Presentation on the Governing Knowledge Commons workshop and research framework, as part of the IASC World Commons Week webinar series, October 2018

1. Governing Knowledge Commons
A Short History and Update
Michael Madison
University of Pittsburgh School of Law
October 12, 2018
IASC World Commons Week

2. Knowledge commons
are:
“The basic characteristic that distinguishes commons
from noncommons is institutionalized sharing of
resources among members of a community.”
Commons refers to a form of community management
or governance. It applies to resources, and involves a
group or community of people, but commons does not
denote the resources, the community, a place, or a
thing. Commons is the institutional arrangement of
these elements.
Knowledge commons refers to shared intellectual,
cultural, and information resources, including
inventions, creations, data, and so on.
The starting intuition is that commons governance can
be an effective strategy for dealing with
underproduction [free riding] dilemmas.
Scope
Researchers
Research and results
Work in progress
Research and policy goals
Workshop on Governing
Knowledge Commons:
http://knowledge-
commons.net
Ostrom Workshop and other
commons research

3. Knowledge commons
researchers include:
Brett Frischmann
Villanova
University (law)
Michael Madison
University of
Pittsburgh (law)
Katherine Strandburg
New York University
(law)
Charles Schweik
University of
Massachusetts
(public policy)
Tom Dedeuwaerdere
Université catholique
de Louvain (UCL)
(philosophy)
Madelyn Sanfilippo
Princeton
University (social
informatics)
Scope
Researchers
Research and results
Work in progress
Research and policy goals
Workshop on Governing
Knowledge Commons:
http://knowledge-
commons.net
Ostrom Workshop and other
commons research

4. Knowledge commons
research and results:
1. Knowledge commons may confront diverse obstacles or social dilemmas, many of
which are not well described or reducible to the simple free rider/tragic commons
dilemma. Social dilemmas addressed by knowledge commons may relate to multiple
creation, curation, and coordination dilemmas from demand-side, supply-side, and
both at once (infrastructure/tools, analytics).
2. Complex relationships exist between knowledge commons and the systems within
which they operate and/or are nested (complex, nested systems).
3. Knowledge commons often depend on shared infrastructure.
4. Informal governance institutions, especially trusted leadership, often play key roles.
5. Commons governance evolve over time, and commons seem to play an important role
in early stages of some industries (evolution).
6. Knowledge commons governance often does not depend on one strong type or source
of individual motivations for cooperation (many motivations; complex).
7. Knowledge commons may be clustered in complex ways as well as nested within each
other: In medicine and health, we see patient-related commons; clinician/researcher-
related commons; infrastructure and tools-related commons; data and analytics-related
commons.
8. The state is often a key institutional actor in defining action arenas and providing formal
governance devices.
Scope
Researchers
Research and results
Work in progress
Research and policy goals
Workshop on Governing
Knowledge Commons:
http://knowledge-
commons.net
Ostrom Workshop and other
commons research

5. Knowledge commons
work in progress:
1. Privacy as Knowledge Commons
Governance (Sanfilippo, Frischmann, and
Strandburg eds.) (book development
workshop Fall 2018, book forthcoming
Cambridge UP)
2. Governing Markets as Knowledge
Commons: The New Entrepreneurial
History of Shared Social Infrastructures
(Dekker and Kuchar eds.) (book
development workshop Spring 2019, book
forthcoming Cambridge UP)
Scope
Researchers
Research and results
Work in progress
Research and policy goals
Workshop on Governing
Knowledge Commons:
http://knowledge-
commons.net
Ostrom Workshop and other
commons research

6. Knowledge commons
research and policy goals:
We emphasize that knowledge commons
research is motivated by interest in
systematic and comparative study of
governance institutions, of a sort that
researchers on IP law and policy rarely
undertake.
We are not (yet) at the point of producing
theory or theories, or models. We do not
(yet) have a set of design principles or
guidelines for practitioners or policymakers.
Scope
Researchers
Research and results
Work in progress
Research and policy goals
Workshop on Governing
Knowledge Commons:
http://knowledge-
commons.net
Ostrom Workshop and other
commons research

7. Relationship to Ostrom
Workshop and other
commons research:
1. Antecedents in Lessig, Benkler, Ostrom & Hess.
2. Knowledge as a domain of resources, rather than as a
single resource.
3. Knowledge resources as constructed.
4. Prioritize understanding the multiple dilemmas
associated with a resource.
5. Knowledge as a nondepletable, nonexcludable
resource but often with depletable material attributes.
6. Blend understanding of comparative institutional
analysis (economics) and governance (rule structure,
values); understand role of IP but also governance
other than via IP or other exclusivity.
7. Systematize based on data collection and analysis.
Scope
Researchers
Research and results
Work in progress
Research and policy goals
Ostrom Workshop and other
commons research
Workshop on Governing
Knowledge Commons:
http://knowledge-
commons.net