The panel I helped organise on the philosophy of the commons at iCommons' annual iSummit in Dubrovnik went down really well. It got some nice writeups on the iCommons web site (one, two, three) and spurred lots more discussions throughout the event. In fact it was so much fun, and got so many people talking from the audience, that David Berry and I are thinking of editing a collected volume of articles on the subject! It has also really made me want to go and do a PhD again, though I've no idea where I might do it, nor whether I'd look at this sort of stuff or focus on more practical green political issues.

As usual, the best bits of the summit were in between scheduled panels, talking mainly with people from openDemocracy, academics, activists and some of the really great artists (I had the pleasure of finally chatting with Joy Garnett). By the time our panel came around my brain was completely thrown so my talk was a bit impromptu. Given that this confusion remains, here are some sketchy thoughts on where I'd like to take my chapter, where I want to focus my thoughts.

First, I've been trying to translate the typical discourse of free culture into one that makes more sense. In my talk I spoke a bit about the way in which the free culture movement has inherited the free software movement's tendency to label things as "free" and "non-free" without thinking through the arguments that made Stallman & co. arrive at those terms. As Andrew Rens pointed out, it's particularly sick to tell a South African, whose country went through a painful 50-year struggle against apartheid, that they have the wrong meaning of "free"! I find it completely nonsensical to say "that piece of art isn't free". So here are some translations:

• free culture -> free cultural practice
• free content -> free relations with cultural artefacts
• digital commons -> a commons of cultural activity; spaces in which cultural activity unfolds freely, in which self-realisation is possible / facilitates / encouraged / etc.
• enclosure of the digital commons -> enclosure of domains of cultural practice

Second, I want to synthesise various strands of work that I've done over the years to better reflect this new discourse: my MA dissertation on a Lockean argument for free culture; my undergraduate dissertation on the hacker ethic, alienation and meaningful work; my recent short writings about Lessig's shifting CC ideology and real cultural freedom. Lots of thinking to be done in spare moments!