Knowledge Commons

India, with its unparalleled linguistic diversity, is home to over 1,600 languages and dialects (Devy 2013). However, many of these are endangered, with several facing the threat of extinction due to globalization, urbanization, and a shift towards dominant regional or official languages. This study examines the role of digital technology in preserving and revitalizing endangered languages within the Indian context. The primary aim is to explore how digital tools such as mobile language apps, digital dictionaries, audiovisual archives, and crowdsourced documentation platforms are being leveraged to document, promote, and transmit India's lesser-known languages. Adopting a qualitative, case study-based approach, the research analyzes key initiatives including Bhasha Research Centre's work with tribal languages, the People's Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI), and region-specific efforts like the 'Kumaoni Voice' project and the 'Sora' language documentation initiative. Findings indicate that community-driven digital interventions, when supported by linguistic scholars and local institutions, can significantly contribute to the revival and retention of endangered languages. However, issues such as limited internet access in remote areas, lack of digital literacy, and minimal state support pose significant challenges. The study highlights the urgent need for inclusive digital language policies and collaborative frameworks to ensure the survival of India's rich but vulnerable linguistic heritage.

Language and literacy issues in India are reviewed in terms of background, steps taken to combat illiteracy, and some problems associated with literacy. The following facts are noted: India has 106 languages spoken by more than 685 million people, there are several minor script systems, a major language has different dialects, a language may use different scripts, several languages have varieties due to caste or religion, and many minor languages do not have a script. More than 63 percent of the total population is illiterate, especially among the rural population and among women. Literacy campaigns since 1937 are described and reasons for their failure are discussed including both organizational and conceptual problems. India's multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural nature is cited as a cause of many of the problems involved in implementing successful literacy programs, since there is a conflict regarding the medium of literacy instructicn. Examples are cited, however, of some minority groups that are demanding to receive literacy in the dominant state language. It is concluded that more information on reading research, ways to facilitate communicative competence, and data collection are needed. Contains 9 references. (LB)

The future of digitalization depends on implementing the right model for data governance, balancing rights, values, and societal goals. This research investigates a matched triple of health Data Intermediaries (DIs)-public authority Findata, data cooperative Midata, and non-governmental foundation Donate Your Datato understand how different DI models impact data governance goals and the rules-in-use. I find that the choice of the DI model influences data governance and thus the pursued goals. But the findings also reveal a paradox, where DIs couple and balance extractivism with privacy, collectivism with self-determination, and trust with economic gain. Embracing this paradox instead of resolving it is what leads to successful governance. This study contributes to the theoretical development of data governance studies by offering insights that can support policymakers in designing effective institutions.

The editorial discusses the status and prospects of the commons of developed industrialized countries, based on the literature. For the traditional commons, one key variable for long-term development prospects of the commons is found in the way ownership to the commons is structured. A second key variable is the way increasing knowledge, including scientific environmental knowledge, has affected our perception of what a resource is within a commons and its value. The way these two variables characterizing commons: "structure of ownership" and "knowledge of valuable resources" are related is illustrated in a process referred to as "the withering away" with potential for widely diverging outcomes. Also new emerging urban commons are commented on and a more indepth study of both traditional and new urban commons is called for.

India flaunts the identity to be the linguistically diversified nation, however English and Hindi along with a State language in each state are made official for the administrative, educational and commercial purpose, therefore the languages of linguistic minorities suffer from denial and neglect at large. The Indian tribals have been made linguistic minorities, for their languages are not considered to avail them linguistic states. Contrary they were divided into different states to induce them as marginal in each respective state. This has inclined them, out of existential necessity, to adopt the national and state languages. Many indigenous languages are observed to be in the status of endangered and moving towards permanent extinction. The present paper delves into the present scenario of the tribal languages in India to derive inference about the status of their languages within the linguistic states.

The monograph Language and the Making of Modern India by Pritipuspa Mishra, divided into six chapters and a postscript, traces a history of the creation of Odisha as a discrete linguistic province between 1866 and 1936. The volume proposes an analysis of the role of the so‐called vernacular languages in regional and national politics in both colonial and postcolonial India. This work represents an effort to overturn essentialist notions of weakness and powerlessness around the concept of 'vernacular' by highlighting its political use on the part of regional elites.

