Lee culture i-nternet

Nonprofit Organizations in the Digital Commons Environment

Jyh-An LeeWhen Cultures Encounters Internet

Dec. 15, 2010

Introduction• Research Question• Methodology• Contribution to Scholarship• NPOs in the Commons Environment• NPO Theories• Associating NPOs with the Commons

Environment• Conclusion

information economy

2 economies

proprietary economy

financial gain

IP = exclusion

commons economy

permission free

social movements

� free/open source software movement


� open access movement


� open access movement� open educational resources

(OER) movement


� open access movement� open educational resources

(OER) movement� free culture movement

Three Sectors� Government

� Business

� NPO

proprietary economy

commons economy

government PTO, IP rules research, OSS

business proprietary owners Red Hat, IBM

NPOs BMI, ASCAP CC, FSF, PLoS

proprietary economy

commons economy




proprietary economy

commons economy




proprietary economy

commons economy




proprietary economy

commons economy




proprietary economy

commons economy




What is NPO?

non-distribution constraint

“third sector” or “voluntary sector”

• Introduction Research Question• Methodology• Contribution to Scholarship• NPOs in the Commons Environment• NPO Theories• Associating NPOs with the Commons


Environmental movement

Environmental movementCultural environmentalism

“The public domain should have its

Greenpeace, its Environmental Defense Fund, its Nature Conservancy, its Environmentally Concerned Scientists.”

“The public domain should have its

Greenpeace, its Environmental Defense Fund, its Nature Conservancy, its Environmentally Concerned Scientists.”

How NPOs crafted the intellectual-commons environment

in the digital world?

� What are the NPOs in the commons environment?

� Why they matter?� Can current NPO theories explain

this phenomenon?� Why commons environment is an

ideal milieu for NPOs to flourish?

• Introduction• Research QuestionMethodology• Contribution to Scholarship• NPOs in the Commons Environment• NPO Theories• Associating NPOs with the Commons


� academic literature� news� NPO website� 26 in-depth interviews (from

19 NPOs and 3 for-profits)

sources

theoretical framework

� commons theories


� commons theories� NPO theories


� commons theories� NPO theories� other theories

� theory of collective action� theory of the firm� theory of altruism

• Introduction• Research Question• MethodologyContribution to Scholarship• NPOs in the Commons Environment• NPO Theories• Associating NPOs with the Commons


� filling the gap in mainstream IP scholarship


� testing NPO theories in a new setting


� testing NPO theories in a new setting

� new lens to understand the intellectual-commons environment

• Introduction• Research Question• Methodology• Contribution to ScholarshipNPOs in the Commons Environment• NPO Theories• Associating NPOs with the Commons


<1> social norms and licensing terms

http://gnu.org/gear/poster-gpl-full.png

<2> organizational support for peer-production projects

F/OSS Foundations

managing property rights transacting with other entities providing collective decision-making

mechanism protecting individuals from liabilities

<3> legal support

<4> political advocacy

<5> information access & repositories

<6> public-interest grant-making

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-

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• Introduction• Research Question• Methodology• Contribution to Scholarship• NPOs in the Commons EnvironmentNPO Theories• Associating NPOs with the Commons


<1> contract failure theory

Henry Hansmann

Henry Hansmann

NPOs function as a trusted channel when donors of specific services or goods and recipients have no connections with each other.

Donors Recipients

contract failure

Donors RecipientsNPOs

contract failure

applications

applications

typical application: donation to commons community

applications

typical application: donation to commons community

new application: donors = contributors of intellectual resources

<1> access failure

<1> access failure

<1> access failure

publishing

copyright

<1> access failure

<1> access failure

<1> access failure

<1> access failure

content

$$$

<1> access failure

In the past ten years 220%~752%

<1> access failure

<1> access failure

<2> collaborative failure

problem of collective action



less likely to impair diverse interests


less likely to impair diverse interests

only in large projects complexity / scale enough resources

<3> licensing failure


potential users potential copyright infringement concerns high transaction costs


potential users potential copyright infringement concerns high transaction costs

creators high legal fees

theory implications (1)

trust hypothesis / trust theory


trust hypothesis / trust theory from the interviews

trust credibility independence neutrality


convention wisdom:

The Internet eliminates middlemen and organizations

F/OSS is a production process without organization

“OSS is not sustainable because it has no formal governance mechanism.”

Richard A. Epstein

limit of contract failure theory

assumption: consumers distrust for-profit hard to explain the existence of NPOs

involved in promoting social norms, lobbying activities

<2> government and market failure theory

Burton A. Weisbrod

NPOs, emerge to meet an unsatisfied demand for public goods due to both market failure and government failure.

government and market failure theory

assumptions:

because government can only satisfy majority interest

for the minority interests that cannot be satisfied by the government and the market, people turn to NPOs for certain public goods.

applications

current IP laws legislative process contract failure under-provision over-exclusion


social experimentation

government: not allowed to conduct policy experiment



government: not allowed to conduct policy experiment

NPO can help to fulfill the role of experimenter for future policymaking



examples: Hewlett Foundation Creative Commons


the neglected interests of individuals

Peter Frumkin: “ “[n]onprofit and voluntary action expresses a

complex desire to defend the pursuit of private individual aspirations.”


the neglected interests of individuals the history of copyright laws


the neglected interests of individuals the history of copyright laws NPOs in the commons environment

representing individual interest emphasizing on individual values

limits of government and market failure theory

government failure Weisbrod:

government satisfies majority interests but fails to responds to minority interests

commons NPO & IP scholars: government is captured by the copyright industry

and fails to protect the majority


Larry Lessig:“around 85 percent of the citizens is

inappropriately ignored in the copyright legislation”


market failure the role of proprietary companies


NPOs serve as vehicles for for-profits to provide public goods to access the voluntary contributions

• Introduction• Research Question• Methodology• Contribution to Scholarship• NPOs in the Commons Environment• NPO TheoriesAssociating NPOs with the Commons


<1> gift economy

<2> information community

<3> demand revelation

• Introduction• Research Question• Methodology• Contribution to Scholarship• NPOs in the Commons Environment• NPO Theories• Associating NPOs with the Commons

EnvironmentConclusion

NPOs provide indispensable social infrastructure for commons production

current NPO theories help us to understand NPOs’ role in the commons environment, but these theories have their own limit

compared to the nature of for-profits and government, the nature of NPOs is more consistent with commons-environment culture

Thank you!! 1/2 Commons and Suggestions 2

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