1. Nonprofit Organizations in the
Digital Commons Environment
Jyh-An Lee
When Cultures Encounters Internet
Dec. 15, 2010

2.  Introduction
• Research Question
• Methodology
• Contribution to Scholarship
• NPOs in the Commons Environment
• NPO Theories
• Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
• Conclusion

3. information economy

4. 2 economies

5. proprietary economy

6. financial gain

7. IP = exclusion

8. commons economy

9. permission free

10. social movements

11. free/open source software
movement

12. free/open source software
movement
open access movement

13. free/open source software
movement
open access movement
open educational resources
(OER) movement

14. free/open source software
movement
open access movement
open educational resources
(OER) movement
free culture movement

15. Three Sectors
Government
Business
NPO

16. proprietary commons
economy economy
research,
government PTO, IP rules
OSS
proprietary
business Red Hat, IBM
owners
CC, FSF,
NPOs BMI, ASCAP
PLoS

17. proprietary commons
economy economy
research,
government PTO, IP rules
OSS
proprietary
business Red Hat, IBM
owners
CC, FSF,
NPOs BMI, ASCAP
PLoS

18. proprietary commons
economy economy
research,
government PTO, IP rules
OSS
proprietary
business Red Hat, IBM
owners
CC, FSF,
NPOs BMI, ASCAP
PLoS

19. proprietary commons
economy economy
research,
government PTO, IP rules
OSS
proprietary
business Red Hat, IBM
owners
CC, FSF,
NPOs BMI, ASCAP
PLoS

20. proprietary commons
economy economy
research,
government PTO, IP rules
OSS
proprietary
business Red Hat, IBM
owners
CC, FSF,
NPOs BMI, ASCAP
PLoS

21. proprietary commons
economy economy
research,
government PTO, IP rules
OSS
proprietary
business Red Hat, IBM
owners
CC, FSF,
NPOs BMI, ASCAP
PLoS

22. What is NPO?
non-distribution constraint
“third sector” or “voluntary
sector”

23. • Introduction
 Research Question
• Methodology
• Contribution to Scholarship
• NPOs in the Commons Environment
• NPO Theories
• Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
• Conclusion

25. Environmental movement

26. Environmental movement
Cultural environmentalism

27. “The public domain should have its
Greenpeace, its Environmental Defense Fund,
its Nature Conservancy, its Environmentally
Concerned Scientists.”

28. “The public domain should have its
Greenpeace, its Environmental Defense Fund,
its Nature Conservancy, its Environmentally
Concerned Scientists.”

29. How NPOs crafted the
intellectual-commons environment
in the digital world?

30. What are the NPOs in the
commons environment?
Why they matter?
Can current NPO theories explain
this phenomenon?
Why commons environment is an
ideal milieu for NPOs to flourish?

31. • Introduction
• Research Question
 Methodology
• Contribution to Scholarship
• NPOs in the Commons Environment
• NPO Theories
• Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
• Conclusion

32. sources
academic literature
news
NPO website
26 in-depth interviews (from
19 NPOs and 3 for-profits)

33. theoretical framework
commons theories

34. theoretical framework
commons theories
NPO theories

35. theoretical framework
commons theories
NPO theories
other theories
theory of collective action
theory of the firm
theory of altruism

36. • Introduction
• Research Question
• Methodology
 Contribution to Scholarship
• NPOs in the Commons Environment
• NPO Theories
• Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
• Conclusion

37. filling the gap in mainstream IP
scholarship

38. filling the gap in mainstream IP
scholarship
testing NPO theories in a new setting

39. filling the gap in mainstream IP
scholarship
testing NPO theories in a new setting
new lens to understand the
intellectual-commons environment

40. • Introduction
• Research Question
• Methodology
• Contribution to Scholarship
 NPOs in the Commons Environment
• NPO Theories
• Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
• Conclusion

41. <1> social norms and
licensing terms

45. <2> organizational support for
peer-production projects

47. F/OSS Foundations
 managing property rights
 transacting with other entities
 providing collective decision-making
mechanism
 protecting individuals from liabilities

50. <3> legal support

52. <4> political advocacy

54. <5> information access &
repositories

58. <6> public-interest grant-
making

59. -

60. -

61. -

62. • Introduction
• Research Question
• Methodology
• Contribution to Scholarship
• NPOs in the Commons Environment
 NPO Theories
• Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
• Conclusion

63. <1> contract failure theory

64. Henry Hansmann

65. Henry Hansmann
NPOs function as a trusted channel
when donors of specific services or
goods and recipients have no
connections with each other.

