Commonspace

Mark Surman is the founder of The Commons Group, a connected think tank and consulting network focused on collaborative applications of the Internet. Spanning the globe, Mark's projects jump across organizational boundaries and build on the power of commonspace. They include everything from open source software to distributed onlinepublishing to cooperative business development. Before founding The Commons Group, Mark was the Director of Community and lead business strategist for Canada's first national Internet provider, Web Networks. He has also worked in television, film and print media. Darren Wershler-Henry is a writer, critic, and the editor of Coach House Books, the only literary press in the world with its entire front-list online. Darren has worked as a new media consultant and researcher for several publishers and software companies, and is a founding member of the Commons Group. His other books include Internet Directory 2001 (with Scott Mitchell), The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Shopping for Canadians (with Preston Gralla), and two books of poetry, NICHOLODEON: a book of lowerglyphs, and the tapeworm foundry.

I. GEEKS BEARING GIFTS: INTRODUCING COMMONSPACE.

1. Seize The Power Of The Collective.


Commonspace is everywhere. An armchair tour of commonspace. What makes commonspace? Don't be afraid just change everything about the way you work, think and play.

2. Fast Company Or…


Homesteading the noosphere: Theories of online community. Digital relics. Hazards on the Infobahn. The upshot.

II. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN: PRINCIPLES OF COMMONSPACE.

3. “It's people! The Internet is Made of People!”


The electric carnival. One-to-many. Many-to-many. Escape from the cubicle farm. Eggheads in fishnets. The un-chain of command. People replace drones. Everyone's a producer. Death of the author. As markets, we see each other. Digital breadcrumbs. Resistance is futile.

4. The Power Ranger Principle.


Your new superpowers. The aggregation nation. The new zodiac. Frequently answered questions. Together we. Computer. We are each other.

5. The Infinite Unbirthday Party.


The last of the control freaks. Power that shares: Action applications. The group mind: slashdot. The big friend of the little guy. The end of hierarchy? Peer-to-peer networking. Talking back to the net. The limits of power.

6. Success Through Selflessness.


Bring me the head of Ayn Rand. My software is your software. The community and the common good. Better markets for all. Common good culture.

7. Reputation As Reward.


15 minutes of fame. Credibility and egoboo. The signal: noise ratio. Instant karma: Respect as reward. If at first you: Don't succeed: the value of persistence. Your last 15 minutes.

8. The Tools Matter.


Many-to-many gadgets. Road warriors. Lingua franca. Kiss. Tools people want. Wallowing in complexity. Welcome to. The pleasure dome.

9. TAZ.


The TAZ. Nethistory 101: birth of an invisible nation. Fun with pantyhose. Virtual reality check. Havenco: A real-world TAZ. Dispatches from the edge. The end of property.

III. VIRTUAL BUSINESS FOR REAL PEOPLE: APPLICATIONS OF COMMONSPACE.

10. (Not) Strictly Commercial.


Pay at the door. Bum-rush the show. Collective eyeballs: advertising in commonspace. Death of a salesman. Become a tool merchant. No ASP is an island. Pull it together: emerging models for content aggregators. Join the collective: The business of open source. Open source ASP's. Open source success. Success comes from the strangest places.

11. Back To The Bazaar.


Feed the conversation. Double plus ungood. Making the shift. Not just playing around. Electric ideas. 6300 book stores under one no roof. Busking with books. Open source art. Write a book—together. eBay: home of the little guy. Commonspace = e-commerce for the rest of us.

12. Building The Public Square.


The tortoise and the hare. 10 Downing Street, online. Open the committee room doors. Electric politician tricks. The Digital divide. People not wires. Self-interest and the common good. Opportunities for an electronic commons. The blur of democracy. Rave in the town square

13. The Death Of Marketing.


Memetics 101. The 'viral marketing' meme. Enabling conversations. Listening to the bazaar. Respect users' privacy. Blow the dot out.

IV. LONG LIVE COMMONSPACE: CONCLUSIONS.

14. Jumping the Shark.


Five things that could still wreck the Internet.

A Quick Afterword: The 'Best Before' Date.
Bibliography.