open education: the university and the commons

MATTHEW K. GOLD / THE UNIVERSITY AND THE COMMONS

Matthew K. GoldNYC College of Technology & CUNY Graduate Center

mkgold.net @mkgold

OPEN EDUCATION: THE UNIVERSITY AND THE COMMONS

CC-licensed photo: “Sharing” http://www.flickr.com/photos/furiousgeorge81/177926979/11 October 2011

Sunday, October 16, 11

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furiousgeorge81/177926979/



The CUNY Academic Commons Conception, Strategy, Process, Use

The CommonsHistories, Theories, Models

New Models for the Networked CommonsChallenges, Publics, Possibilities



source: cuny.edu



Alexandra W. LogueExecutive Vice Chancellor

and University Provost

George OtteUniversity Director

of Academic Technology



CUNY Committee on Academic Technology (CAT)George Otte, Chair

Two members from each CUNY campus

Established September 2008



“AN ACADEMIC TECHNOLOGY COMMONS”



$0



photo by FredR http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredr/262344284/

THE INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORYSunday, October 16, 11

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredr/262344284/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredr/262344284/


Photo by myguerrilla http://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla/1303099901/

THE PERFECT TAXONOMYSunday, October 16, 11

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla/1303099901/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/myguerrilla/1303099901/


Source: bernat... http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernatcg/509261808/

ORGANICSunday, October 16, 11

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_goyal/2169624754/



Source: akashgoyal http://www.flickr.com/photos/a_goyal/2169624754/

OPENSunday, October 16, 11




Source: jbushnell http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbushnell/569748609/

DECENTEREDSunday, October 16, 11


Source: Medieval Helpdesk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

TRADITIONAL MODELS OF TECH SUPPORTSunday, October 16, 11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ


Source: Abby flat-coat http://www.flickr.com/photos/22912005@N06/4104714854/

THE HARD SELLSunday, October 16, 11

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22912005@N06/4104714854/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22912005@N06/4104714854/


Source: jcn http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcn/4568432782/

OPEN SOURCESunday, October 16, 11

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcn/4568432782/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcn/4568432782/


source: MikeLeSombre http://is.gd/gAb9R


http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikelesombre/3510951708/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikelesombre/3510951708/sizes/o/in/photostream/


source: Newman Library, Baruch College http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/history/book/chap_07/nyt_75_11_16.htm


http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/history/book/chap_07/nyt_75_11_16.htm

http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/history/book/chap_07/nyt_75_11_16.htm


CUNY IS OPEN SOURCE



rough prototypes



word of mouth



tech savvy



D I Y



engaging open-sourcecommunities



we judge our tools by one key metric above all others: use. Successful tools are tools that are used.

Tom Scheinfeldt

“Lessons from One Week | One Tool – Part 2, Use.” Found History. 2 August 2010. <http://www.foundhistory.org/2010/08/02/lessons-

from-one-week-one-tool-part-2-use/>

“”


http://www.foundhistory.org/2010/08/02/lessons-from-one-week-one-tool-part-2-use/





104,664downloads (and counting)



CUNY PIE

DiFara’s!DiFara’s!



the SOCIAL university



What is a commons?



What is a commons?

a shared resource



Traditional Commons

Natural resource -- plot of land

CC-licensed photo: “Cow in Niederbauen” http://www.flickr.com/photos/akane86/182443256//





3 Phases of English Common Land Tenure

1. Saxon Age before Norman conquestmost village lands held and worked in common.

2. After Norman conquestvillage lands belong to local manor, rights of the common granted on condition of fealty to manor lord

3. Age of enclosure - early 18th century - end of 19th centurycommon land divided up, fenced, converted to private property in modern sense.



Tragedy of the Commons

:’(



“ A t r u e c o m m o n s i s a s t i n t e d t h i n g .”

-- Lewis Hyde , Common as Air



Knowledge as a Commons



• Clearly defined boundaries should be in place.

• Rules in use are well matched to local needs and conditions.

• Individuals affected by these rules can usually participate in modifyingthe rules.

• The right of community members to devise their own rules is respectedby external authorities.

• A system for self-monitoring members’ behavior has been established.

• A graduated system of sanctions is available.

• Community members have access to low-cost conflict-resolutionmechanisms.

Design principles of robust, long-enduring, common-pool resource institutions (Ostrom 1990, 90–102):



Libertarian vs. Associational Commons



2011 vs. 2007



social networks

middle-state publishing

emphasis on process



“The common is not to be construed, therefore, as a particular kind of thing, asset or even social process, but as an unstable and malleable social relation between a particular self-defined social group and those aspects of its actually existing or yet-to-be-created social and/or physical environment deemed crucial to its life and livelihood. There is, in effect, a social practice of commoning.” -- David Harvey



What is a commons?

a shared space for creating

resources with a community



What is a commons?

a shared space for creating resources with (and within) a

communitySunday, October 16, 11


CUNY PIE

DiFara’s!DiFara’s!



“the process of creating public knowledge [is] an additional good,because such work builds social capital, strengthens communities, and gives people skills that they need for effective citizenship.”-- Peter Levine



“the cornucopia of the commons”: more value is created as more people use the resource and join the social community. The operative principle is “the more, the merrier.”



models



The Academy and Its Publics



CRISISScholarly communication

and the

in higher ed



Challenges



A GROUP OF SILOED COMMONS

Challenges



INTERACTION FATIGUE

Challenges



ENTERPRISE-LEVEL LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Challenges



PROPRIETARY PLATFORMS

Challenges



Challenges

SECONDARY ENCLOSURES, THREATS TO COLLABORATION:

PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, COPYRIGHT

“MONOPOLIES OF INVENTION”



Challenges

TRACKING, SURVEILLANCE



Possibilities

BUILD RECURSIVE PUBLICS



“Free Software . . . is not simply a technical pursuit but also the creation of a ‘public,’ a collective that asserts itself as a check on other constituted forms of power—like states, the church, and corporations—but which remains independent of these domains of power. Free Software is a response to this reorientation that has resulted in a novel form of democratic political action, a means by which publics can be created and maintained in forms not at all familiar to us from the past. Free Software is a public of a particular kind: a recursive public. Recursive publics are publics concerned with the ability to build, control, modify, and maintain the infrastructure that allows them to come into being in the first place and which, in turn, constitutes their everyday practical commitments and the identities of the participants as creative and autonomous individuals.”– Christopher Kelty, Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (2008)



Possibilities

BUILD GENERATIVE SPACES



“Generativity is a system’s capacity to produce unanticipated change through unfiltered contributions from broad and varied audiences. . . . Generativity pairs an input consisting of unfiltered contributions from diverse people and groups, who may or may not be working in concert, with the output of unanticipated change.”

– Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It (2008)



Build generative commonsthat talk to one another



Federated models



Open APIs



Possibilities

OUR COMMUNITIES

ARE OUR RESOURCES



What is a commons?

a shared space for creating

resources with a community



What is a commons?

Not (just) the park, but the

human microphone



Fostering community



Possibilities Responsibilities

LOVEFEEDBACK

BEING THERE



Matthew K. GoldNYC College of Technology & CUNY Graduate Center

mkgold.net @mkgold

OPEN EDUCATION: THE UNIVERSITY AND THE COMMONS

CC-licensed photo: “Sharing” http://www.flickr.com/photos/furiousgeorge81/177926979/October 11, 2011




open education: the university and the commons

Education

fredr http

myguerrilla http

niederbauen http

jcn http

mikelesombre http

akashgoyal http

jbushnell http

coat http