David Bollier (us)

David Bollier has been exploring the commons as a new paradigm of culture, politics and economics as for nearly ten years. He pursues this work as a journalist, activist, speaker and author, but especially as Editor of OntheCommons.org. Founded in 2003, the website is a leading source of news and commentary about commons-based policy, activism and politics. The affiliated nonprofit organization, On the Commons, instigates and hosts a wide variety of commons projects.

Bollier’s interest in the commons began with his writing of Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Commons Wealth (Routledge, 2002), a book that provides a popular overview of the commons and the many market enclosures now underway. This was followed by Brand Name Bullies: The Quest to Own and Control Culture (John Wiley, 2005), which documents the expansion of copyright and trademark law over the past generation and the resulting harm to democracy and culture.

Bollier has just completed a new book, Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own, due to be published by New Press in January 2009. Viral Spiral describes the rise of free and open source software, the invention of the Creative Commons licenses and the internationalization of free culture. It also assesses the growth of open business models, open science, the open educational resources movement and new modes of Internet-enabled citizenship.

Since 1984, Bollier has worked with American television writer/ producer Norman Lear on a variety of special projects and policy issues, and worked as Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication. He is also the co-founder of Public Knowledge, a Washington policy advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the information commons. Bollier lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.