The commons as a common ground for the 'forces for good'

Knowledge Collection Commons & Sharing
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This post may be slightly less practical than required. I am not sure where it would have fit better though.  Protecting and Enhancing the Commons [in its multiple manifestations] is the ‘promise’ I find the most relevant to what I am trying to convey and do…

We are it seems in a very interesting time where many forces of different nature are converging towards creating a world where each and all of us can thrive. I am very interested in the ways we can find to channel these forces so they can be multiplied and accelerated. In particular I believe that the notion of commons, as the assets that we inherit or that we create and leave for the generations that follow can be a common ground, the ‘object(s)’ around which we can build our ‘oneness’, our unity in diversity. Focusing together on preserving, creating, nurturing and replenishing the array of diverse assets material or immaterial that are both at the basis and an outcome of our livelihood can bring some tangibility to a somewhat fragmented activist discourse and could be something that policy makers could put their hands around, in particular as far as engaging civil society is concerned.

I am currently working to establish a map of the various ‘trends’ or ‘movements’ or ‘socio-semantic elements’ that can be related to the commons in order to give some materiality to a multifaceted and fuzzy overarching purpose, to develop relevant narratives and to build bridges between the various parts… I am doing this in collaboration with the School of Commoning in London which has just completed a series of twelve seminars by James Quilligan on the Emergence of a Commons-based Economy, with conveners such as the NEF, the Finance Innovation Lab, the Civil Society Forum, the Insitutute for Public Policy Research. I attended several of these and noted a strong interest for the commons and a need for clarifying how the commons can be incorporated in a variety of discourses to enhance collaboration, sustainability and value for communities as well as a need to find common grounds for disparate movements to be able to work with each other.  I would be glad to develop this work further with the Edgeryder community and to help bring the commons forward in Strasbourg in June.

I would be interested, in relation to this particular mission, if you could share your view of how a specific initiative, trend, or movement can be related to the commons.

For example, Lynne in a direct message she sent me linked commons to consciousness and evolution: “Commons, as we’re all linked together, we’re all responsible for everything. Commons should be at the core of many things, not just the economic model. My interest in consciousness makes me believe that Commons (interpreted as ‘Oneness’) would allow to align society on the blueprint of evolution, and therefore would bring more balance in this world.” This is an angle different from that of a shared economy or circular economy, or ecologic preservation, or open data. Many angles, perspectives, points of entry coexist with overlaps and adjacencies, and this is what I would like to capture in a non assimilating and totalizing way.

Here are a couple of articles I wrote relevant to the commons and various transformational initiatives:

The Commons at the core of our next economic model?

Time to activate agency and action to bring about a sustainable economy

Looking forward to our conversations,

Helene

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We desperately need that new narrative!

Hello Helene,

I have never been familiar with this topic in depth but reading your post made me click further and read more! Thank you for that!

I believe that a major concern I myself have around the topic of commons is the way they are communicated about. I have first come across the notion of commons in elementary school and I still clearly remember that nobody in the class got engaged with the topic, as an adult however I can see and experience the harmful effects of ignorance, lack of understanding and individual action. In my community most people have first heard the notion of commons through the Al Gore global warming campaign.

I have been working intensively on advocating rights of oppressed groups living in post-communist countries for more than a decade now. Within the world of the 3rd sector I have seen several charities fail many times trying to convey their beautiful and moving goals and objectives with their campaigns.

After several failures I learned that getting a message across to people and getting them engaged in contemporary sociaties is not about what values you represent but how you communicate about them. Governments today are simply not good enough in promoting commons probably for many reasons however three major ones I can see today are the way we learn about them in school, the lack of engaging information in the media and the lack of modern promotion/communication skills.

This is how I got hooked into online marketing and have been assisting non-profits as well as businesses to better engage their audiences. If we had a real understanding of the topic of commons the world would very probably be a better place.

