Future of the Digital Commons
The Future of the Digital Commons. A video from the MIT Communications Forum, 9/2005
URL = http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/303/
SPEAKERS
Nancy Kranich: Former President, American Library Association
Ann Wolpert: Director, MIT Libraries
Steven Pinker: Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology
ABOUT THE LECTURE
Nancy Kranich says the debate boils down to this: âIs information a public good or a commodity?â? The more profit to be made, the higher the tension. Kranich envisions an âinformation society of the 21st century,â? where the ruling metaphor is the commons: information is neither public nor private but something shared. Intellectual assets are not given away but managed âto sustain communities of interest,â? and to foster free expression, creativity, innovation and democracy.
Ideas, unlike popsicles, do not disappear once they are consumed, Ann Wolpert notes. And the resources of the academic world are intended to be used repeatedly -- exchanged and enhanced. Wolpert finds particularly threatening the notion of extending copyright law to the work of academics. Ideas should not âbe stuffed in the same box as Mickey Mouse,â? she says. The internet has fundamentally changed the flow of information, and while it has encouraged a greater degree of âsocial sharing,â? it is now threatened by market forces, which insist on controlling and realizing profit from ideas. Asserts Wolpert, âNeither the academy nor society can tolerate tight control over movement of information. For knowledge to advance, production and distribution systems can and should occur outside the tightly controlled, capital intensive publishing system.â?
Steven Pinker admits that âas both a consumer and producer of information,â? he has not resolved the conflicting demands of distributing his research freely, and making a living from it. âThere is the question of how many ⦠books would I write if I didnât get a check in the mail from the publisher every once in while.â? He warns against designing and promoting an information commons that relies exclusively on generosity, openness and inclusiveness -- human nature being what it is. However, Pinker finds hope in such models as Appleâs iTunes, with its micropayments to download music, and Wikipediaâthe online, participatory encyclopediaâwhere people engage in uncompensated activity for the prestige of making âaccurate and useful entriesâ? in a shared online resource.
TECHNICAL NOTES ON THE VIDEO
Video length is 2:01:22.
David Thorburn, Professor of Literature, Director of the MIT Communications Forum, introduces the event and the speakers.
At 3:56, Nancy Kranich begins.
At 24:34, Ann Wolpert begins.
At 49:00, Steven Pinker begins.
At 1:08:15, Thorburn invites audience Q&A.