Purpose of this Blog

The global commons, including the atmosphere, deep seabed, Antarctica, outer space, and cyberspace, is in crisis. Threats range from climate change, to the return of piracy on the high seas, to the scramble for resources in the Arctic, to the dawn of a new space race, and cyber attacks threatening the future of an open Internet. This blog will address show how all of these issues are in fact interrelated. It will also stress that at this moment of crisis, there is also a moment of tremendous opportunity. Technological progress is enabling humanity to collaborate on the commons challenge in an entirely new way, through grass roots self-organization. Dr. Elinor Ostrom was recently awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for finding this third way to commons management that provides an alternative to privatization or nationalization, emphasizing the benefits of a polycentric control of common pool resources. If we are to save the global commons for our posterity, it is time to rethink how the global commons are managed.