The term "knowledge commons" refers to information, data, and content that is collectively owned and managed by a community of users,[1] particularly over theInternet. What distinguishes a knowledge commons from acommons of shared physical resources is that digital resources arenon-subtractible;[2] that is, multiple users can access the same digital resources with no effect on their quantity or quality.[3]
The term 'commons' is derived from the medieval economic systemthe commons.[4] The knowledge commons is a model for a number of domains, includingOpen Educational Resources such as the MITOpenCourseWare, free digital media such asWikipedia,[5]Creative Commons–licensed art, open-source research,[6] and open scientific collections such as thePublic Library of Science or theScience Commons,free software andOpen Design.[7][8] According to research by Charlotte Hess andElinor Ostrom,[3] 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",[9] threatened by expanding intellectual property rights and privatization of knowledge.[10] Second, a tradition rooted in theUnited States, which sees the knowledge commons as a shared space allowing for free speech and democratic practices,[11] 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.[3]
Ferenc Gyuris argues that it is important to distinguish "information" from "knowledge" in defining the term "knowledge commons".[14] 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".[15]
Copyleft licenses are institutions which support a knowledge commons of executable software.[16] 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.[17] Popular applications of the 'copyleft' principle are theGNU Software Licenses (GPL,LGPL andGFDL byFree Software Foundation) and theshare-alike licenses undercreative commons.[18]
^Fernandez, Peter D.; Tilton, Kelly (2018).Applying library values to emerging technology : decision-making in the age of open access, maker spaces, and the ever-changing library. Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.ISBN978-0-8389-8939-5.OCLC1024320754.
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"
Governing Knowledge Commons. 2014. Edited by Brett M. Frischmann, Michael J. Madison, and Katherine J. Strandburg. Oxford University Press.
"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
