While “the commons” is an evocative term, sparking images in our minds ranging from English peasant revolts to a park in downtown Boston, the full scope of its meaning is not always clear to people upon first encountering it.
That’s part of our mission at On The Commons “to make the idea of the commons and a commons-based society as familiar to everyone as the winner of last year’s American Idol competition.
That’s why we’ve partnered with the New Press publishing house, filmmakers Laura Hanna, Gavin Browning, Dana Schechter, Molly Schwartz and the band Frosted Ambassador to produce an entertaining, enlightening 4-minute introduction to the whole host of ideas connected to the commons.
See it here on You Tube: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/commons_video
The video explores ideas in three recent books about the commons published by New Press: OTC Fellow David Bollier’s just published Viral Spiral, Gar Alperovitz & Lew Daley’s Unjust Deserts and Maude Barlow’s Blue Covenant.
