OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING: FROM COMMONS TO COMMUNITY

MATT HEW K. G O LD / O PEN A C C E S S P UBLI S HI NG : F RO M C O M M O N S TO C O M M U N I TY

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING:
FROM COMMONS TO COMMUNITY

Matthew K. Gold
NYC College of Technology & CUNY Graduate Center
mkgold.net @mkgold
28 October 2011
CC-licensed untitled photo from nicepix25216: http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/24343741@N06/5712547947/
Friday, October 28, 11


The Open Access Knowledge Commons

From Commons to Community

Case Study: Debates in the Digital
Humanities

Prospective Design Principles for Social
Repositories



What is a
commons?



What is a
commons?

a shared resource



The Land-Based Commons
Natural resource -- plot of land

CC-licensed photo: “Cow in Niederbauen” http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/akane86/182443256//


3 Phases of English Common Land Tenure

1. Saxon Age before Norman conquest
most village lands held and worked in common.

2. After Norman conquest
village lands belong to local manor, rights of the common granted
on condition of fealty to manor lord

3. Age of enclosure - early 18th century - end of 19th century
common land divided up, fenced, converted to private property in
modern sense.

(Source: Louise Hyde, Common as Air)

source: Lewis Hyde, Common as Air


Knowledge as a Commons

new types of knowledge commons -- esp. law (intellectual property) and scholarly resources. Increasingly, scholarly communications.


Libertarian vs.
Associational Commons



CUNY

CUNY



2011 vs. 2007



2007

Thing-Based
Repositories


MATT HEW K. G O LD / THE UNI V E R S I T Y A ND T HE C O M M O N S

photo by FredR http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/fredr/262344284/

THE INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY


2011

social networks

middle-state publishing

emphasis on process



“The common is not to be construed, therefore,
as a particular kind of thing, asset or even social
process, but as an unstable and malleable social
relation between a particular self-deﬁned social
group and those aspects of its actually existing or
yet-to-be-created social and/or physical
environment deemed crucial to its life and
livelihood. There is, in effect, a social
practice of commoning.” -- David Harvey

“The common is not to be construed, therefore, as a particular kind of thing, asset or even social process, but as an unstable and malleable social relation between a particular self-defined
social group and those aspects of its actually existing or yet-to-be-created social and/or physical environment deemed crucial to its life and livelihood. There is, in effect, a social practice of
commoning. This practice produces or establishes a social relation with a common whose uses are either exclusive to a social group or partially or fully open to all and sundry. At the heart of
the practice of commoning lies the principle that the relation between the social group and that aspect of the environment being treated as a common shall be both collective and non-
commodified - off limits to the logic of market exchange and market valuations.” (Emph added)


What is a
commons?
a shared space
for creating
resources with a
community


What is a
commons?
a dynamic space for
sharing and creating
resources with (and
within) a community


“the process of creating public
knowledge [is] an additional good,
because such work builds social
capital, strengthens communities,
and gives people skills that they
need for effective citizenship.”
-- Peter Levine

“For the most part, the other chapters of this book treat knowledge as a good. The authors advocate better ways to create, disseminate, preserve, and organize knowledge as a common
resource. While I certainly share the goals of those chapters, the focus here is somewhat different. I take the process of creating public knowledge as an additional good,
because such work builds social capital, strengthens communities, and gives people skills that they need for effective citizenship. If this is correct, then we should aim to include as many
people as possible in the collaborative creation of “free” (i.e., open-access) knowledge. Not only scholars and librarians, but ordinary people should be knowledge creators.” -- Peter Levine


CUNY PIE

DiFara’s!



“the cornucopia of the
commons”:
more value is created as more
people use the resource and
join the social community. The
operative principle is “the
more, the merrier.”

Indeed, many information commons exemplify what some commentators
have called “the cornucopia of the commons,” in which more
value is created as more people use the resource and join the social community.
12 The operative principle is “the more, the merrier.”


The Open Access Knowledge Commons

From Commons to Community

Case Study: Debates in the Digital
Humanities

Challenges, Possibilities, and Principles for
Social Repositories



Challenges



Challenges

A GROUP OF SILOED REPOSITORIES



Challenges

INTERACTION FATIGUE



Challenges

PROPRIETARY PLATFORMS



Challenges
SECONDARY ENCLOSURES,
THREATS TO COLLABORATION:

PATENTS, TRADEMARKS,
COPYRIGHT

“MONOPOLIES OF INVENTION”



Possibilities

BUILD SOCIAL REPOSITORIES

cuny ac -- email stats. Siva.


Possibilities

BUILD GENERATIVE SPACES



“Generativity is a system’s capacity to
produce unanticipated change through
unﬁltered contributions from broad and
varied audiences. . . . Generativity pairs an
input consisting of unﬁltered
contributions from diverse people and
groups, who may or may not be working
in concert, with the output of
unanticipated change.”

– Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the
Internet - And How to Stop It (2008)



Build generative commons spaces
that talk to one another



Federated models



Open APIs



Linked Data



Possibilities

OUR COMMUNITIES
ARE OUR RESOURCES



What is a
commons?
Not (just) the
park, but the
human
microphone

OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING: FROM COMMONS TO COMMUNITY

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