The free exchange of microbial genetic information is an established public good, facilitating research on medicines, agriculture, and climate change. However, over the past quarter-century, access to genetic resources has been hindered by intellectual property claims emanating from developed countries under the World Trade Organization's TRIPS Agreement (1994) and by claims of sovereign rights from developing countries under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (1992). In this volume, the authors examine the scientifi c community's responses to these obstacles and advise policymakers on how to harness provisions of the Nagoya Protocol ( ) that allow multilateral measures to support research. By pooling microbial materials, data, and literature in a carefully designed transnational e-infrastructure, the scientifi c community can facilitate access to essential research assets while simultaneously reinforcing the open access movement. The original empirical surveys included here provide a valuable addition to the literature on governing scientifi c knowledge commons.

The report has been written to outline the findings of the fieldwork launched within the framework of the project Bringing Human Rights Academy to Society funded by European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights (EIDHR) and conducted by the Capacity Development Association in order to reveal the effects of State of Emergency in Turkey on human rights academy. • The aim of this study is to reveal the kind of impact that the state of emergency (SoE), which was in effect between 21 July 2016 and 19 June 2018, had on academic studies in the field of human rights in Turkey and the kinds of consequences that the pressures had on the field. • The research was carried out in the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019. • Within the scope of the research, 103 face-to-face surveys and 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 79 faculty and 44 graduate students studying in the fields of human rights at public and private universities with human rights centres located in Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Diyarbakır and Konya provinces.

The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to clinical research, revealing significant shortcomings in study design, methodology, and data analysis. This review paper examines the impact of these challenges on the quality of research outcomes and highlights the importance of adopting new research methods to improve the evidence base for public health decision-making. A focus is placed on identifying examples of poorly conducted research during the pandemic, analyzing their limitations, and discussing methods for improvement. The lessons learned from these experiences provide valuable insights for researchers aiming to enhance the rigor and validity of future studies in similar contexts.

This article identifies copyright impediments existing in the sphere of science, and then tentatively suggests how such impediments may be overcome. It focuses on scholarly publishing only, and here primarily on digital content, and specifically asks whether expensive commercial scholarly publishers continue to “add value” to research in the digital era. The deficits of copyright law and potential solutions thereto are assessed in the light of the right of everyone “to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications” (REBSPA), as laid down in Article 15(1)(b) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966. A substantial part of the discussion examines whether and, if so, in what ways, the REBSPA gives rise to a “right to research”—also in a sense that legally obliges the international community of states toward states with fragile science systems, or in an extraterritorial sense that would require the right to be obeyed beyond borders—and it then enquires what the normative implications of such a right would be for copyright and science. It is submitted that current official interpretations of the REBSPA reveal flaws and gaps. Here, the REBSPA is accordingly reinterpreted in accordance with what is called a more human rights-oriented approach, its guiding concept being that of “adequacy for science.” This article finds that, while existing copyright law needs certain reforms in the interim to accommodate the needs of science, in the longer term, entire institutionalized science may have to be reconceived. Genuinely open science and the creation of a “true” scholarly knowledge commons require far-reaching changes in the way that copyright applies in the sphere of science. The continued role of commercial scholarly publishing needs to be questioned. Potentially, it will be necessary to “move beyond” the applicability of copyright in the field of science.

In the process of drug discovery biotechnology and pharmaceutical (biopharmaceutical) firms collect thousands of samples of genetic resource and screen them with the help of high efficiency technologies. Despite advancements in the biopharmaceutical industry, in most circumstances, only a few of the samples will have a potentially valuable active ingredient which can further be studied for commercial development. This process of developing drugs involves high risks and requires considerable financial resources. To reduce the risks involved in drug discovery, some firms use traditional medicinal knowledge (TMK) which is the know-how, skills, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities. TMK has become increasingly important in bioprospecting processes attempts to develop drugs from genetic resources found in nature. Empirical evidence has revealed that the use of TMK and genetic resources from nature reduces the time and cost of producing modern drugs.

