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you are presented with a number of ~connected ideas, citations, and strategies. feel free to explore them, drag them around, and discover meaning among them. everybody is provided with the same resources, but it is up to you to find what you need.

is open-source software considered a new age commons? each individual's contribution benefits the wider community but also directly the individual through improved software. but it requires active maintenance and nurture to operate seamlessly.

the commons are a shared resouce that a community can use and benefit from collectively ³. and so urban walls function as informal commons because street artists use them to express themselves and foster a relationship with the collective community. the wall becomes a sort of resource. this has its limits, though, since walls are often privately owned and policed, which restricts access to the ‘commons’.

1. J. M. Neeson, Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure, and Social Change in England, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
2. Linebaugh, Peter. The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All. 1st ed. University of California Press, 2008. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pp4q2.
3. Ostrom, Elinor. “Reflections on the Commons.” Chapter. In Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, 1-28. Canto Classics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

adrian robinson
last updated: december 2025