In recent years, new information access initiatives that encompass the
characteristics of common pool resources, or commons, have emerged. Some
of these projects are simply digital library collections; others are digital
repositories; and still others are digital communities. They share characteristics
such as open and free access, self-governance, archiving and preservation,
and limited if any copyright restrictions. These initiatives offer an
opportunity to demonstrate and analyze the benefits and structures of
new paradigms for content creation and use. Some projects use the Internet
itself as a commons, employing open source software, peer-to-peer file
sharing, and collaborative Web sites. All represent a new genre of creativity
and information artifacts, best understood through a commons paradigm.
The following diverse examples illustrate the kind of new initiatives
that reflect the principles of the commons:
· The Internet Archive, International Children's Digital
Library, http://www.archive.org/texts/icdl.php/doc/Update.doc
Developed by the Internet Archive and the University of Maryland, the
International Children's Digital Library provides a prestigious collection
of international literature for children around the world. The primary
purpose of the library is to provide access to literature that can enable
children to understand the global society in which they live. The materials
in the collection reflect similarities and differences in cultures,
societies, interests, lifestyles, aspirations, and priorities of peoples
around the world. Its primary audiences are children ages 3-13, librarians,
teachers, parents, caregivers, and others concerned with the interests
and welfare of children.
· The Digital Promise Project, http://www.digitalpromise.org/
This project recommends the creation of the Digital Opportunity Investment
Trust (DO IT), a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency designed to ensure
people's access to knowledge and learning-across-a-lifetime in the sciences
and humanities, and thereby transform learning in the 21st century.
DO IT's charge is to unlock the Internet and other new information technologies
for education in the broadest sense; to stimulate public and private
sector research into the development and use of new learning techniques;
and to encourage public and private sector partnerships and alliances
in education, science, the humanities, the arts, civic affairs, and
government. DO IT promises to "digitize America's collected memory
stored in universities, libraries, and museums to make these materials
available for use at home, school, and work." The proposed Trust
would be financed by revenues earned from investing $18 billion received
from the mandated FCC auctions of the radio spectrum.
· The Creative Commons, http://www.creativecommons.org/
Founded in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig, James Boyle, and other cyberlaw
and computer experts with support from the Center for the Public Domain,
the Creative Commons offers a set of copyright licenses free for public
use and a Web application that helps people dedicate their creative
works to the public domain or license them as free for certain uses,
on certain conditions. Creative Commons aims to increase the sum of
raw source material online, cheaply and easily. In 2003, Creative Commons
is building an "intellectual works conservancy." Like a land
trust or nature preserve, the conservancy will protect works of special
public value from exclusionary private ownership, with the goals of
developing a rich repository of high-quality works in a variety of media,
and of promoting an ethos of sharing, public education, and creative
interactivity.
· The MIT DSpace digital repository, http://www.dspace.org/
DSpace is an open source software platform that enables institutions
to capture and describe digital works using a submission workflow module;
distribute digital works over the Web through a search and retrieval
system; and preserve digital works over the long term. Located at MIT
with the initial aim of making faculty members' scholarship widely available,
the project is also promoting a federation of systems that makes available
the collective intellectual resources of the world's leading research
institutions.
· Budapest Open Access Initiative, http://www.soros.org/openaccess/
The purpose of the Open Access Initiative is to accelerate progress
in the international effort to make research articles in all academic
fields freely available on the Internet and to make open-access publishing
economically self-sustaining. Many individuals and organizations from
around the world who represent researchers, universities, laboratories,
libraries, foundations, journals, publishers, learned societies, and
kindred open-access initiatives have adopted this open access approach
to scientific and scholarly materials. The project aims to provide the
leadership, software, technical standards, and funding to develop new
commons of scholarly literature.
· Los Alamos e-Print Archive, http://www.arxiv.org/
The Los Alamos ArXiv.org is an open access, electronic archive and
distribution server for research papers in physics and related disciplines,
mathematics, computer science, and cognitive science. The service, started
in 1991 and formerly hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory, was acquired
by Cornell University in September 2001. Users and authors interact
with the arXiv using a Web interface, file transfer protocol (FTP),
or e-mail. Authors can update their submissions if they choose, though
previous versions remain available. Users can also register to automatically
receive an e-mail listing of newly submitted papers in areas of interest
to them.
· Digital Library of the Commons, http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/
The Digital Library of the Commons (DLC) is a gateway to the international
literature on the commons. This site contains a Working Paper Archive
of author-submitted papers, as well as full-text conference papers,
dissertations, pre-prints, and reports. DLC is a collaborative project
of the Indiana University Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
and the Indiana University Digital Library Program. DLC uses "Eprints"
-- an open source-compliant software program that enables researchers
to access databases efficiently. DLC also provides free access to an
archive of international literature on the commons, common-pool resources,
and common property.
· Project Vote Smart, http://www.vote-smart.org/
Project Vote Smart (PVS) is a citizens' organization formed to provide
unbiased, nonpartisan, accurate, and comprehensive information for voters'
electoral decision-making. In addition to profiles of elected officials
and candidates, PVS maintains monitors the status of major federal legislation
and posts calendars for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
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