Information Commons

The Information Commons is an adaptation of the modern library, one that supports not only information but also the media with which that information is fused (Albanese, 2004).

Historical overview

Prior to the 19th century, the communal space where people traditionally gathered to discuss issues, exchange information, and find solutions to social problems was known as “the public commons.” Institutions like public schools and libraries played a major role in spreading knowledge, cultivating civic ideals, and participating in political debates. The public commons of today, which includes mass media and the World Wide Web, provides citizens with vastly greater opportunities to access the information and ideas necessary for civic discourse (Kranich, 2000). Librarians, cyber-activists, and other public interest advocates are now building online communities, or "information commons," for producing and sharing information, creative works, and democratic discussion (Kennedy, 2005).

Current policies: Commons vs. Copyright

Many advocates of the information commons believe that “information should be free.” By promoting open access, the information commons contradicts the principles of proprietary ownership and copyright restrictions. Currently, everything from email messages to weblogs is automatically copyrighted the moment it is fixed in a tangible medium. Registration is not required, and most authors who publish on the Internet do so with the understanding that their work may be duplicated, distributed, shared, or sampled without permission. However, in the last decade, mass media companies have developed control methods that imperil the public's traditional rights to use, share, and reproduce information and ideas. Although agreeing that authors should retain rights to their works, advocates of information commons believe these controls threaten to undermine free speech, political discourse, and creativity needed for a healthy democracy (Kranich, 2000). In response to current methods of restriction, a group of scholars developed the nonprofit organization “Creative Commons,” which offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. For the most part, Creative Commons licenses are applied to academic material and blogs, but may also include essays, articles, photographs, poetry, and music posted on the Internet by authors who agree to donate their all or part of their works to the public domain. In addition, Creative Commons offers a search engine that allows Web users to easily locate copyright owners and determine which online works may used freely or restricted to the copyright owner's permission (Butler, 2000).

Future of Information Commons

Information commons are currently supported by grants and donations, but at some point, they will need to generate their own revenue. While the public may gain more free or low-cost access, eventually a significant amount must be invested to develop, sustain, and govern information commons. At stake in today's debates about the future of information access is not only the availability and affordability of information, but also the very basis on which citizens' information needs are met. The new information infrastructure must ensure information commons are filled by educational and research institutions, libraries, nonprofits, governmental organizations, and communities committed to promoting and fulfilling the needs of citizens (Kranich, 2000).

Outside sources

http://www.info-commons.org/: A project of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the information commons is an effort to establish and protect a public sphere of creative works, find a middle ground between information control and public access, and includes an interesting weblog that deals mainly with copyright issues and the public domain (Kennedy, 2005; Hane, 2004).

http://www.ala.org/oitp: The American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology website promotes public access to electronic information resources as a means of upholding the public’s right to a free and open information society.

http://www.fepproject.org/policyreports/infocommons.contentsexsum.html: The Free Expression Public Policy Project, with support from the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School, of law, provides an in-depth Information Commons public policy report.

http://www.creativecommons.org/: Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works.

References

• Albanese, Andrew Richard (2004, Apr. 15). Campus Library 2.0. Library Journal. v129, i7, p30.
• Butler, Susan. (2005, May 28). For the Common Good? Billboard. V117, i22, p24.
• Gordon-Murnane, Laura. (2005, Jul. 01). Generosity and Copyright: Creative Commons and Creative Commons Search Tools. Searcher. v13, i7, p16.
• Hane, Paula. (2004, Jan. 01). Information Commons. Information Today. v21, i1, p10.
• Kennedy, Shirley Duglin, (2005, Jul. 01). A Library by Any Other Name. Information Today. v22, i7, p17.
• Kranich, Nancy. (2000). The Information Commons-A Public Policy Report. The Free Expression Policy Project. Retrieved Dec. 1, 2005 from http://www.fepproject.org/policyreports/infocommons.contentsexsum.html.