Commons Hub
Brussels

March 4, 2026

Xavier Damman

👨‍👧‍👦 🧑‍💻 🚀

Dad · Entrepreneur · Software Engineer

First life in Silicon Valley 🇺🇸

Telling stories with social media

Acquired by Livefyre/Adobe

Open Collective

Financial transparency for communities

Open source · 4,000+ collectives · $140M+ raised

🌍 Climate Activist

Extinction Rebellion

allforclimate.earth

Helping climate movements across Europe

🌱 Rebuilding Communities

Deep adaptation through local action

🏡 citizenspring.earth
🪴 citizencorner.brussels
🌻 citizengarden.brussels
🏛️ commonshub.brussels

What are
the Commons?

🌊 🌳 🧠 📚

Resources shared and managed
by a community

Elinor Ostrom

August 7, 1933, Los Angeles — June 12, 2012, Bloomington, Indiana

🏆 Nobel Prize in Economics 2009

First woman to win the Nobel in Economics

"There is no reason to believe that bureaucrats and politicians, no matter how well meaning, are better at solving problems than the people on the spot, who have the strongest incentive to get the solution right."

— Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990)

8 Principles ⚙️

Managing the Commons

1️⃣ Clear boundaries

2️⃣ Rules fit local conditions

3️⃣ Collective decision-making

4️⃣ Effective monitoring

5️⃣ Graduated sanctions

6️⃣ Conflict resolution

7️⃣ Right to self-organize

8️⃣ Nested governance

We needed a space 🏠

to rediscover
the commons