabled by open source technology gives us the chance to liberate ourselves from the chains of an outdated economic model based on market pricing.

Will it enable us to co-create a commons orientated contributory culture? 

Our challenge is how to make the new prototype which cannot fully socially reproduce itself at present into a full mode of production for a sustainable society.

Can business trusts be commons?

on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 06:14

THE SOCIETY FOR ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING (UK) presents:

BUSINESS TRUSTS: WORKING IN TRUST (25 JAN. 2012)

Presented by Patrick Andrews, Tim Phillips and Rick Trask

The Challenge

The advent of limited liability and joint stock companies (while very useful in raising capital for large projects, creating and privatising wealth, and converting natural wealth to money wealth) has created distant owners and limited loyalty to the business.

The Promise of Top-Level Internet Domains

on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 00:46

This article: "How Top-Level Internet Domains Could Revitalize Cities, or Be Squandered" by David Bollier comes after he bumped into Thomas Lowenhaupt at a conference entitled Beyond Books. It turns out Lowenhaupt is into the Commons in a big way and is campaigning through his organization Connecting NYC to bring a commons based governance regime to New York City via the ICANN’s prospective introduction of Top-Level Domains (TLDs).

Its easy to imagine what benefits they could have for a small group of financiers/speculators but what if...

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