Killing or saving the planet? The tragedy of the digital commons
In defense of digital sharing platforms, let me make three lateral arguments. Sharing may help us relieve the pressure on natural resources by reducing the need to have a large stock of vehicles in operational conditions. for instance. The second is that people seem to be willing to pay to share goods and services because it adds value to their lives. The third argument in favor of sharing is perhaps the most important. it is simply not true that the tragedy of the commons is an inevitable outcome whenever people are given a free ride on a shared resource. The brilliant political scientist Elinor Ostrom-the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences -was among many Americans who tend a “victory garden”(another type of urban agriculture) during World War II, along with her mother. This experience triggered in her mind the idea that, under certain conditions, people do cooperate for the common good. She spent a lifetime studying all sorts of situations in which people share resources, including community policing, lobster farming, forests, irrigation system, and, grazing lands. Her argument is that the tragedy of the commons can be avoided when people organize from the bottom up to avoid resource exhaustion and ecosystem collapse. Her recommendation was to define clear rules for resource sharing, establish mechanisms of conflict resolution, design a scale of graduated sanctions for violators, and promote a commitment to communal self-determination based on trust.
2030 by Mauro.F.Guillen: 197–199
