Comments on: People Power

By: dluce

dluce — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:01:54 +0000

Thanks for this! You have inspired me to take a second look at Elinor Ostrom's work. As it was given, at best, a passing mention in the news here, I did not pay much attention…but what you have outlined above is very important to think about with respect to many global systems.

By: VMaryAbraham

VMaryAbraham — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:59:43 +0000

Thanks so much, Doug. This makes for interesting reading. My only regret is that we didn't discover her work years ago!

- Mary

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:51:17 +0000

Congratulations to both.

By: Doug Cornelius

Doug Cornelius — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:51:47 +0000

Mary -

Just to prove that Elinor is smarted than us, she already has a book on this: Understanding Knowledge as a Commons. http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.as...

The introduction is available online: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/02620835...

By: VMaryAbraham

VMaryAbraham — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:35:51 +0000

Thanks very much, Rick. It's interesting that knowledge management has only
recently come to the understanding that command-and-control is not always
(or even usually) the best approach. Elinor Ostrom's work indicates that
ordinary people are quite capable of doing the right thing. Now, those in
authority need to trust people to deliver superior results.

- Mary

By: Rick Ladd

Rick Ladd — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:52:53 +0000

Nice, Mary. I think your points resonate (and even dovetail) nicely with what we were tweeting about this evening . . . and, going to a point I made in the convo, who understands the context of their environment better than those who work in and with it on a daily basis? I think you're on to something here, but the closest I've come to studying economics is the years I studied Marxism; so what do I know? Never mind I've lived in a decidedly Capitalist country (here) all my life. Love that scarf!