The importance of seed provisioning in food security and nutrition, agricultural development and rural livelihoods, and agrobiodiversity and germplasm conservation is well accepted by policy makers, practitioners and researchers. The role of farmer seed networks is less well understood and yet is central to debates on current issues ranging from seed sovereignty and rights for farmers to GMOs and the conservation of crop germplasm. In this paper we identify four common misconceptions regarding the nature and importance of farmer seed networks today. (1) Farmer seed networks are inefficient for seed dissemination. (2) Farmer seed networks are closed, conservative systems. (3) Farmer seed networks provide ready, egalitarian access to seed. (4) Farmer seed networks are destined to weaken and disappear. We challenge these misconceptions by drawing upon recent research findings and the authors' collective field experience in studying farmer seed systems in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. Priorities for future research are suggested that would advance our understanding of seed networks and better inform agricultural and food policy.

Swara is a newsletter of the National Multilingual Resource Consortium, JNU. Swara introduced the M-TALL Akhra in 2012.

The Mother-Tongue based Active Language Learning (M-TALL) Akhra, established by Binay Pattanayak in 2011 is a Center for research and innovations in children's languages. Over the years, the M-TALL Akhra has conducted 2 statewide socio-linguistic surveys, developed children's bilingual picture dictionaries in 9 indigenous languages, developed Bhasha Puliya - first pre-school education curriculum for Jharkhand and culturally rooted new textbooks in 16 indigenous and regional languages for use of new textbooks in 7 languages in around a 1,000 government schools in Jharkhand since 2016.

When considering whether an autonomous rational agent should be held responsible for choosing not to get vaccinated during a pandemic, several factors must be addressed. A political community must identify all relevant factors to attribute responsibility accurately. These factors include the individual’s personal circumstances and broader societal conditions. For example, if an individual has faced unjust background conditions such as income inequality or lack of workplace autonomy, which have increased their exposure to the virus, his or her decision not to vaccinate might be more dangerous to public health than if made by someone less exposed. In response, public health should focus on using scientific and medical expertise to identify viruses and deliver vaccines effectively. This knowledge should be openly accessible to all community members, forming a knowledge commons. This approach shifts the focus from individual moral responsibility (i.e., the decision to get vaccinated) to a fair allocation of public health resources. Then healthcare providers and the state are morally responsible for protecting vaccinated individuals from the harm caused by those who decline vaccination. They fulfill this responsibility not by penalizing those who decide against vaccination but through persuasive efforts, using well-reasoned arguments to encourage vaccination. Public health organized as a self-organized, self-governing, common-pool resource is one such argument. Under pandemic conditions, public health aims for near-universal vaccination to benefit both the community and individual members. This common-purpose ethical framework guides vaccine-sensitive resource allocation based on values of responsibility, reciprocity, and justice.

O presente estudo, através de uma análise bibliográfica, tem como objetivo principal apresentar três conceitos de grande relevância para o estudo acerca dos direitos de propriedade: os commons tradicionais e a existência de um feixe de direitos de propriedade sobre um determinado recurso comum, disseminados por Ostrom e Schlager (1992; 1996) e Ostrom (1999); os commons de conhecimento e os regimes open-acess. Sob a perspectiva de melhor compreender as peculiaridades de cada recurso que será apresentado, o presente estudo se prestará a estabelecer distinções entre os commons tradicionais e de conhecimento, bem como o open-acess. Ainda, e apoiando-se nos estudos de Coriat (2011) será ressaltada a importância da existência de estruturas de governanças para garantir a durabilidade e sustentabilidade de determinados commons, a fim de evitar uma exploração exacerbada de um recurso natural (Tragédia dos Comuns) ou a subutilização de um recurso imaterial (Tragédia dos Anticommons).

RESUMO O presente estudo, através de uma análise bibliográfica, tem como objetivo principal examinar os commons de conhecimento sob a perspectiva do feixe de direitos mediante a apresentação de dois conceitos de grande relevância para o estudo acerca dos direitos de propriedade: os commons tradicionais e a existência de um feixe de direitos de propriedade sobre um determinado recurso comum, disseminados por Ostrom e Schlager (1992; 1996) e Ostrom (1999) e os commons de conhecimento.Antes mesmo de estudar os commons de conhecimento sob a perspectiva do feixe de direitos, e para melhor compreender as peculiaridades de cada recurso que será apresentado, o presente estudo se prestará a estabelecer distinções entre os commons tradicionais e de conhecimento. Ainda, e apoiando-se nos estudos de Coriat (2011) será ressaltada a importância da existência de estruturas de governanças para garantir a durabilidade e sustentabilidade de determinados commons, a fim de evitar uma exploração exacerbada de um recurso natural (Tragédia dos Comuns) ou a subutilização de um recurso imaterial (Tragédia dos Anticommons). Ao final do presente estudo será proposta a reflexão acerca de uma análise dos Commons de Conhecimento sob a perspectiva do Feixe de Direitos introduzidos por Ostrom e Schlager.

