NORA Commons Resource Model

Description

Wolfgang Hoeschele:

"Needs, Organizational forms, Resources for Abundance) - that is, for any need and for any resource that needs to be managed, one will be able to find out about appropriate organizational forms for fulfilling that need or managing that resource."

Proposed ontology

Draft version. NOT a final document. Proposed by Wolfgang Hoeschele.

Headings for Needs

Section 1

These are needs that we must take care to meet not only for humans, but also for animals and plants (i.e., to make sure that animals and plants have the habitats they need where there is clean air and water, where food sources are there, and from which they can reach other habitats if needed, as in seasonal migrations).

• Clean '''air''' to breathe
• Clean water to drink, for cleanliness, for cooking and as habitat
• Sufficient and nutritious food, appropriate to one’s cultural preferences and taste
• Being at home in the place where one lives
• Mobility to reach the places one needs to go, with appropriate modes of transportation

Section 2

These are either strictly human needs, or needs that we share with animals and plants but that are typically provided for if their needs for habitat are satisfied.

• Security from bodily, emotional, and mental harm; this includes security when one cannot take

care of oneself (e.g., in infancy and childhood, in old age, or due to illness or disability)

• Clothing appropriate to one’s cultural and individual preferences, and the climate
• Shelter/housing appropriate to one’s cultural and individual preferences, and the climate
• Physical and mental health, and access to appropriate care in the case of illness or disability
• Supportive relationships with other people, relationships that empower, that contribute to a

gain in personal energy rather than an energy drain

• Access to education appropriate to one’s aspirations and life goals
• A meaningful livelihood that allows one to meet one’s other needs
• Participation in collective economic and political decision-making
• Having enough time to relax, to think, to imagine, to enjoy life, to play, to be alone
• Spiritual connection with one’s deeper self and with a transcendent unity
• A freely chosen life direction

Headings for Resources

Air and Atmosphere

• air quality near the Earth’s surface
• air quality affecting the ozone layer
• gaseous composition of the atmosphere, including greenhouse gases

Water

• fresh water (surface, groundwater)
• brackish and estuarine water
• marine water
• ice (glaciers, ice caps, permafrost)

Land

• land for agriculture and forestry (annual crops, horticulture, gardens, orchards, grazing and range land, forest plantations, freshwater aquaculture etc.)
• land for nature preservation
• land used for mining
• land used for industrial manufacturing and energy generation
• urban (residential and commercial) land
• land used for waste disposal

Energy

• fossil fuels
• solar (photovoltaic, solar thermal, building design)
• wind energy (used for wind power, sailing ships)
• energy from water (rivers, tides, ocean currents)
• geothermal energy
• energy from biological sources (wood and other fuels, organic waste)
• animal power
• human power (e.g., cycling, seesaws to power water pumps)

Minerals

• iron and other ferrous metals
• non-ferrous metals
• rare earths
• common rocks and gravel (e.g., granite, marble, slate)
• clay
• gems

Living things (plants, animals, fungi, micro-organisms)

• crop plants (genetic diversity and resilience)
• domesticated animals (genetic diversity and resilience)
• plant species (as well as larger taxonomic groups or vegetation types)
• animal species (as well as larger taxonomic groups)
• habitats and ecosystems

Physical, human-made assets

• buildings and the spaces around them
• transportation infrastructure
• communications and information infrastructure
• the built structures of cities and towns
• vehicles and transport equipment
• furniture and household appliances
• industrial equipment and machinery
• repositories of knowledge (libraries)
• works of art, craft, cultural artifacts etc.

Intangibles

• information
• knowledge
• trust
• love
• spirituality

Headings for Organizational Forms

Ownership/Control primarily by individuals

• Individual (needs satisfied by individual action, e.g., finding one's life direction, growing food in one's own garden, engaging in artistic self-expression)
• Individual ownership (e.g., of farmland or a small business, subject to appropriate obligations to the public)
• Self-employment (e.g., social/environmental entrepreneurship)

Ownership/Control primarily by groups/communities

• Common property (of mineral resources, or water or air resources, of grazing lands or forests or fisheries or land for conservation purposes, of housing)
• Commons trusts (of mineral resources, or water or air resources, of grazing lands or forests or fisheries or land for conservation purposes, of housing)
• Customer-owned services (e.g., electric generation and distribution, water supply and other utilities, insurance, financial services)
• Worker-ownership (e.g., worker cooperatives, including employee-owned financial institutions)
• Producer cooperatives (e.g., dairy and other agricultural cooperatives)
• Alternative corporate forms that provide for broad stakeholder control (models such as the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, union co-management, B-corporations)
• Sharing of resources or assets (e.g., car sharing, shared office spaces)
• P2P (peer-to-peer) production or services (e.g., fab-labs, open source ecology, P2P car sharing)
• Partnerships between producers and consumers (e.g., community-supported agriculture, fair trade)
• Social economy (non-profit organizations, civil society organizations etc.)
• Community development institutions
• Community-based natural resource management (includes joint forest management, management of conservation areas, and the like)
• Principled societies (proposal by John Boik)
• Intentional communities (including Global Villages)
• Community currencies (e.g., LETS, Time Banks, scrips, demurrage currencies, bitcoins)

Ownership/Control primarily by government (reclaim government as a commons owned by all)

• Public ownership (e.g., mineral resources, land, airwaves, railroads)
• Taxation on rents derived from land, natural resources, and other common assets (instead of labor)
• Public services (e.g., health, education, transportation and communication infrastructure, public transport, social welfare)
• Participatory methods of government (e.g., participatory budgeting and planning)
• Legislation or policy in support of commons-based approaches listed elsewhere
• International treaties in support of commons-based approaches listed elsewhere
• Intergovernmental organizations (UN and its various agencies, and many other organizations)

Ownership/Control by no-one or highly diffuse

• Methods to promote creativity and innovation
• Sharing of knowledge (e.g., open source software, libraries, copyleft)