Knowledge commons
Encyclopedia
The knowledge commons encompass immaterial and collectively owned goods in the information age
. Normatively loaded, it promotes free share of knowledge. As the modern commons' resource is information, the tragedy of the commons
no longer has any effect—naturally, information does not depreciate when being shared with others.
. Today, the knowledge commons act as a frame of reference for a number of domains, including Open Educational resources such as the MIT OpenCourseware
, free digital media such as wikipedia
, creative commons
licensed art, open scientific collections such as the Public Library of Science
or the Science Commons
, Free Software
and Open Design
. 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", threatened by expanding intellectual property rights and privatization of knowledge. Second, a tradition rooted in the United States, which sees the knowledge commons as a shared space allowing for free speech and democratic practices, 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 as it was defined by Robert K. Merton
, according to whom scientists give up intellectual property rights in exchange for recognition and esteem.
" is being replaced by "copyleft
". For using a work under copyleft, no permission is required and no license has to be acquired; it grants all necessary rights such as right to study, use, remix and redistribute an improved work again—under the only condition that all future works building on the license are again kept in the commons.
The most 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
.
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
. Normatively loaded, it promotes free share of knowledge. As the modern commons' resource is information, the tragedy of the commons
Tragedy of the commons
The tragedy of the commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this...
no longer has any effect—naturally, information does not depreciate when being shared with others.
Conceptual background
The term 'commons' is being derived from the medieval economic system the commonsThe commons
The commons is terminology referring to resources that are owned in common or shared between or among communities populations. These resources are said to be "held in common" and can include everything from natural resources and common land to software. The commons contains public property and...
. Today, the knowledge commons act as a frame of reference for a number of domains, including Open Educational resources such as the MIT OpenCourseware
OpenCourseWare
OpenCourseWare, or OCW, is a term applied to course materials created by universities and shared freely with the world via the internet. The movement started in 1999 when the University of Tübingen in Germany published videos of lectures online in the context of its timms initiative...
, free digital media such as wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, creative commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
licensed art, open scientific collections such as the Public Library of Science
Public Library of Science
The Public Library of Science is a nonprofit open-access scientific publishing project aimed at creating a library of open access journals and other scientific literature under an open content license...
or the Science Commons
Science Commons
Science Commons is a Creative Commons project for designing strategies and tools for faster, more efficient web-enabled scientific research. The organization identifies unnecessary barriers to research, crafts policy guidelines and legal agreements to lower those barriers, and develops technology...
, Free Software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
and Open Design
Open design
Open design is the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. The process is generally facilitated by the Internet and often performed without monetary compensation...
. 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", threatened by expanding intellectual property rights and privatization of knowledge. Second, a tradition rooted in the United States, which sees the knowledge commons as a shared space allowing for free speech and democratic practices, 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
Collective intelligence
Collective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....
respectively the wisdom of crowds and is related to knowledge communism as it was defined by Robert K. Merton
Robert K. Merton
Robert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...
, according to whom scientists give up intellectual property rights in exchange for recognition and esteem.
Copyleft
A main principle of the knowledge commons is that the traditional "copyrightCopyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
" is being replaced by "copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
". For using a work under copyleft, no permission is required and no license has to be acquired; it grants all necessary rights such as right to study, use, remix and redistribute an improved work again—under the only condition that all future works building on the license are again kept in the commons.
The most popular applications of the 'copyleft' principle are the GNU
GNU
GNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
Software Licenses (GPL, LGPL and GFDL by Free Software Foundation) and the share-alike
Share-alike
Share-Alike is a descriptive term used in the Creative Commons project for copyright licenses which include certain copyleft provisions. The Share-Alike license comes in two varieties, CC-BY-SA and CC-BY-NC-SA.-Share-alike license types:...
licenses under creative commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
.
See also
- Commons
- Information CommonsInformation commonsAn Information Commons is an information system, such as a physical library or online community, that exists to produce, conserve, and preserve information for current and future generations. Wikipedia could be considered to be an information commons to the extent that it produces and preserves...
- Libre knowledgeLibre knowledgeLibre knowledge is knowledge which may be acquired, interpreted and applied freely. It can be re-formulated according to one's needs, and shared with others for community benefit....
- Open ContentOpen contentOpen content or OpenContent is a neologism coined by David Wiley in 1998 which describes a creative work that others can copy or modify. The term evokes open source, which is a related concept in software....
- CopyleftCopyleftCopyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
- Public ownership
- Open SourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
- Open DesignOpen designOpen design is the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. The process is generally facilitated by the Internet and often performed without monetary compensation...
- OpenCoursewareOpenCourseWareOpenCourseWare, or OCW, is a term applied to course materials created by universities and shared freely with the world via the internet. The movement started in 1999 when the University of Tübingen in Germany published videos of lectures online in the context of its timms initiative...
- Collective IntelligenceCollective intelligenceCollective intelligence is a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making in bacteria, animals, humans and computer networks....
- Robert K. MertonRobert K. MertonRobert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...
- GNUGNUGNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
- Creative CommonsCreative CommonsCreative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
- Commons-based peer productionCommons-based peer productionCommons-based peer production is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler to describe a new model of socio-economic production in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated into large, meaningful projects mostly without traditional hierarchical...
External links
- Understanding Knowledge as a Commons
- From Digital Libraries to Knowledge Commons
- Open Knowledge Commons - “Shared Purpose. Global Access. Common Knowledge.”
- Imagining A Traditional Knowledge Commons: A community approach to sharing traditional knowledge for non-commercial research