Silke Helfrich was an uninstitutionalized academic and independent activist of the commons. She co-founded the Commons Strategies Group in 2010. Earlier she was a director of the Heinrich Boell Foundation regional offices of Central America, Mexico, and Cuba.
Bio: wiki page 
> Silke Helfrich was a long-time director of the Heinrich Boell Foundation regional offices of Central America, Mexico, and Cuba. She was a German author and independent activist of the commons who blogged at www.commonsblog.de. She co-founded the Commons Strategies Group in 2010 with David Bollier and Michel Bauwens of the Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives. > Silke died in 2021 - Bollier 2021 - In Remembrance of My Dear Friend Silke Helfrich, 1967-2021. [Webpage](http://www.bollier.org/blog/remembrance-my-dear-friend-silke-helfrich-1967-2021)
Some references are to joint publications by Bollier & Helfrich - see that page.
Helfrich ed (2010), *Genes, Bytes and Emissions: To Whom Does the World Belong?*, Heinrich Böll Stiftung. [Webpage](https://us.boell.org/en/2010/10/06/genes-bytes-and-emissions-whom-does-world-belong-economic-governance). > ❝The \[Böll] Foundation’s Mexico City office . . hosted a major conference, [Citizenship and Commons](http://boell-latinoamerica.org/download_es/commons_CONFERENCE_PROGRAMM2.pdf), in December 2006. The collection, whose title in English is To Whom Does the World Belong? offers a thoughtful and provocative array of viewpoints on the commons. > Sadly, links on the page are broken (nov 2023).
Helfrich (2015), 'Patterns of commoning: How we can bring about a language of commoning', in Bollier & Helfrich (2015), *Patterns of Commoning*, Böll Foundation. [pdf](http://patternsofcommoning.org/patterns-of-commoning-how-we-can-bring-about-a-language-of-commoning/), downloaded March 2018. > ❝ There are many reasons that we need to develop a pattern language of commoning. Pattern languages are capable of finding the treasures within our implicit knowledge, which too often go ignored or unexpressed. Specific patterns of commoning will help us to get beyond counting and measuring everything and instead encourage us to focus on deeper, more “enlivened” relationships. Patterns provide useful tools for conflict-resolution and help make insights discovered elsewhere visible as possible ways out of our problems without mandating rigid solutions; they respect our freedom and need to make decisions and shape our livelihoods for ourselves. The process of developing patterns of commoning can be a wholly natural and even playful process available to anyone. It is a way of learning a common vocabulary whiledisseminating a meme, as if in passing: commons. As a way to cultivate a greater self-awareness of the realities of commoning, pattern languages can significantly accelerate the cultural transformation now underway, helping embryonic forms of commoning become new social norms and expanding the practices of commoning so that a commons-based society can emerge.
Haas & Helfrich 2018), *The commons: A new narrative for our times*, [pdf](https://us.boell.org/2010/10/06/genes-bytes-and-emissions-whom-does-world-belong-economic-governance), downloaded July 2018. > ❝ It is a challenging undertaking to introduce new political and cultural perspectives amid the transformation to a knowledge-based society and intensifying multiple crises. Not only must these concepts be theoretically and substantively sound, they must be capable of changing political and social realities. This essay investigates whether the concept of the commons can succeed in becoming ingrained in the political discourse and thinking.