This case study brings new attention to a critical but under-appreciated dimension of so-called “smart” cities: how smart city governance builds and relies on institutionalized sharing of data, information, and other forms of knowledge across all sectors of public administration. Those smart city practices are referred to here as knowledge commons and systematized using the Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) research framework. That framework extends and modifies Ostrom’s research tradition as to community-based resource governance. As with other GKC-focused research, this work relies on a qualitative case study. It draws a detailed, context-specific portrait of a smart city as knowledge commons governance. The case is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its contemporary smart city identity is detailed both with respect to recent uses of technology-dependent systems and also with respect to Pittsburgh’s political, economic, and social histories. Pittsburgh’s smart city is building on rather than displacing decades-long governance cultures and traditions. Knowledge commons analysis shows how the smart city may be evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

This chapter provides an introduction to and overview of the knowledge commons research framework. Knowledge commons refers to an institutional approach (commons) to governing the production, use, management, and/or preservation of a particular type of resource (knowledge). The research framework supplies a template for interrogating the details of knowledge commons institutions on a case study basis, generating qualitative data that may be used to support comparative analysis. I.

This work discuss the contracting of ICT services at its operational level and addresses the concept of "Service Level Agreement" (SLA) - used in the precise identification of service quality, attributions, and responsibilities of the actors, of questions for the determination of responsibilities and possible sanctions. To this end, the Management Information Systems operational maintenance service is cut, correlating the items according to the respective portions of the Cobit, ITIL, and Sarbanes-Oxley frameworks with the processes proclaimed by the Project Management Institute in its document of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) recommendations. It is concluded that operational service levek agreements based on normatives ansd recomendatons is adequate maintenance process of Management Information Systems.

Over the last few years, the publishing industry has experienced significant changes and developments, most of which have had a positive influence on scholarly publishing. For instance, the gradual popularity of open access publishing has contributed to the wider access and readership of published materials. Also, the recent development in the abilities of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in the publication process is laudable for its potential. The gradual shift from print to online publication is also a commendable development in global publishing. Not without their own challenges, these developments, among others, have mostly impacted global publishing in a positive way. In the current study, the researchers' argument stems from the notion that although these developments are invaluable, there are accompanying impediments that publishing professionals as well as publishing outlets must consider. In response to these developments, role-players in the publishing industry must constantly reassess their publishing processes in order to carefully manage and negotiate what is termed by this study as a 'double-edged sword' (capable of having positive and negative consequences). This study reviews existing studies, draws views from publishing experts, and seeks opinions from scholars to establish methods of negotiating some of the key developments in global publishing.

Matthew Gandy's Commentary in Area(2023) criticised the decision of the na-tional funder UKRI to mandate that all books resulting from the research that it funds must be published open access (OA) from 2024. This raises many issues of importance to geographers. We argue that scholars in the discipline need to fight for affordable and ethically produced OA books, not ‘legacy’ modes of publishing. In particular, books produced by scholar- led OA presses will not harm the repu-tation of departments or individual scholars, and they also have the potential to reduce significant financial barriers to accessing books across the globe. A more powerful critique must be to challenge the continued ‘enclosure’ of books, and the denial of OA by academic publishers and university presses.

Matthew Gandy's Commentary in Area (2023) criticised the decision of the national funder UKRI to mandate that all books resulting from the research that it funds must be published open access (OA) from 2024. This raises many issues of importance to geographers. We argue that scholars in the discipline need to fight for affordable and ethically produced OA books, not ‘legacy’ modes of publishing. In particular, books produced by scholar- led OA presses will not harm the reputation of departments or individual scholars, and they also have the potential to reduce significant financial barriers to accessing books across the globe. A more powerful critique must be to challenge the continued ‘enclosure’ of books, and the denial of OA by academic publishers and university presses.  ................This commentary is part of a forthcoming collection responding to Matthew Gandy’s 2023 commentary ‘Books under threat: Open access publishing and the neoliberal academy.' in Area, 2024