66. contract failure
Donors Recipients

67. contract failure
Donors Recipients
NPOs

68. applications

69. applications
 typical application: donation to commons
community

70. applications
 typical application: donation to commons
community
 new application:
donors = contributors of intellectual resources

71. <1> access failure

72. <1> access failure

73. <1> access failure

74. <1> access failure
publishing
copyright

75. <1> access failure

76. <1> access failure

77. <1> access failure
content
$$$

78. <1> access failure
 In the past ten years
 220%~752%

80. <1> access failure

81. <1> access failure

85. <2> collaborative failure

86. problem of collective action

87. <2> collaborative failure

88. <2> collaborative failure
 less likely to impair diverse interests

89. <2> collaborative failure
 less likely to impair diverse interests
 only in large projects
 complexity / scale
 enough resources

90. <3> licensing failure

91. <3> licensing failure
 potential users
 potential copyright infringement concerns
 high transaction costs

92. <3> licensing failure
 potential users
 potential copyright infringement concerns
 high transaction costs
 creators
 high legal fees

93. theory implications (1)
 trust hypothesis / trust theory

94. theory implications (1)
 trust hypothesis / trust theory
 from the interviews
 trust
 credibility
 independence
 neutrality

95. theory implications (2)
 convention wisdom:
 The Internet eliminates middlemen and
organizations
 F/OSS is a production process without
organization

96. Richard A. Epstein
“OSS is not sustainable because it has no
formal governance mechanism.”

97. limit of contract failure theory
 assumption: consumers distrust for-profit
 hard to explain the existence of NPOs
involved in promoting social norms,
lobbying activities

98. <2> government and market
failure theory

99. Burton A. Weisbrod
NPOs, emerge to meet an unsatisfied
demand for public goods due to both
market failure and government failure.

100. government and market failure
theory
 assumptions:
 because government can only satisfy majority
interest
 for the minority interests that cannot be
satisfied by the government and the market,
people turn to NPOs for certain public goods.

101. applications
 current IP laws
 legislative process
 contract failure
 under-provision
 over-exclusion

102. theory implications (1)
 social experimentation
 government: not allowed to conduct policy
experiment

103. theory implications (1)
 social experimentation
 government: not allowed to conduct policy
experiment
 NPO can help to fulfill the role of experimenter
for future policymaking

104. theory implications (1)
 social experimentation
 examples:
 Hewlett Foundation
 Creative Commons

105. theory implications (2)
 the neglected interests of individuals
 Peter Frumkin: “
“[n]onprofit and voluntary action expresses a
complex desire to defend the pursuit of
private individual aspirations.”

106. theory implications (2)
 the neglected interests of individuals
 the history of copyright laws

107. theory implications (2)
 the neglected interests of individuals
 the history of copyright laws
 NPOs in the commons environment
 representing individual interest
 emphasizing on individual values

108. limits of government and market
failure theory
 government failure
 Weisbrod:
government satisfies majority interests but fails to
responds to minority interests
 commons NPO & IP scholars:
 government is captured by the copyright industry
and fails to protect the majority

109. limits of government and market
failure theory
 Larry Lessig:
“around 85 percent of the citizens is
inappropriately ignored in the copyright
legislation”

110. limits of government and market
failure theory
 market failure
 the role of proprietary companies

111. limits of government and market
failure theory
 NPOs serve as vehicles for for-profits
 to provide public goods
 to access the voluntary contributions

112. • Introduction
• Research Question
• Methodology
• Contribution to Scholarship
• NPOs in the Commons Environment
• NPO Theories
 Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
• Conclusion

113. <1> gift economy

114. <2> information community

115. <3> demand revelation

116. • Introduction
• Research Question
• Methodology
• Contribution to Scholarship
• NPOs in the Commons Environment
• NPO Theories
• Associating NPOs with the Commons
Environment
 Conclusion

117.  NPOs provide indispensable social
infrastructure for commons production
 current NPO theories help us to
understand NPOs’ role in the commons
environment, but these theories have their
own limit
 compared to the nature of for-profits and
government, the nature of NPOs is more
consistent with commons-environment
culture

118. Thank you!! 1/2
Commons and Suggestions 2