Welcome to the Commons Transition Primer website, a project created by the P2P Foundation, offering accessible explanations and examples of Commons/P2P solutions.
We have used general language to make these concepts and examples accessible, but this isn’t “The Commons and P2P for Dummies”; the texts included here treat complex and nuanced themes. Some people will be more familiar with the terms used and concepts explained. If you’re not, we recommend digesting the material slowly and referring to the infographics and summaries. If anything isn’t clear or you’d like discuss any of the points, feel free to start a discussion in our Commons Transition Loomio discussion group, where the P2P community will be glad to engage with you.
The website has several distinct sections and features, described below:
The first section (1: Shorts) contains Q&A-style articles explaining the main ideas about a Commons Transition. We’ve provided infographics and case studies, with videos of communities using these strategies in practice. Case studies are signalled by this highlight: click through to the relevant case study page. All case studies are available here. To see all the infographics, visit this page.
We have also provided various tools to get the most out of the website: Potentially unfamiliar Key Concepts are highlighted like this. Clicking on any Key Concept will open its definition. All key concepts are compiled as a glossary in this page.
Finally, all short articles feature two tabs at the bottom of the text:
- The TL/DR tab, opening a very brief summary of the text.
- The additional resources tab, with links to the P2P Foundation’s vast knowledge commons, additional articles, research papers, categories and videos pertaining to each topic.
The other main sections are:
- 2/LONG (3000-5000 word, in-depth narrative articles)
- 3/LIBRARY (E-books, publications and research papers by the P2P Foundation, Commons Strategies Group and Commons Network)
- 4/MORE (Videos, audio, interviews and other resources, links to our website)
A fifth section (ELEMENTS) compiles some of the general elements mentioned above (Key concepts, Case studies, etc.) and our “About” about page.
To get started with the Primer, we suggest beginning with the Short Articles section, which can be read sequentially or at random. From there, feel free to follow your interest with the additional resources listed, or the more involved material featured in “Longs” or “Library”. If you want to find out more about the P2P Foundation (the organization behind this project), see the About page. If you’d like to contact us about this site or anything else, write to us here.
