Members are encouraged to use creative commons licensing and to join others in a pledge to be open by agreeing to review for and publish in mainly if not solely open access journals.

Paul Myners is conducting a review of Governance of the Co-operative Group in the wake of the near-insolvency caused by the problems at the Bank formerly owned by the Group. In his reply to the Group’s consultation exercise, Dave Boyle makes some suggestions for constructive reform.

We are realising that the 'free' services we use online carry huge hidden costs. A totally administered society is being built from billions of moments of self-disclosure. Here Jonny LeRoy, the Head of Technology at ThoughtWorks North America, describes what's at stake, and how we can put an end to the harvesting of what it means to be human.

Critique of the existing system has never been lacking on the Left. But, argues Danijela Dolenec, Elinor Ostrom's empirical work on the commons suggests another approach, one that seeks to discover the practical underpinnings of durable socialist organization. As Dolenec puts it, 'the design of institutions that would embody socialist power is the primary task of the Left'.

Elinor Ostrom's studies of commons-based social organization have important lessons for those looking to develop new commons, online and elsewhere. Here Dan Hind sets out some key findings from her work, and sketches some of the implications.

Anthony Barnett, a founder of openDemocracy, explains how the idea of the commons has increasingly informed his thinking about both digital media and the emerging struggle against a global regime of commodification.