David Bollier (whose On The Commons blog is a must for those interested in commons -- from watersheds to genomes to the internet), together with coauthors Peter Barnes and Jonathan Rowe has published a 24 page report, The Commons Rising.

The Commons Rising is about the profusion of commons initiatives that are defending and invigorating the commons in all sorts of arenas -- the Internet, natural resources, public spaces, information and culture. We can see the "commons rising" in collaborativge websites and ecosystem trusts; in innovative legal tools such as conservation easements and Creative Commons licenses; in new types of social networks such as community gardens and time banks; and in new online communities such as Wikipedia, free and open source software, Craigslist and open science initiatives.

The report celebrates these efforts and calls upon Americans to scale them up. "We must nail down what's in the commons now, and steadily add to the commons from this day forward," the report urges.

The Commons Rising follows an earlier report by the Tomales Bay Institute that audited the "state of the commons." That report found that many commons are "grossly mismanaged" and in need of protection.