Governing the Science Commons
slides: bit.ly/eddy-science-commons
- academus
- science commons
- information
- governance
- opportunity
\(A \Gamma \mbox{E} \Omega \mbox{METPHTO}\Sigma ~~ \mbox{MH}\Delta \mbox{EI} \Sigma ~~ \mbox{EI}\Sigma \mbox{IT} \Omega\)
"Let none but geometers enter here"
"Grove of Academus" by Quackenbos 1882; ©2022 by the University of South Florida
Academy
- pioneering social collaboration structure
- Participants were "earth measurers"
- "Academia" is a land acknowledgement
How should we name whatever we may invent here?
gantt
title University History
section Americas
UNAM : 1910-09-01, 1000d
Johns Hopkins: 1877-02-22, 1000d
Morill Act: 1862-01-01, 100d
UPenn : 1755-09-01, 1000d
William and Mary : 1639-09-01, 1000d
Harvard : 1636-09-01, 1000d
section Expansion
Peking : 1898-01-01, 1000d
Berlin/Humboldt : 1810-01-01, 1000d
Edinburgh : 1582-09-01, 1000d
Copenhagen : 1475-09-01,1000d
Istanbul : 1453-09-01, 1000d
St. Andrews : 1410-09-01, 1000d
Leipzig : 1409-09-01, 1000d
Vienna : 1365-09-01, 1000d
Charles : 1347-09-01, 1000d
section Beginnings
Salamanaca : 1218-09-01, 1000d
Cambridge : 1209-09-01, 1000d
Oxford : 1200-09-01, 1000d
Bologna :1088-09-01 , 1000d
Science Commons
Contrasting views of human nature
Humans are selfish individuals who act in response to incentives and force
VERSUS
Humans are collaborative and work together for collective benefit
Science
A systematic enteprise that builds and organizes human understanding of the universe with testable explanations and predictions.
The central activity of science is exchanging information.
Science Commons
- People in social collaboration structures (universities, agencies, societies, philanthropy, publishers, teams,…)
- Resources (salaries, instruments, libraries, infrastructure,…)
Governance is the way we structure and manage social collaboration.
Information
gantt
title Bell System Timeline
section Vision
Information ubiquity :crit, active, 1947-01-01, 1984-01-01
Universal service: 1907-01-01, 1949-01-01
Phone in every town: 1877-01-01, 1907-04-30
section Milestones
Royalty Free Patents: 1956-01-01, 1984-06-01
Transistor :crit, active, 1948-06-01, 1984-06-01
Information Theory :crit, 1947-06-01, 1984-06-01
WW2 : 1941-12-07, 1945-06-15
Transatlantic : 1927-01-07, 100d
Vertical Monopoly: 1921-01-01, 1984-06-01
Transcontinental: 1915-01-25, 100d
Competition: 1894-06-01, 1907-04-30
Patent : 1879-06-01, 1894-06-01
"One Policy, One System, Universal Service"
AT&T leadership argued phone service
- is essential to human existence
- will require massive R&D
- must be delivered by a regulated monopoly
Phone service was exceptional and required a novel service delivery model.
Information theory changed everything
- Information flows and is quantifiable ('bit')
- Channel capacity can be measured
- Transistor made abstractions realizable
Information theory created a social and technological design space.
Social technological design approaches
- Market-based (startups)
- Commons-based (Wikipedia, Linux)
Both approaches have merit.
Commons-based approaches are less well-developed. Why?
Governance
How should the science commmons be governed?
- People and Resources
- Information flows \(\leftarrow\) exceptional like phone?
F. Ardila's Axioms
- Mathematical potential is distributed equally among different groups, irrespective of geographic, demographic, and economic boundaries.
- Everyone can have joyful, meaningful, and empowering mathematical experiences.
- Mathematics is a powerful, malleable tool that can be shaped and used differently by various communities to serve their needs.
- Every student deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
Guiding virtue: intellectual generosity
Opportunity
Inflection Point?
Y. Benkler called for commons-based governance of science in 2004. It's finally happening!
- Interactive computing ecosystem integration is changing information flows
- Incentives toward commons-based science are emerging
Is there a playbook? Next steps?
Features of communities that successfully manage their commons were identified by Ostrom and colleagues. R. Safner analyzed the success of Wikipedia using this framework.
Y. Panda explored wiki principles as a strategy to democratize programming.
The history of the Open Geospatial Consortium has lessons.