Why wonder about "smart" technologies and systems? The rhetoric of intelligence is seductive. With the rise of the Internet over the last twenty-five years, massive networked information systems are injecting ever more "intelligence" into the devices that surround us and even, it seems, into every aspect of our lives. If the evidence from broad acceptance of "smart" televisions and "smart" phones is to be credited, on a broad scale people like their "smart" lives. Adding "intelligence" via the Internet of Things, big data, sensors, algorithms, artificial intelligence, automation, and related technologies seems to minimize burdens, maximize productivity, and make us perfectly happy as both citizens and consumers. Smart technology promises to help us and, in the hands of public authorities, to help the government. It seems to anticipate our needs and desires; it seems to make government flexible, responsible, and error-free. To invert a line from a classic rock song, sometimes you get what you want but can't always get what you need. What's convenient or productive for one person may be harmful for society as a whole. "Smart" technology raises important questions and potential conflicts about individual and collective good that may make us rethink whether "smart" things are so good for the individual, after all. The smart city, the subject of this book, puts those conflicts in stark relief. City life, and the study of city life, is all about the place of individual welfare in a complex social setting. We'll remove the quotation marks from "smart" from here on, recognizing that the word is a metaphor and that it conceals as much as it reveals. What it conceals is the fact that devices and social systems are rarely structured to optimize efficiency, productivity, or happiness. They aren't smart, even if it's possible to call a device, rather than a living being, smart or dumb. They have functions and meanings; they enable human beings to do certain things and to do them more or less easily or expensively. But optimizing their functions and clarifying their meanings isn't the 6

The success of the clinical use of sequencing based tests (from single gene to genomes) depends on the accuracy and consistency of variant interpretation. Aiming to improve the interpretation process through practice guidelines, the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) and the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) have published standards and guidelines for the interpretation of sequence variants. However, manual application of the guidelines is tedious and prone to human error. Web-based tools and software systems may not only address this problem but also document reasoning and supporting evidence, thus enabling transparency of evidence-based reasoning and resolution of discordant interpretations. In this report, we describe the design, implementation, and initial testing of the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) Pathogenicity Calculator, a configurable system and web service for the assessment of pathogenicity of Mendelian germline sequence variants. The s...

Plan S has been a central topic of conversation with faculty and publishers ever since its announcement last September sent shock waves around the world. The initiative, launched by cOAlition S, an international consortium of research funders, requires that from 2020, scientific publications that result from research funded by one of its members must be published in compliant Open Access (OA) journals or platforms. Given the fact that Austria has been at the forefront of the OA movement in Europe, one might assume that its institutions and researchers should be well placed to comply with the strict requirements set out by Plan S. But how ready are we really? This paper will take stock of the current state of OA publishing opportunities in Austria and more specifically at the University of Vienna, which is by far the largest higher education institution in the country, with researchers active across all research fields. Thanks to the decade-long close collaboration of the key players...

Numerous forces are enclosing the knowledge commons and threatening the sustainability of scholarly communication. This chapter describes strategies deployed to counter enclosure, many of which are undertaken through the collective action of librarians and scholars working together worldwide. It then considers alternative models for delivering research resources that expand access and participation, as well as the role of research libraries in these efforts. It also discusses the challenges to achieving these new operational modes. The author then proposes some designs for governance structures, financial models, and advocacy efforts that will help transform the academy into a 21 st century institution that organizes, safeguards, preserves and promotes the 2 knowledge assets of the scholarly community. Finally, the author suggests research that is needed to advance theory and practice related to the development of sustainable knowledge commons in the digital age.

Alvin Toffler once wrote: "The illiterate of the 21 century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." This pandemic has proven his statement correct. The global academic community has learned a completely new culture of research, with torrents of data being released 1,2 daily on preprint servers and dissected on platforms such as Slack and Twitter before formally peer reviewed.

Alvin Toffler once wrote: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." This pandemic has proven his statement correct. The global academic community has learned a completely new culture of research, with torrents of data being released daily on preprint servers1,2 and dissected on platforms such as Slack and Twitter before formally peer reviewed. Fifty-five thousand viral genomes sequences of hCoV-19 shared on GISAID platforms to date3 that have been analyzed instantaneously, by a phalanx of evolutionary biologists who share their phylogenetic trees in preprints. Such advances have allowed scientists to trace and monitor the COVID-19 pandemic faster than any previous outbreak. There is still more to learn. The scientist from the fields of epidemiology, virology and biomedical science are struggling to keep this outbreak under control. Estimation of R0, which have been an important part o...

