Understanding Knowledge as a Commons: From Theory to Practice

Summary

Edited volume that extends commons analysis from natural resources to knowledge and information, including digital libraries, open access, and open source software.

Why it’s useful here

Bridges Ostrom’s natural-resource work to digital infrastructure. Shows where the analogy holds (governance, free-riding on maintenance) and where it breaks (information is non-rivalrous, but bandwidth, storage, and admin time are not).

Key ideas

• Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework applied to knowledge
• A knowledge commons has three parts: facilities (where knowledge is stored and accessed), artifacts (its expressions), and ideas (its content)
• Digital commons face enclosure through law and technology, not scarcity

Related

• ostrom-1990-governing-the-commons.md
• benkler-2006-wealth-of-networks.md