Think of The Commons as a public library of our time -- not only a building and a set of shelves in which the thoughtful citizens of a place agree to put their "books" together for common use, but also where they come together regularly to consider the issues and hammer out a consensus position on the common challenges confronting their community.
Like any good library, a place created with children and future generations in mind -- and a time frame to match.
What you see here is merely the point of departure. The intention is that, from this modest beginning, The Commons will go on to be self-defining, self-building and self-managed, as a result of the active participation and contributions of those citizens, groups and institutions around the world who care enough to get involved.
If you look at the top of this page, you will note a "contents" that can be used to tour The Commons. The goal of this little tour is to provide you with a basic understanding of why it is we have launched this cooperative effort, where it stands now as we enter the third year of our work on this self assigned mandate, and what it is we intend to do with it in the years ahead. Our immediate target is to keep at this for the next few years so that by the year 2000 we have in hand a strong platform with not only a certain nuber of concrete accomplishments, but also the structure and tools that are needed to do more and better.
About this Time (1730) in our Club meeting a proposition was made by me that since our Books were often referr’d to in our Disquisitions, it might be convenient to us to have them together where we met, that upon occasion they might be consulted; and thus by clubbing our Books into a common Library we should have each of us the Advantage of using the Books of all the other Members, which would be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole. - Benjamin Franklin
___Enter The Commons Here
