Ostrom Now: Technologies for Governing the Commons

​Ostrom Now: Technologies for Governing the Commons is a reading and discussion group exploring the affordances and limitations of technology applied to the principles around self-governance in Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons.

​Ostrom wrote when monitoring, communication, coordination, and enforcement were often costly, slow, and localized. Beginning with Chapters 1–3, we discuss whether advances in digital infrastructure—from cryptography, distributed systems, AI, sensors, and smart contracts to communication media—change what is possible for communities managing shared resources.

​The text can be accessed on our discord in the reading-room channel.

​Session Format

• ​Reading Discussion: Guided discussion of Chapters 1–3 of Governing the Commons

• ​Open Conversation: Share ideas, experiences, or applications connected Ostrom's work.

• ​Optional Show and Tell: People can sign up to give a short (up to 5 min) presentation sharing their experience with tech enabled cooperative governance.

​Partners

• ​Woodbine

• ​Open Note Labs

​Transcription & Knowledge Library

​Public programming at Open Note is recorded. After each event, we produce a structured summary of the key ideas, questions, and emerging concepts which is then published as a PDF artifact to the community discord channel where it can be accessed and downloaded.

​Supporting the Institute

​This event is free and open to the public. We invite attendees to make a voluntary donation to support our programming.