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Commoning: working and living as commons

on Sat, 11/13/2010 - 10:28

I am curious of what the verb "to common" means to you. I have discovered it only recently, in the writings of, and recent email exchanges with, James Quilligan, David Bollier, and Leo Burke. I didn't know the word, but what it stands for makes me feel like meeting an intimate, old friend. "Commoning" expresses how i've been feeling about my work and life for long time.

It's like living them as resources offered to the transition to a commons-based society. I experience them as commons when I'm letting my choices about projects to work on be guided by my sense of what the commons movement may need next, to which i can contribute and have fun doing so.

Here's the bio blurb in my Twitter profile to illuminate that: 60s the Movement; 70s rad. sociology; 80s online groups; 90s org. transformation, communities of practice, WWW; 00s integrating; 10s fully available 2 Emergence

What's interesting are the inflection points of that trajectory: every plateau of capabilities and understanding leading to the emergence of a new wave. (It makes me wonder, isn't our lifelong learning a metaphor for evolution itself?)

I noticed, coming close to an inflection points, the dance is quickening. The dance is between needs in the world, to which I am particularly sensitive, on one hand, and the desire to give away my gifts with positive ripple effects, on the other. That led me to common with those who also care for the future in need of our developing education for the commons today. That's why I co-founded the School of Commoning.