Hess, Charlotte. 1996. "Untangling the Web: The Internet as a Commons." Presented at the Transnational Institute Workshop "Reinventing the Commons" (Revised paper), Bonn, Germany, November 4-5, 1995.

Abstract

"This paper explores the concept of reinventing as 'creating anew,' with the global network of computer networks called the Internet as a sublime example of a new common pool resource (CPR). A commons is not a resource existing independently in nature but rather a human artifact -- an institution crafted by human beings. Nor is a commons an archaic, old-fashioned, idyllic human arrangement unique to indigenous societies. Rather it is a type of good, a resource, which can have either public or private ownership but which is managed and used jointly by a group. The community in a common pool resource is composed of those individuals who use it and have a vested interest in its success."