3.2 Managing the tragedy of the commons

Commons require participation, commitment and regulation from the community around them. Nobel Prize winning economist, Elinor Ostrom, argued that there are many examples of successful commons.

She proposed eight principles for managing the commons.

1. Define clear group boundaries.
2. Ensure rules governing the use of the commons are aligned with local needs and conditions.
3. Allow community members to help decide these rules.
4. Develop a system, carried out by community members, for monitoring members’ behavior.
5. Create fair consequences for those who break the rules.
6. Create easy ways to  resolve conflicts and disputes.
7. Make sure your commons is legally legitimate
8. Join a larger network of commons, creating opportunities for cooperation and shared responsibility.

You can read more in depth on these principles in Ostrom’s book Governing the Commons, but the main arguments can be summarized as follows:

Commons require rules and systems that community members respect.

There is, of course, no one size fits all solution to challenges faced in commons and in anti-rival ecosystems.  If you are interested in building your own anti-rival business, you may utilize the Anti-rival Business Design Toolkit, available here. This Toolkit includes 8 tools to help design a business ecosystem based on anti-rivalry.