Economist of the "Commons" Wins Nobel

Nancy Scola | October 12, 2009 - 11:16am | 1 comment | Email This!

The reason that you might see technologists and other assorted geeks excited about the Nobel Prize in economics today is that it went to an economist whose work has a lot to say about the Internet age. Indiana Univeristy's Elinor Ostrom focuses her work on how people can go about creating rules for transactions around shared resources, or "commons," that make collective action rewarding (enough) for everyone involved. And where she added a particularly new way of thinking to economics was to zero in on the economic transactions that take place in ad hoc organizations. Her work is part of a body of knowledge that underlies what people are looking for and considering as they design Gov 2.0 systems of participation and new models for democracy, which makes her of particular interest to those of us interested in thinking through a distributed view of the world. Oh, and Ostrom also happens to be the first woman to win the Nobel in economics, so there's that. Details from the Nobel committee are here.

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Nobel Prize winner

by AbbeyE on October 16, 2009 - 12:27am

The honor that Elinor Ostrom won from this year's Nobel Prize winner for economics is just a realization that woman are more competitive in their chosen fileds. She was selected to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2009 – which comes with a hefty grant of quick cash and will not need cash advance for now. On the other hand, in the congress, there's a new global warming bill that's going through. The global warming bill, or the Waxman Markey Act, establishes a cap and trade system on carbon emissions, which some think will lead to a greener economy, more jobs, and cheaper energy bills. Others think it won't amount to much – consumers will still need payday loans for their electricity bills and energy companies will be pocketing cash as it creates another industry bubble, and will only lead to consumers having to pay more out of pocket and more government programs that will need taxpayer funding. A global warming bill of some kind was due eventually, but more people needing a cash advance for utilities isn't a great idea.