Internet as \"Commons\" the Concept

¶ … Internet as "Commons"

The Concept of the Internet as Commons

The concept of the Internet as a "Commons" is critical to its growth and continued value as a foundation for scientific, social, economic, and geo-political. In the Future of Ideas, Lessig states that without the preservation of these freedoms in the "Commons" areas they Internet will be degenerated into a massive cable TV-like medium. The focus on freedom from (Lessig 1) shows the need for the Internet to retain those elements that are part of its Commons, keeping the layers intact as they relate to specific intellectual properties common to all. Simply put, the concept of the Commons states that anyone who is a member of the community has the right to use the common resource, and does not necessarily having to gain permission from some other entity to use the resource. A prime example of Commons is the open source software community, where no one specifically has to ask for approval to use an open source operating system, build enhancements to it, or validate their intentions through trust and reputation systems. Commons, Lessig argues, is the essential aspect of the Internet that makes its' innovation and revolutionary aspects of having such a globally strong platform for invention and new value creation.

Lessig sees Commons being as the mediative force in the development of the Internet. The fact that rivalrous resources are often seen as market inhibitors rather than a prioritization of market demand where one person or organization must compete with another to gain access to it. Rivalrous resources are those that two people or organizations compete to gain while non-rivalrous are those resources that are shared for the common attainment of an objective. Of these two types of resources, non-rivalrous stand the best possible chance of becoming a Commons resource or component within an industry structure.

The "layers" of Commons closely resemble the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) Model in that there are specific functional requirements within each of the layers, and the progress in much the same approach as the OSI Model. Most importantly however is the role of Commons in each role and the creation of three dominant types that include on the content layer for example. The first is the Common of Knowledge, which is the point that Lessig discusses concerning the use of the Internet for the common and free sharing of knowledge and ideas. The second is the Commons of code, and in this allegory is where much of the work on open source software is being completed today. