New in knowledge commons research: "Is Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Governable? Towards Machine Sovereignty and Human Symbiosis" from Botao "Amber" Hu, Helena Rong, and Janna Tay. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Me, new on Substack: "Disappointed: What do we talk about when we talk about the challenges facing higher education." I use the recent Penn panel on the future of American universities as a jumping off point. More to come. profmadison.substack.com/p/disappointed

Today in knowledge commons research: "Unpacking Open Source Bio," a collection of mini-case studies of knowledge commons from the inimitable @jcontreras.bsky.social. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Social media day, round 2: On Substack, I have another in my weekly series of essays about the future of universities. "A Pixar Interlude: What planet is higher education reform ... on?" profmadison.substack.com/p/a-pixar-in...

It's social media day. The newest episode of "Your Leadership Podcast" with me and Kathy Edersheim is available at open.spotify.com/episode/1huU...

"Things" and their attributes are the MacGuffins of property law. I'll post links to the occasional new paper. Today's excellent entry: "Personal Property Servitudes Revisited" by Daniel Klerman and Stefan Bechtold. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

While I'm at it: I'm co-hosting a new podcast, called "Your Leadership Podcast." Tasty conversational morsels delivered once every two weeks. Find it here: open.spotify.com/show/633QIpk...

Catching up on my Substack essays on the future of higher education, here's the most recent: "Choosing to Choose: How a university decides." profmadison.substack.com/p/choosing-t...

New in knowledge commons scholarship: "Access to Justice as Access to Data" by Tanina Rostain @georgetownlaw.bsky.social scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol119/...

Also new in knowledge commons scholarship: Christopher Mirasola, "Common Heritage as Public Trust: A Property Law Approach to Managing Resources Beyond National Jurisdiction" in the Southern California Law Review. southerncalifornialawreview.com/2024/10/31/c...

New in knowledge commons scholarship: Margaret (Maggie) Chon, "Relational Innovation and the Public Benefits of Copying," in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. btlj.org/wp-content/u...

A neat new knowledge commons project: @institutionaldatainitiative.org

The gift of Pittsburgh. I am passing it along. www.pittsburghmagazine.com/pittsburgh-i...

My Substack series on the future of universities continues, with some preliminary attention to how we might get from where we are now to wherever we might want to be, at "Out of the Silos: On universities and institutional change." Find the whole thing at profmadison.substack.com/p/out-of-the...

Fungi! What knowledge commons can teach. "The Failure of Commons? The Obscure Beijing Mushrooms & the Mycelial Networks of Transformation in Everyday Life" by Gladys Pak Lei Chong. journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/po...

Knowledge commons today: "Governing Digital Public Infrastructure as a Commons," from Renata Avila, Ramya Chandrasekhar, Melanie Dulong de Rosnay, and Andrew Rens. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Every Monday, there is something new at "Everything in Between." I continue with my series about the future of universities. "The Field of the University: On flowers and friction." profmadison.substack.com/p/the-field-...

Knowledge commons, casual carpooling edition. Reyko Huang, "The order of anarchy: How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory ..." The same arg about community self-governance and carpools appears in Benkler, "Sharing Nicely," from 2004. aeon.co/essays/what-...

The knowledge commons hits keep coming. "The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice," by Simon Parkin www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Fo...

Knowledge commons in history. Shane Bobrycki, "The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages" press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/...

This week's Substack entry at "Everything in Between": "The Tragedy of Prestige: Is there a comedy in the university?," in which I carry on my series about the past, present, and future of "the university." profmadison.substack.com/p/the-traged...

Today in knowledge commons governance research.

Knowledge commons, today: "Proprietary Data, Open Data, Data Commons: Who Owns the Data? How to Best Reconcile Conflicting Interests in Exploiting the Value of Data and Protecting Against its Risks" papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SXI...

Today at "Everything in Between" on Substack: "Can You Get Anything You Want? At the university restaurant" It's a metaphor, continuing my exploring the future of higher education. profmadison.substack.com/p/can-you-ge...

Today's knowledge commons update.

I will miss @rorysmith.bsky.social giving me a hard time in his NYTimes On Soccer newsletter but look forward to renewing our one-sided correspondence as he steps into his new role at @theathletic.bsky.social.

This week at "Everything in Between" on Substack: "Universities Were New, Once: Could they be new again?" profmadison.substack.com/p/universiti...

Welcome, new followers. I am mostly "knowledge commons all the time," but once a week I'll bring over a short piece from my Substack, which is about institutions and governance broadly. Today: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Universities" profmadison.substack.com/p/what-we-ta...

Commons and knowledge commons alert: The deadline for the Call for Contributions for IASC 2025 (theme: "Regenerating the Commons") has been extended to *November 15.* Read all about it at 2025.iasc-commons.org/call-for-con...

At my Substack - "Everything in Between" - I've been building a case that US law schools are in far deeper trouble than most legal professionals (lawyers, judges, academics) realize. Curiously, perhaps, that makes me an optimist. The last installment is here: profmadison.substack.com/p/everything...

Knowledge commons, music copyright edition: "The Case for Common Property in Musical Objects," by Lauren Wilson, a recent U of Michigan Law grad with a Ph.D in music theory. Published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (JET). www.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/2024/...

One of my favorite topics: "what is a 'thing'?" appeared the other day in a statutory damages case from the Fifth Circuit. UMG Recordings v. Grande Communication Networks identifies the hole in the middle of the copyright donut: what is a copyright "work"? cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/u...

Knowledge commons again: "Anchoring Digital Sovereignty" forthcoming from @vivekdotca.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Last knowledge commons piece for today: "Combating Misinformation Runs Deeper Than Swatting Away ‘Fake News’" from Jennifer Allen and David Rand. Systems thinking. www.scientificamerican.com/article/combating-misinformation-runs-deeper-than-swatting-away-fake-news/

A special issue of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ) on case studies of knowledge commons in life sciences. (A nit: It claims that conducting Ostromian comparative case studies of innovation commons is a "novel." No, it's not.) btlj.org/2024/05/volu...

Knowledge commons in bioscience: "The Myth of DNA Trade Secrecy" by Jake Sherkow in the UC Law Journal. repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law...

It's a knowledge commons day. Try this piece, not framed as knowledge commons but all about shared knowledge in social contexts: "Free Speech on the Internet: The Crises of Epistemic Authority" by Brian Leiter. www.amacad.org/publication/...

Paging the spirit of Ronald Coase. "18-year-old files lawsuit over ownership of Shohei Ohtani’s historic 50-50 ball, seeks to prevent auction" www.cnn.com/2024/09/27/s...

Knowledge commons meets material commons. "A Moment in Time, Preserved in Polyester" and an extraordinary collection of vintage soccer (football) jerseys. Article by the inimitable Rory Smith. www.nytimes.com/2024/09/23/s...

Knowledge commons case studies are coming fast and furious. Take a look at "Genomic Data Sharing and Intellectual Property" from Jorge Contreras (Utah Law), at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Knowledge commons research on the march again. Check out this aromatic case study: "Open Source Perfume," from @levendowski.bsky.social scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2581/

Another work that promises the rewards of thinking deeply about knowledge commons governance: "Mooring the Global Archive: A Japanese Ship and its Migrant Histories" (Cambridge UP, 2023) by Martin Dusinberre. www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...

Writing about knowledge commons governance means, among other things, that I come across many more examples than I could ever write up as case studies. I'll share them here. Today's example: "Libraries of Matter," from Virginia Postrel. worksinprogress.co/issue/librar...

"Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more": I'm starting a Substack next week, which I've titled "Everything In Between." profmadison.substack.com. It's free. The theme: institutions and governance. I'm closing down the blog that I started 20 (!) years ago, known as "Madisonian."

Emma Hayes, the Triple Espresso, and the USWNT take gold! Alyssa Naeher joins Tim Howard as #SecretaryofDefense. What a game, what a tournament, and what an end to the #SummerofSoccer. ⚽️🥇

James C Scott, has died. One of the most interesting of thinkers. Defied disciplinary categories. Gave many on the left pause in their reflexive statism. Original, readable, someone who changed how I think about things.

If you see this post a Doc

Thoughtful and provocative, but the first sentence of this essay - "It has been thirty years since the technology revolution began in Silicon Valley." - misses the opportunity to put comparative law, $$, and demographics into longer, fuller perspective. A brief 🧵.

"The Wall Street lawyer who quit to make Lego art: ‘It is a job, not a hobby’" www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...