Community Development Corporations

Companies dedicated to improving the community. They may take on initiatives like urban gardening or community land trusts.

Related: community land trusts, urban agriculture

• More Than Bricks and Sticks: Five Elements of Community Development Corporation Capacity
• Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations
  "PACDC has become the depository for information on Community Based Organizations in Philadelphia."
• Community Development Corporations, Participation, and Accountability: The Harlem Urban Development Corporation and the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
  "The article uses this kind of examination [of early politics and history] to make a general assessment about the impact of CDCs on community development and neighborhood improvement."

Intentional Communities

Groups of people come together to live in keeping with their shared principles and values.

Related: ecovillage

• Fellowship for Intentional Communities
  FIC "provide[s] publications, referrals, support services, and sharing opportunities for a wide range of intentional communities, cohousing groups, ecovillages, community networks, support organizations, and people seeking a home in community."
• Reference Articles from Intentional Communities
  Links to resources about intentional communities.
• Bibliographies from Communal Studies Association
  "The goal of this bibliography is to provide a useful resource for the study of American communal groups, drawing upon the bibliographic knowledge of recognized authorities on particular communal groups."
• The contribution of built, human, social and natural capital to quality of life in intentional and unintentional communities
  The researchers "surveyed a subset of [intentional] communities to learn more about their characteristics, including their world view or vision, the status of four basic types of capital (built, human, social, and natural), and the quality of life (QoL) they provide for their residents."

Open Source and the Commons

Collective ownership of knowledge, including the open source method of software development.

Related: copyleft

Wikimedia
Wikimedia is one of the most recognizable open source projects in the world. It is the parent organization of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
• Mozilla
  As the organization behind the popular browser Firefox, Mozilla provides an open-source alternative to closed-source browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
• Creative Commons Licensing
  A licensing alternative to traditional copyright which can require some combination of attribution, no commercial use, no creation of derivatives, and CC licensing of derivatives.
• Wordpress
  An open source blogging platform, now among the most popular in the world.
• The Open Source Initiative
  "The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community."

Social Entrepreneurship

Using a profitable business model to generate income for a cause.

• What is a Social Entrepreneur
  A brief introduction to social entrepreneurship.
• Social Innovation
  An introduction to social innovation: "new ideas that work to meet pressing unmet needs and improve peoples’ lives."
• Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Saïd Business School, Oxford University
  The Skoll Business Center "is a leading academic entity for the advancement of social entrepreneurship worldwide."
• Social Entrepreneurship: A Case for Definition
  The authors argue for a less inclusive definition than the common "catch-all" usage.
• Enterprising Organizations: New Asset-Based and Other Innovative Approaches to Solving Social and Economic Problems
  "Highlights from a forum on social enterprise."

Bibliography