# Is Mastodon a commons? · Doc Searls Weblog

<http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2023/02/08/is-mastodon-a-commons/>

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- Saved: February 9, 2023 (2023-02-10T00:58:14Z)
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## What Jamie wrote

Doc Searls is deeply thoughtful on many Internet "systems" and when I saw him invoking the commons it made me want to read on. I particularly like that he pulled in [Elinor Ostrom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom)'s characteristics of a commons from [Governing the Commons](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/governing-the-commons/A8BB63BC4A1433A50A3FB92EDBBB97D5), work that she won a [Nobel prize](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/facts/) for.

This "commons" term is thrown around a lot, often times along with things like freedom of speech, but it lacks a specific meaning of what a commons is. I feel strongly that a commons is **not** certain things, like it isn't Twitter. A commons cannot be a company that has a market cap. It isn't a mall. Searls takes a look at these and tests them with Mastadon.

> 1. Clearly defining the group boundaries and the contents of the common pool resource.
> 2. The appropriation and provision of common resources that are adapted to local conditions.
> 3. Collective-choice arrangements that allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process.
> 4. Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators.
> 5. A scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules.
> 6. Mechanisms of conflict resolution that are cheap and of easy access. 
> 7. Self-determination of the community recognized by higher-level authorities.
> 8. In the case of larger common-pool resources, organization in the form of multiple layers of nested enterprises, with small local common pool resources at the base level.

Reflecting on that list it is notable that a commons is intertwined with some resource, and that resource is finite. What is the finite resource of a commons that is about speech? That is a question mark for me.

The above requirements are incredibly well suited to a DAO. That is interesting to me.

Isn't the web a commons? The web with its millions of websites seems to meet these requirements. Don't we have a commons already? Haven't we had one since the creation of the web and blogging platforms?

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT241: Weekly Thing #241 / Wildebeest, Reputation, Zero](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/241/), Featured

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## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2023/02/08/is-mastodon-a-commons/