Schweik Co-chairs ‘Knowledge Commons’ Conference

Professor Charles Schweik of the School of Public Policy and the department of environmental conservation co-chaired a recent online “Knowledge Commons” conference associated with the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC).

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IASC is the leading professional organization devoted to “the commons,” which it defines as “a broad set of resources, natural and cultural, that are shared by many people,” such as forests, groundwater and many other natural resources. Knowledge commons is a related and emerging field of study that looks at the community governance of the sharing — and, in some cases, the creation — of information, science, data and other types of intellectual and cultural resources.

Last month’s Knowledge Commons Virtual Conference focused on a wide range of knowledge commons systems, including digital resources such as Wikipedia, open-source software, indigenous knowledge, cultural commons and citizen science. Participants considered the opportunities created by the knowledge commons — such as increased access, lower costs and opportunities for collaboration — as well as the challenges, including privacy and security issues and concerns about biases in artificial intelligence. Special attention was paid to the question of how a knowledge commons could help address the consequences of the COVD-19 pandemic. Central to nearly every topic area were questions around knowledge commons governance.  

“Coming out of the conference, we are now developing subareas for deeper focus,” Schweik said. “For example, the governance of indigenous knowledge needs focus around the tensions over both open access and community ownership and control of their own knowledge.” Similar issues exist in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, he added, such as tensions around intellectual property rights related to vaccine research, development and production.

“Knowledge commons governance is at the heart of almost everything we face in,” Schweik said.

Earlier this year, Schweik was elected to serve as IASC’s next president. He will serve as the organization’s president-elect until 2023, then will assume his two-year term as president.