Well, obviously the first round of people to engage are the policy makers we are meeting at the edgeryders’ conference. But what is it exactly they can help us with and how do we engage them? What would be the desired action on their behalf? Any policy recommendations you already have or is there a source that could be consulted?

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Let’s try and work on this then.

Thanks Gyula.

I think you are putting your finger exactly on what the problem is: a problem of communication and language, and I would add also a question of process and process narrative (I know the notion of process narrative is quite complicated, but it actually refers to how a ‘solutioning process’ is envisioned and described). And I see the issue as two fold. One is that organizations have difficulties to frame issues and their ‘proposals’ in ways that speak to or is decodable by the many. The second (a corolary) is some potential ‘cultural’ misunderstanding between organizations that come from various angles and perspectives on how things should proceed and be prioritized that prevent effective collaboration although ultimately similar outcomes are sought out. Last week I had the opportunity to discuss with people from Occupy London and they outilined how difficult it was to keep cohesiveness between various currents and trends in particular as far as language and process is concerned and they were looking forwards to working on building bridges to resolves this…

This is probably a ‘grand’ long term project, but I think that people in the communication/linguistic/intercultural-intersubjective/organizational fields who span over various modes of functioning/processing/speaking could come up with some effective ideas.

To answer your last question, I do not have any comprehensive [re]source right now. We are working to build it from the seminars. But I can point you to a specific article on political narrative- The commons: a new narrative for our times  and a debategraph map where we have started to aggregate and curate some of the material that the Quilligan seminar series has generated… It’s a lot of work.

I will be posting more on the seminar resources and my mapping work, here as they become available, hoping this can create some further discussion and working material for the conference.

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3 trends

When the discussion is about ‘oneness’, you can be certain that I run there, overjoyed and happy to be around!

Oneness has to do with empowerment. Why? Because the feeling of unity, or oneness, leads to enlightenment (empowerment at its highest expression). Empowement therefore is not only a collective condition, because it springs from within each individual.

TREND: ECONOMY

I noticed that in the Synthesis report of the first 5 months of Edgeryders (March 2012), researchers Rebecca Collins and Valentina Cuzzocrea noted:

‘Many of the contributors have expressed a need for autonomy in their working lives, but in the context of contributing to a bigger whole.’ (page 7)

TREND: OPEN GOVERNMENT

The experimental Edgeryders project can be described as an open government initiative, based on collaboration with citizens.

Edgeryders allows to explore new grounds and possibilities of collaboration. These possibilities are tending toward ‘oneness’, although it is not something that is often mentioned. It is a rather new trend.

The following approach enhance the development of a feeling of oneness:

  • THE CHANGE OF PERCEPTION, walking away from the negative connotation of indicators (NEETs) produced surprising results: passionate discussions, absence of confrontation and negative attitude, comments and contributions of very high quality. The old way of managing vertical power often gave rise to paternalistic or guilt-inducing interventions, Now everyone can be a protagonist. Citizens are not excluded anymore. Inclusion, diversity, can lead to a feeling of oneness.

  • THE NON-FILTERED ENVIRONMENT gives citizens the freedom and space to develop their own vision.

  • THE INDIVIDUAL EMPOWERMENT. An approach based on empowerment allows citizens and communities to develop abilities to determine the direction of change.  “Individually, Eisen (1994) defines empowerment as the way in which the individual increases his skills promoting self-esteem, self confidence, initiative and control.” (Longpré et al., 1998)

Empowerment is:

- A sense of personal power;

- A focus of an intervention that allows to develop existing strengths;

- The adoption of a framework and vision that the power is not necessarily a rare commodity. In other words, power is not an act reserved for certain “categories” of people.

This type of power is unlimited. As is ‘oneness’.

TREND: CONSCIOUSNESS

What I can observe happening now is much more than a trend. It is a marked evolution.

The world is asleep, while a crisis is mounting in every human being.

A large portion of the human population is gaining new brain capabilities, by triggering a (normally dormant) biological process that allows them to walk in two worlds different - the material reality that we all know, and another reality, which has not yet been defined by science. These ‘mutant’ human beings all experience oneness.

