knowledge commons
{{Short description|Open, shared information}}
The term "knowledge commons" refers to information, data, and content that is collectively owned and managed by a community of users,{{cite journal |last1=Ambrosi de la Cadena |first1=Marco |title=Knowledge commons: an alternative to proprietary knowledge |journal=Maskana |date=2017 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=43–59 |doi=10.18537/mskn.08.01.04 |doi-access=free}} particularly over the Internet. What distinguishes a knowledge commons from a commons of shared physical resources is that digital resources are non-subtractible;{{Cite journal|last=Mansell|first=Robin|date=2013-08-29|title=Employing digital crowdsourced information resources: Managing the emerging information commons|journal=International Journal of the Commons|volume=7|issue=2|pages=255|doi=10.18352/ijc.395|issn=1875-0281|doi-access=free|bibcode=2013IJCom...7..255M |hdl=10535/9115|hdl-access=free}} that is, multiple users can access the same digital resources with no effect on their quantity or quality.{{Cite book |last1=Hess |first1=Charlotte |url=https://direct.mit.edu/books/edited-volume/3807/Understanding-Knowledge-as-a-CommonsFrom-Theory-to |title=Understanding Knowledge as a Commons - From Theory to Practice |last2=Ostrom, Elinor |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-262-08357-7 |location=Cambridge |pages=12–13}}
Conceptual background
The term 'commons' is derived from the medieval economic system the commons.{{Citation|last=Potts|first=Jason|title=Rules of the Innovation Commons|date=2019-08-22|work=Innovation Commons|pages=109–152|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oso/9780190937492.003.0006|isbn=978-0-19-093749-2|doi-access=free}} The knowledge commons is a model for a number of domains, including Open Educational Resources such as the MIT OpenCourseWare, free digital media such as Wikipedia,{{Cite journal|last=Sampsel|first=Laurie J.|date=2017-10-02|title=Finding Open Educational Resources for Music: OER Commons, MERLOT II, Openstax CNX, and MIT OpenCourseWare|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10588167.2017.1364608|journal=Music Reference Services Quarterly|volume=20|issue=3–4|pages=224–226|doi=10.1080/10588167.2017.1364608|s2cid=165880193 |issn=1058-8167}} Creative Commons–licensed art, open-source research,Joshua M. Pearce, "[https://www.academia.edu/1861756/Open_Source_Research_in_Sustainability Open Source Research in Sustainability]", Sustainability: the Journal of Record, 5(4), pp. 238-243, 2012. [https://dx.doi.org/10.1089/sus.2012.9944 DOI] [https://mtu.academia.edu/JoshuaPearce/Papers/1867941/Open_Source_Research_in_Sustainability free and open access] and open scientific collections such as the Public Library of Science or the Science Commons, free software and Open Design.{{Citation|title=Free/Open-Source Software as a Framework for Establishing Commons in Science|date=2006|url=https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6980.001.0001|work=Understanding Knowledge as a Commons|publisher=The MIT Press|doi=10.7551/mitpress/6980.003.0014|isbn=978-0-262-25634-6|access-date=2021-05-24 |last1=Schweik |first1=Charles M. |pages=277–310 }}{{Cite book|last1=Fernandez|first1=Peter D.|last2=Tilton|first2=Kelly|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1024320754|title=Applying library values to emerging technology : decision-making in the age of open access, maker spaces, and the ever-changing library|year=2018|publisher=Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association |isbn=978-0-8389-8939-5|oclc=1024320754}} According to research by Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom, the conceptual background of the knowledge commons encompasses two intellectual histories: first, a European tradition of battling the enclosure of the "intangible commons of the mind",{{Cite journal |last=Boyle |first=James |year=2003 |title=The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain |url=http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/66LCPBoyle |url-status=dead |journal=Law and Contemporary Problems |volume=66 |issue=1–2 |pages=33–74 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123190230/http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/66LCPBoyle/ |archive-date=2010-11-23}} threatened by expanding intellectual property rights and privatization of knowledge.{{Cite journal|date=2019|title=Knowledge Commons|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781789903997.00077|journal=Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law|pages=655|doi=10.4337/9781789903997.00077|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |isbn=9781789903997|s2cid=261727871 }} Second, a tradition rooted in the United States, which sees the knowledge commons as a shared space allowing for free speech and democratic practices,{{Citation|last=Lozano|first=Rosina|title=The United States Sees Language|date=2018-04-24|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520297067.003.0006|work=An American Language|publisher=University of California Press|doi=10.1525/california/9780520297067.003.0006|isbn=978-0-520-29706-7|access-date=2021-05-24}} and which is in the tradition of the town commons movement and commons-based production of scholarly work, open science, open libraries, and collective action.
