ABSTRACT
In contemplating the fate of the commons, the challenge that recurs is how to retain the surplus value generated within a commons. How can members of a commons prevent the appropriation of community-generated value by proprietary interests? A related challenge is how to prevent business enterprises from monetizing interests that members of a commons regard as inalienable. How can a commons ensure the integrity of its gift economy, whether it is a scientific community trying to maintain its open exchange of knowledge^ or an Internet affinity group trying to resist corporate control of its social interactions?^
In our market-obsessed society, protecting the commons can be an ambitious, almost insurgent enterprise. After all, the culture of the market and proprietary activity is entrenched, powerful, and normative. It commands great resources and legal means to perpetuate its traditions. The commons, meanwhile, is too often regarded as an aberration. Common assets are seen as free and inexhaustible resources to be exploited and abused, not as shared wealth that can and should be preserved through effective group management.