There are thousands more who are on the verge of triggering this process.

For example, we can clearly see that many Edgeryders participants are following their intuition. They say that they keep close to their dreams, they follow their dreams. The majority of participants Edgeryders use social media and Internet to communicate with others, and by doing this on a daily basis, they express themselves, and they ultimately get closer to who they are. All of this has an influence on collective consciousness.

There is a theory, by scientific Dieter Broers, that predicts that by December 2012, a large proportion of the population will have access to a higher consciousness. See: Electromagnetic effects on consciousness http://t.co/MEB0iuJ. We don’t know if this will happen or not. There is a ‘Resilience’ campaign, here at Edgeryders. We could explore the effects of this theory, if it ever materialized. Can we cope with a phenomena of hundred of thousands of human beings gaining increased intellectual capacities, happening at once? Instead of being a bad catastrophe, this would be a very positive large-scale event, for which government and society should be prepared. For instance, there are physical symptoms and manifestions of a physical state of consciousness. Most health professionals do not know about their existence, and therefore would not be able to guide people properly, in this newly triggered biological process.

Yesterday, I asked on Twitter, ‘What has gone wrong with the world? Why are we unable to cope with growing spate of discontentment on all sides?’

I received this answer, from @_AlbertEspinosa: ‘No complete alignment with oneness’.

I know — I would put my hand in fire — that serious research about consciousness can help us understand that there is a blueprint for evolution. Once we realize this, it will become much more easier to align our lifestyles and design our public institutions and businesses along these lines.

In the past few months, I have become a main leader of the Institute for Consciousness Research. Besides being an opengov activist, I am also now a quantum (or consciousness) activist. I care for Commons. From what I can see in the ICR community, there is a lot of enthousiasm around the idea of exploring the biological possibilies of the physical state of consciousness, and their application in all areas of our existence.

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The immateral aspect of the commons

Thanks Lynne.

You have developped very extensively the immaterial aspect of the commons. So how do we relate this to the material aspects of the commons :)? Or how do we describe this immaterial aspect and its multiple facets including more ‘esoteric’ ones in a language that relates it to the commons, and in a way that enables not only a connection with the commons and a narrative to forward the commons, but also a direct connection with adjacent aspects of the commons?

Because you can acknowledge that in the discourse, for now, there isn’t much commonality between what you are describing and ‘renting designer accessories at low rates’ or ‘collaborative consumption helping to save money from ownership and reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ as described in this missions outline. Though both are related to the commons…

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Trends… and narrative…

Lyne, thanks for sharing the trends. They helped me amend the map that I will share very soon as a basis for further work.

Your reply here, on merging conflicting worldviews in one, touches a very difficult question. How to incorporate a worldview into one more encompassing… In short you are asking how to bring someone from one level of consciousness to another level of consciousness… It’s a question I have been mulling on for more than a year. And I’m sure i’m not the only one!

What I have come to sense is that people have some reluctance to accept ‘transcendence’ that is not originated in or from their own worldviews or by osmosis resulting of contact with others in inter-subjective exchanges. So you would need first to express the more encompassing view in the form of narrative of the old view, so the new view can be understood and adopted almost ‘naturally’. That’s where language comes into the picture and the whole discourse on the edge actually… Edge is on the side, and eventually permeates the mainstream.

The reason why I believe so strongly on the potential of the commons as a converging concept is that if we manage to express the whole territory of the commons in ways where people can navigate from their position in relation to the commons to other conceptions of the commons by “adjacencies” and follow theads from embodiments of the commons the closest to their worldviews and progressively more remote, then this will evolve in the direction of a convergence and a more encompassing worldview. This is something that is observed in intercultural relationships. People who happen to decode other cultures by direct practical contact tend to adopt more encompassing views and increase their horizons through increasingly easier connections with new cultures. I also observed this on social groups on the edge. We rub our antennaes to learn from each other and something passes from one to another that expands our horizon of understanding and our consciousness.