This chapter provides an introduction to and overview of the knowledge commons research framework. Knowledge commons refers to an institutional approach (commons) to governing the production, use, management, and/or preservation of a particular type of resource (knowledge). The research framework supplies a template for interrogating the details of knowledge commons institutions on a case study basis, generating qualitative data that may be used to support comparative analysis.

How, where, and why do innovation and creativity occur? What influences the design and development of productive and sustainable knowledge production and preservation institutions? And what lessons, if any, should public policy and law derive from answers to these questions? These are the macro questions that inform empirical research on knowledge commons, including the 15 case studies gathered in Governing Medical Knowledge Commons and the 11 case studies published in 2014 in Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC). Knowledge commons governance is one strategy for overcoming social dilemmas regarding the production, stewardship, preservation, distribution of, access to, and consumption and other use and re-use of knowledge and information resources. That strategy may often be as important and powerful as strategies grounded in law and related public policy, including intellectual property law, competition law, communications law, and security and privacy law. For its potential to be realized, "knowledge commons" should be more than a rallying cry for the public domain or a piece of rhetoric deployed in political battles about access to knowledge and information. Empirical investigation, of the sort reported in this book, is a critical prerequisite for sound knowledge commons policy. The social dilemmas encountered in deploying knowledge commons governance are extremely diverse. Moreover, knowledge commons governance is intertwined, in varied and context-specific ways, with publicly enacted law and other government initiatives. As a result, empirical research must be modest. The world of knowledge commons governance is too diverse, both today and in historical context, to permit

Cole offers encouragement and caution to scholars seeking to use Ostrom's work as a starting point for studying knowledge commons. He encourages those seeking "conceptual, analytical, and methodological guidance, " arguing that Ostrom's work can provide a foundation for "improv[ing] understanding of information and information flows under alternative institutional arrangements, " "diagnos[ing] problems in existing institutional arrangements, " and even "predict[ing] outcomes under alternative institutional arrangements." He cautions, however, that those looking to Ostrom's work for normative guidance as to the proper structure of intellectual property law are "bound to be disappointed (or dishonest)" for two reasons: First, Ostrom's work teaches that there are "no panaceas." Second, researchers necessarily choose metrics for assessing commons outcomes. Whereas long-run sustainability is a widely accepted goal for natural resource commons, Cole suggests that outcome metrics for knowledge commons are likely to be much more contested. In Chapter 3, Yochai Benkler provides a conceptual map for understanding the range of different types of commons that are important to society and deserve systematic study. He argues that there are important differences between the institutional arrangements studied by Ostrom and colleagues, in which a "defined set of claimants" share resources in a self-governing arrangement, and public domain or open access commons, which provide "freedom-to-operate under symmetric constraints, available to an open, or undefined, class of users." Benkler reminds us that knowledge commons arrangements are layered on top of and dependent upon substantial resource sets governed either as public domain commons or through private property arrangements. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 apply the knowledge commons research framework to commons arrangements for scientific research, where tradition and custom teach that formal intellectual property rights are particularly unlikely to play key roles in institutional governance, but where the knowledge commons research framework nonetheless reveals meaningful structure and governance of knowledge sharing. In Chapter 4, Jorge Contreras targets the genomics research collaborative that constituted the Human Genome Project. Geertrui Van Overwalle follows that chapter with a comment that notes the global context of research on genomic commons, illustrating that commons in general have important international and comparative dimensions. In Chapter 5, Katherine Strandburg, Brett Frischmann, and Can Cui delve into a network of medical researchers and patient advocacy groups titled the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network, and the related Urea Cycle Disorders Consortium. In Chapter 6, Michael Madison describes a citizen science project, called Galaxy Zoo, that pairs professional astronomers with amateurs. Chapters 7 and 8 involve commons cases situated in the context of information and communications technologies (sometimes abbreviated ICTs). In Chapter 7, Charles Schweik presents the results of a comparative analysis of open source software development communities. In Chapter 8, Mayo Fuster Morell reports a study of online creation communities (OCCs) such as the photosharing site, Flickr, used for sharing creative content supplied by individuals.