The production of works in the knowledge commons is often driven by collective intelligence, respectively the wisdom of crowds, and is related to knowledge communism{{Cite journal|last=Mouzouni|first=Charafeddine|date=2018-03-14|title=The Wisdom Of Crowds: When Collective Intelligence Surpasses Individual Intelligence|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.31988/scitrends.12858|journal=Science Trends|doi=10.31988/scitrends.12858}} as defined by Robert K. Merton, according to whom scientists give up intellectual property rights in exchange for recognition and esteem.{{Cite journal|last=Kampf|first=Roger|title=From data to wisdom: the contribution of intellectual property rights to the knowledge pyramid|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781783470488.00019|journal=Access to Information and Knowledge|year=2013|pages=235–257|doi=10.4337/9781783470488.00019|isbn=9781783470488}}
Ferenc Gyuris argues that it is important to distinguish "information" from "knowledge" in defining the term "knowledge commons".{{Citation|last1=Győri|first1=Róbert|title=Geographies of Knowledge and Power|date=2015|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9960-7_10|pages=203–233|place=Dordrecht|publisher=Springer Netherlands|isbn=978-94-017-9959-1|access-date=2021-05-24|last2=Gyuris|first2=Ferenc|chapter=Knowledge and Power in Sovietized Hungarian Geography |series=Knowledge and Space |volume=7 |doi=10.1007/978-94-017-9960-7_10}} He argues that "knowledge as a shared resource" requires that both information must become accessible and potential recipients must become able and willing to internalize it as 'knowledge'. "Therefore, knowledge cannot become a shared resource without a complex set of institutions and practices that give the opportunity to potential recipients to gain the necessary abilities and willingness".{{Cite journal |last=Gyuris |first=Ferenc |year=2014 |title=Basic education in communist Hungary. A commons approach |url=http://www.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/ijc/article/view/458/401 |journal=International Journal of the Commons |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=531–553 |doi=10.18352/ijc.458|doi-access=free |bibcode=2014IJCom...8..531G |hdl=10535/9597 |hdl-access=free }}
Copyleft
Copyleft licenses are institutions which support a knowledge commons of executable software.{{Cite journal|last1=Sen|first1=Ravi|last2=Subramaniam|first2=Chandrasekar|last3=Nelson|first3=Matthew L.|date=December 2011|title=Open source software licenses: Strong-copyleft, non-copyleft, or somewhere in between?|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2011.07.004|journal=Decision Support Systems|volume=52|issue=1|pages=199–206|doi=10.1016/j.dss.2011.07.004|issn=0167-9236}} Copyleft licenses grant licensees all necessary rights such as right to study, use, change and redistribute—under the condition that all future works building on the license are again kept in the commons.{{Cite journal|last=Stewart|first=Daxton|date=2021|title=Rise of the Copyleft Trolls: When Photographers Sue After Creative Commons Licenses Go Awry|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3844180|journal=SSRN Electronic Journal|doi=10.2139/ssrn.3844180|hdl=1811/101769 |s2cid=235276455 |issn=1556-5068|hdl-access=free}} Popular applications of the 'copyleft' principle are the GNU Software Licenses (GPL, LGPL and GFDL by Free Software Foundation) and the share-alike licenses under creative commons.{{Cite journal |last=Carver |first=Brian W. |date=2018-08-15 |title=Share and Share Alike: Understanding and Enforcing Open Source and Free Software Licenses |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.31228/osf.io/p327s |journal=Berkeley Technology Law Journal |volume=20 |issue=443 |doi=10.31228/osf.io/p327s |access-date=2021-05-24}}
See also
References
External links
- {{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3N9Gb3bKzQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/H3N9Gb3bKzQ |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|title=Commons in Action: Knowledge Commons |publisher=International Association for the Study of the Commons |date=3 September 2014 |via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}
- {{Cite journal |last=Ioannidis |first=Yannis |date=July 2006 |title=From Digital Libraries to Knowledge Commons |url=http://www.ercim.eu/publication/Ercim_News/enw66/ioannidis.html |journal=ERCIM News |publisher=ERCIM |issue=66}}
- {{Cite book |last=Abrell |first=Elan |url=http://www.idlo.int/publications/TraditionalKnowledge.pdf |title=Imagining a Traditional Knowledge Commons: A community approach to sharing traditional knowledge for non-commercial research |date=October 2009 |editor-last=Dunlop |editor-first=Scott |display-authors=etal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017012523/https://www.idlo.int/publications/TraditionalKnowledge.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-17}}
- {{Cite web |url=http://www.knowledgecommons.org/ |title=Open Knowledge Commons |website=KnowledgeCommons.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231084634/http://www.knowledgecommons.org/ |archive-date=2012-12-31}}
- [http://biogov.uclouvain.be/iasc/ First Thematic Conference on the Knowledge Commons] held in 2012 on the theme of "Governing Pooled Knowledge Resources: Building Institutions for Sustainable Scientific, Cultural and Genetic Resource Commons"
- [http://floksociety.org/ Free/Libre Open Knowledge Society, designing a world for the commons.]: A Free, Libre, Open Knowledge society is about to be built in Ecuador.
- Governing Knowledge Commons. 2014. Edited by Brett M. Frischmann, Michael J. Madison, and Katherine J. Strandburg. Oxford University Press.
- "[https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw0911 Tragedy revisited]" by Robert Boyd, Peter J. Richerson, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Tine De Moor, Matthew O. Jackson, Kristina M. Gjerde, Harriet Harden-Davies, Brett M. Frischmann, Michael J. Madison, Katherine J. Strandburg, Angela R McLean, Christopher Dye. Science, 14 Dec 2018, 362:6420, pp. 1236-1241. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw0911
- [http://halduskultuur.eu/journal/index.php/HKAC/article/view/228/177 How to Reap the Benefits of the “Digital Revolution”? Modularity and the Commons]. 2019. By Vasilis Kostakis, published in Halduskultuur: The Estonian Journal of Administrative Culture and Digital Governance, Vol 20(1):4–19.
{{Open navbox}}
{{Property navbox}}
Category:Social information processing
Category:Intellectual property law