And actually, this is quite incredible, because I just made a pause here and browsed through Michel Philipi’s report to bring this in the comment, and what I have described above is exactly what he expresses there! Talk of convergence!

“Nous serons civilisés si nous pouvons concevoir différents Hommes et les articuler entre eux pour décrire au mieux l’humanité. Alors chaque humain pourra choisir d’être l’un de ces Hommes, ou plusieurs en cherchant comment les articuler en lui. Et chaque Homme incarné pourra s’articuler dans l’espace social à d’autres Hommes incarnés. Nous construirons alors une civilisation pouvant faire vivre de manière incarnée toutes les connaissances que nous avons sur l’humain et celles à venir, et probablement toutes les connaissances que nous avons sur le Réel et celles à venir. Tout cela sans que les humains s’opposent les uns aux autres en se détruisant, en détruisant leurs connaissances et leurs productions au nom de la suprématie d’un Homme.”

So what I am suggesting Lyne, is that we articulate the different embodyments of the commons on the field of action so that we can in an impressionist way make the whole idea of the commons visible to all. I repaste here what I have written on the call for caring for the commons post about a mapping to be done on the commons that would:

1. Help people recognize which spot or niche they occupy within the commons action space so they can assert their position and adjust their action in relation to an overarching generative commons discourse.
2. Help the various niches find their areas of overlaps and adjacencies so that bridges can be built and exchanges occur, strengthening the meshing of what emerges into a network of initiatives and achievements that would multiply everyone's impact and accelerate a convergence.
3. Provide some visibility on the 'whole' (or at least an impressionist picture of it) so that policy makers and other interested parties can build some political action.
 
A practical application of your Luminous man? Is Michel coming to strasbourg? Could Michel's game applied to the commons be used during or as a preparation for the conference? (I have to get back to read the whole thread in detail)
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Good suggestions, the diversity angle is excellent.

I’m just a member of the team. Must keep low profile… But I can gladly help you shine and get the message out.

Good suggestions, the diversity angle is excellent.

In short, I am asking something that could be compared to abandon a vision of the Earth as being flat, to embrace a vision of Earth as being not flat. In this case, the Real as not being only confined to material. However, when Einstein proposed his theories, he did not refute the Newtonian vision of the world.

Michel Filippi has many awesome skills: his strongest is that he excels at making models. He is coming to Strasbourg! (June 14-15). He is one of the best diversity evangelist I have even met! He would be a great collaborator to help prepare something for the conference, and beyond.

I have not yet completed the practical applications of the Luminous Man, despite dozens of requests made ​​by Michel Filippi since last November. I do feverish research every night, I read lots of articles and scan several fields that can help me build this model.

The various pieces are starting to make sense.

A few people have done a bit of work for practical application. In India, there are several businesses that have included certain values into their mission. Some authors wrote books describing businesses building on various principles. There are several scientists who considered these possibilities, but we do not yet know what will the true impact. We know the impact will be enormous, extraordinary positive outcomes.

For now, I am at the stage of proving what happens in the physical body of the Luminous Man. The physical changes that occur are considerable: it is a physical transformation. I look at what causes this transformation, the physical process, its mechanism, its manifestations, how it possibly works, what are the probable causes and their effects. I also look at the reversal effect, what happens when the process goes wrong. There are tremendous applications of this in mental disorders research. I am currently studying about the changes occurring in the DNA, in the main component, carbon 12: neutrons, protons and electrons. What (material) force can have an effect on carbon 12, and what happens. I also research on the electromagnetic effects on the human body and on DNA (carbon 12). I try to get in touch with scientists who have published the most advanced theories about these issues.

Damn, I wish I could work on this with a team of people. I am too financially vulnerable to undertake anything, other than reading and thinking at an accelerated speed…

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Hypothesis and its scope

To give you a rough idea of the scope of the model, and why it would be as if we switched from the Earth as being flat to new possibilities for all human beings:

Carbon 12 accounts for almost 98.89% of the total amount of carbon. It contains 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons. Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of the six elements, carbon being the second most important element.