Both that paper and this one are initial steps in a broader enterprise that investigates the construction and mechanics of the cultural environment. Thanks to Professor Charles McManis and the Washington University School of Law for the invitation to write and present this paper.

This book picks up where Governing Knowledge Commons, our 2014 collection of perspectives and case studies of knowledge commons governance, left off. Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) laid down a research program that contributes to evidence-based policymaking about innovation and creative knowledge production, as well as the creation, preservation, and uses of existing and new knowledge. The cases presented in GKC are, in a word, diverse. They range from arts to sciences, from the professions to popular culture, from historical to contemporary. Governing Medical Knowledge Commons sustains that research program but with a specific, thematic focus. This book collects and presents a series of case studies of knowledge commons centered on recent and emerging experience in the life sciences, medical research, and medical practice. foundations We reiterate anew some key, foundational themes and principles that underlie the research program and the expanding set of cases that implement and illustrate it. First is the proposition that both "commons" as a general concept and "knowledge commons" as the particular concept that frames this work describe modes of governance of resources-sustained, systematized sharing-rather than a place (such as a literal or metaphorical open ground) or a political or philosophical commitment (such as unregulated openness, use, or access). Our intuition, shared by many, is that commons governance has much to offer society in terms of innovation, growth, and other

This chapter explores the related ideas of access to knowledge resources and shared governance of those resources, often known as commons. Knowledge resources consist of many types and forms. Some are tangible, and some are intangible. Some are singular; some are reproduced in copies. Some are singular or unique; some are collected or pooled. Some are viewed, used, or consumed only by a single person; for some resources, collective or social consumption is the norm. Any given resource often has multiple attributes along these dimensions, depending on whether one examines the resource’s physical properties, its creative or inventive properties, or its natural, factual, or ideational properties. Access questions are, accordingly, diverse. That diversity is compounded by the proposition that access is itself a property of a resource, in the sense that resource characteristics are, to a substantial extent, socially and culturally constructed. Social construction means not only that boun...

The use of children’s language in multilingual education (MLE) classrooms creates possibility for the classroom discourse to become socioculturally sensitive and collaborative with more symmetrical power distribution between students and teachers. However, the various models of MLE do not exist as insulated systems of pedagogy. They are in consistent interaction with normative models of pedagogy. The current paper focuses on two theoretically varying MLE models in the state of Odisha (India) and aims to examine whether they are able to effect a transformation in the existing pedagogical models that are largely transmitive, assimilative and characterized by asymmetrical power distribution in the classrooms. Two schools following different MLE approaches were selected for the purpose of in-depth classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with the teachers. The analysis of the data using discourse analysis technique revealed that the MLE approach founded on a ‘transition based early exit model’ failed to create sufficient tensions in classrooms and was instead observed to get accommodated in the normative non MLE practices. MLE model based on a cultural historical activity theory approach on the other hand, was seen as creating sufficient tensions in the systems they interacted with, leading to a possibility for transformative change in classrooms.

A discussion of language policy'in India's 'educational system identifies substantive issues of both theoretical and comparative interest; presents .a detailed Account of the issues associated with policy-making for language in edu6ation in the Indian socio-political context; and discusses the current status of implementation of these policies, with reference to the latest statistics on .language usetin higher education. Two of the conclusions are the following.: (1) multilingual countries must provide for-a supra-regional language in education that serves a variety' of sociolinguistic functions:* and ,(2).in Iddie, language

The authors, who all have experience with academic publishing, outline the landscape of new university and academic-led open access publishing, before discussing four interrelated sets of challenges which are often referred when questioning the viability of such publishing ventures. They are: (1) professionalism, (2) scale, (3) quality, and (4) discoverability & dissemination. The authors provide examples of how, albeit differing in size, form and ambition, these new presses are not just adhering to conventional publishing norms but often innovating in order to surpass them.

Blockchains are distributed ledger technologies that allow the recording of any data structure, including money, property titles, and contracts. In this paper, we suggest that Hayekian political economy is especially well suited to explain how blockchain emerged, but that Elinor Ostrom's approach to commons governance is particularly useful to understand why blockchain anarchy is successful. Our central conclusions are that the blockchain can be thought of as a spontaneous order, as Hayek anticipated, as well as a knowledge commons, as Ostrom's studies of self-governance anticipated.

