In times of crisis, the Commons cannot be forgotten. In fact, they become more essential than ever. In the recent uprising in Egypt, protesters have taken over Cairo and other cities. The brutal state police, overwhelmed by the situation, is not anymore trying to "maintain order" and for several days has simply left. In fact, most usual services are not working. In this difficult context, Egyptian protesters have been working hard for protecting their Commons, specially in Tahrir (Liberation) Square, where most are concentrated. Cleaning the streets, moving away the trash, sharing food, giving medical care, community patrols, removing ...

Clay Shirky: "Cognitive surplus (...) represents the ability of the world's population to volunteer and to contribute and collaborate on large, sometimes global, projects (...) The world has over a trillion hours a year of free time to commit to shared projects. (...) Now, that free time existed in the 20th century, but we didn't get Ushahidi in the 20th century. (...) The media landscape in the 20th century was very good at helping people consume. (...) But now that we've been given media tools the Internet, mobile phones -- that let us do more than consume. (...) We still like ...