The backbone of the DNA strand is made from alternating phosphate and sugar residues. The sugar in DNA is 2-deoxyribose, which is pentose sugar, composed of five atoms of carbon.

I’m working on the hypothesis of a transformation occurring in the structure of carbon 12, due to the action of a force, to create a new isotope of the carbon element. This transformation provokes in humans, who experienced it, expanded levels of consciousness.

It is the quantum foundation of the model of Luminous Man. No DNA analysis of human case of this model of Man has yet been conducted, to isolate the carbon isotope, and try to understand what effets this has on the human body.

Because of the very high percentages of carbon 12 that currently exist, this hypothesis, if scientifically proved, would lead to the vision of a new world. Its applications would include all spheres of life.

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Collecting Edgeryders’ experiences

Hi Helene,

Thanks for taking the time to share your work with the community, boy where were you when we were designing the campaign on Commons, we could have used your thoughts on this :slight_smile:

I don’t have any kind of commons education except the one Edgeryders like you are providing, which makes it much easier to grasp the concept; now I find it a bit difficult when the view is holistic, up to the point that I lose touch with the basics.

So starting from the bottom, from concrete applications, many Edgeryders experiences come to my mind (classification by no means exact or exclusive):

-related to physical spaces: ex. urban environmments that need to be fixed or revitalized; reappropriation of public spaces

Initiatives: urban games at Critical City in Milan, or Polypolis Game implemented by AthensTravelers

-social and political movements/ action: safeguarding cultural settings; social innovations like policy proposals to ensure basic income

Initiatives: Occupying theatres all across Italy, and beyond; Occupy London, 15M movement (Indignados)

-culture as commons: For example Bridget here does a great job supporting cultural heritage as commons, and advocating their wider spread including via the web.

I see you are already following Bridget and know that also Betta and MissyK8 here are helping design the session on commons in Strasbourg. Feel free to join their team and dig in starting from what other members in the community are saying…

I’m more curious though, what concrete lessons you learned at these seminars in London? I had a look on their page and it sounds like you were learning interesting things there…

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Connecting with Edgeryders’ experiences.

Noemi,

Your are asking where I was… Good question! Probably figuring out myself what the commons meant. I don’t have an education on the commons either. Who has? Apart from a few Brits who know what the House of Commons and the Commons parks and land in their area are all about…

I was also mobilizing support for a ‘pull platform’ to engage for the commons and the submission for a grant (which did I did not obtain).

As far as lessons are concerned, just give us some time to put the resources on the seminars online… A few things missing to date, but we will remedy that very soon!

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Some feedback on The Quilligan seminars in London

Noemi,

Here is some more feedback on the quilligan seminars in London. The texts and videos of James Quiligan talks are available here: Details view: The Quilligan Seminars. This was not the case when I posted the link on my response to Guyla.

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what about visualisation?

Commons is huge topic, should we try to visualise/map it?

I mean make a graphic representation of what we have. Suggestions, anyone?

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Visualisation, yes!

Definitely we should try and make some compelling visualisation! I have some start of a content. Do you have an idea of visual representations that are a bit more elaborate than a 2D tree map? I would love to see something like a social graph with the connections between the pieces…

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translate creativity outbreaks into policy maker-friendly idea

I have just noticed that the subject of commons induces lots of feedback.

What is the best way to give some structure to the creativity?

For a start may be map jst a little tiny element of the subject of commons.

For example, around the question:‘Why do the policy makers should recognise the importance of commons?’

(in times of austerity or something like that.)

What you reckon?

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K, would love to talk to more than an initial…

The map is a tiny element but a start for a discourse and conversation that can spread.

k, I would love to discuss this with a name and a face…

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Yeah, sorry! im the one who is talking about visualisation of data, and I am not even visualised myself, yet.

Ill sort this out asap.