The at-risk academics' movement both inside and outside of Turkey is not a well told history. Since the beginning of the higher education system's modernization in the nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire, educational reforms have been followed by purges of progressive scholars from universities. The consequential authoritarian interventions in universities were presented as higher education reforms by the authorities, and unfortunately, the majority of those reforms did not improve the quality of the educational system and facilities and the scientific knowledge production. Rather, they were instrumentalized to exclude liberal, progressive, or dissident scholars who did not conform to the mainstream ideology of the regime. This chapter will follow this spiral of purges and forced replacements of scholars from the late Ottoman period to contemporary Turkey. How this cyclical model of "forced mobility" of actors in higher education shaped higher education in Turkey, as well as the repercussions and ramifications of this "academic mobility" on Turkish higher education in the core values of higher education, including institutional autonomy, academic freedom, and social responsibility of scholars to society, will be discussed accordingly. This chapter begins with a description of the first attempts at higher education reform in 1869, followed by the radical interruption in 1933 and consecutive military coups that changed the university system and repeatedly pushed the dissident scholars and critical knowledge outside of the academic system. At the end of this chapter, I discuss the specific features of academic mobility in Turkey today, as Turkey has not only become a country that pushes critical scholars out, but also has become, at the same time, a country that receives

The documentation and protection of traditional knowledge face new challenges in the era of open science. Focusing on medicinal and food uses, we discuss two innovative initiatives in Spain to document, protect and return to the society traditional knowledge. Materials and methods: The Spanish Inventory of Traditional Knowledge related to Biodiversity has compiled and published information on the traditional use and management of flora, fauna, fungi, geodiversity, and ecosystems. CONECT-e (www.conecte.es) is an online platform where citizens can document knowledge and uses of wild and domesticated species. We describe the extent of these initiatives in terms of participation and accomplishment, and discuss their complementarities and challenges. Results: The initiatives described have fostered the establishment of a common standard for organizing traditional knowledge in databases that facilitate knowledge documentation: 131,066 uses and 152,246 local names have been documented so far. Using open data and copyleft licenses, these initiatives also contribute to the maintenance of traditional knowledge in the commons domain, guaranteeing the free exchange and reproduction of knowledge. However, the extensive focus of these initiatives on data sharing does not necessarily guarantee knowledge holders' data sovereignty. Conclusion: To protect TEK in a context of open science more efforts should be done to operationalize traditional knowledge holders' rights to data sovereignty.

Alors que plus de 50% de la population mondiale est connectée à l'Internet, les grandes plateformes, et particulièrement Facebook, ont acquis un énorme pouvoir politique. Cette nouvelle situation nous oblige a repenser le projet d'émancipation des lumières. Je propose dans cet article que les chercheurs en sciences humaines et sociales relèvent ce défi en adoptant et en diffusant de nouvelles normes d'intelligence collective réflexive. Les communs de la connaissance, la science ouverte et la souveraineté des individus sur les données qu'ils produisent font l'unanimité. Mais ces principes incontournables sont encore insuffisants. La puissance de calcul et de communication disponible, combinée à l'utilisation d'IEML (une langue à la sémantique calculable), nous permettent d'envisager une mise en transparence des opérations de création de connaissance, de sens et d'autorité. Je présente ici les grandes orientations stratégiques permettant d'atteindre ces objectifs. Une révolution épistémologique des sciences humaines est à portée de main, et avec elle une nouvelle étape dans l'évolution de la pensée critique.

E-books are a potential assistive technology, offering significant advantages over print books, and accessible materials are now a financial and legal necessity within UK academia. It is often difficult to find supplier information on accessibility, for example, whether files have been tagged for reading order or whether the interface has been tested with assistive technologies. Equally, library staff may lack confidence in identifying accessibility features, making it hard to promote them to students or demand them from suppliers. This article reports on a crowdsourced ebook audit of 44 e-book platforms that was undertaken by 33 UK universities during 2016. The research scored different platforms for a range of accessibility issues, and the resulting open data set is presented in a manner that can be interrogated by libraries looking for specific features. A key finding was that the platform can dramatically affect the accessibility of a publisher's content, making it important for publishers to work with suitable vendors to disseminate their publications.