The concept of a ‘Network Commons’ evolved from conversations between Julian Priest, Armin Medosch and Adam Burns, and was influenced by exposure to Elinor Ostrom’s work on developing the governance of the commons, countering the narrative of the ’tragedy’. These ideals were explored and collectively embedded into the PicoPeering Agreement a foundational social contract for participants of many diverse community networks around the world. networkcommons.org aims to research, document and develop methods and practices that not only build from open source, open data and meaningful access initiatives, but also to examine new methods of disintermediation and meaningful participation within local networks and resources ‘at the edge’.