[governance] Occupy The Digital Commons
Asif Kabani
kabani at isd-rc.org
Thu Nov 17 00:42:16 EST 2011
Thomas,
Remote Participation / WebEx details, if any
Share we will participate
Regards
On 17 November 2011 00:21, Thomas Lowenhaupt <toml at communisphere.com> wrote:
> Fellow New Yorkers [see apology below if you're not],
>
> When Matt Cooperrider suggested a commons approach to governing New York's
> TLD in 2007, I said "Nice idea, but people aren't ready for this." Over the
> past four years several developments have led this rusting old head to
> reconsider Matt's proposition:
>
> - Elinor Ostrom's <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom> 2009
> Noble Prize for Economics for "her analysis of economic governance,
> especially the commons <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_commons>."
> This transformed a then slow-growth effort to nurture and reclaim the
> commons into a global movement. There's now even a School of the
> Commoning <http://www.schoolofcommoning.com/> in London.
> - The city's decision in early 2009 to support an application for a
> city-TLD. This relieved us of the burden of developing a structure and
> securing financing for a TLD application, and provided time to think about
> a city-TLD's broader implications.
> - The 2010 closing of city hall's gates to public engagement in
> imagining our TLD's role in social and economic development and civic
> affairs. (With ICANN's deadline for filing an application for our TLD
> fast approaching <http://connectingnyc.org/tick-tock>, we're not sure
> if that move represents a blunder, cronyism, or something else.)
> - ICANN's initiating the New TLD Program without providing any
> guidance to cities. With cities home to more than half the global
> population, the key generators of economic growth, and the hope for a
> sustainable planet, it seems their multi-stakeholder governance model
> demonstrated its limits.
> - Governor Cuomo's office saying in September that New York's TLD
> issue "was not a priority."
> - And most recently, at an October 20 "Tea & TLDs" meeting<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/blog/2011/10/18/commons-governance-of-the-nyc-tld/>,
> David Bollier <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bollier>, a leading
> thinker about the commons, observed that city-TLDs provided "an open
> greenfield for new governance structures." Further, he suggested that the
> Occupy Wall Street movement might provide the opportunity to present
> city-TLDs as "greenfields" to cities globally. Since the Occupy movement
> has grasped the essence of the commons in the "Whose streets? Our streets!"
> mantra, it might be a short hop to urbanites chanting "Whose TLDs? Our
> TLDs!"
>
> So with the extant governance structures having failed, we've decided to
> explore the commons approach by bringing the city-TLD opportunity to the
> Occupy movement.
>
> While we've explored commons governance over the years - see here<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/common-pool-resource>and
> here<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/blog/category/common-pool-resource%C2%AD%C2%AD%C2%AD%C2%AD/>- this Thursday we're digging deeper into the potential, participating in a
> "Occupy the Digital Commons" meeting at the Atrium, 60 Wall Street, from
> 6-8 PM. The meeting was convened by Occupy Wall Street's Campaign for the
> Commons <http://www.nycga.net/groups/nurturing-the-commons/> working
> group (an entity we're part of). Here's part of the meeting announcement
> from the Occupy Wall Street<http://www.nycga.net/events/event/occupying-our-digital-commons/>site:
>
> *This will be the first face-to face-meeting of this group. We’ll start
> with a brief review of the commons, including the newest commons, city-TLDs
> – .boston, .rome, .paris, .london, .mumbai, .nyc, etc. (Like .com and .org
> but just for these cities.) *
> *Then we’ll turn our attention to how we can best create an awareness of
> the foundation role the commons play in society and of the need to nurture
> them. We’ll look to how the group might fit within Occupy Wall Street
> structure, if nurturing the commons might be a stated goal of the Occupy
> movement, and if city-TLDs might provide an engine to advance the cause.*
>
> The working group's portfolio is broader than city-TLDs, the commons<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_commons>itself, but the hope is that a global Occupy movement can bring some
> youthful heads and energy to the development of city-TLDs as public
> interest resources, perhaps by serving as greenfields for new governance
> structures. (For those not familiar with the many features of city-TLDs
> (greenfields is one of about a dozen), use the links below to our web
> resources.)
>
> Hope to see you Thursday. If you can't make the meeting, we'll be having a
> prep meeting Thursday morning at our regular Tea & TLDs Google+ Hangout<https://plus.google.com/u/0/107114190098481725633>,
> and we'll blog the Occupy meeting ASAP.
>
> NOTE: Thursday promises to be an active day for New York's Occupy<http://occupywallst.org/>movement. While the Atrium's address is 60
> Wall <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Wall_Street>, there's a separate
> entrance on Pine Street.
>
> Best,
>
> Tom Lowenhaupt
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> Thomas Lowenhaupt, Founder & Chair
> Connecting.nyc Inc.
>
> tom at connectingnyc.org
> Jackson Hts., NYC 11372
> 718 639 4222
> Blog <http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/blog/> - Wiki<http://www.coactivate.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc/project-home>-Web<http://www.connectingnyc.org/>
>
> -------------------------------------
> My apologies to those receiving this message with zero interest in the
> topic. My email list got messed, and while I've tried to pick and choose
> from the 1,000+ names, there are surely places I've botched. If you'd
> like to be removed, email me - toml at communisphere.com - and I'll take
> your name off my .nyc list. I've included those from the ICANN community
> hoping they can help us think this through. We email about once a month.
>
>
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>
--
Asif Kabani
Email: kabani.asif at gmail.com
“The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowledge" Sir William
Arthur Lewis, Nobel Prize Economics, 1979
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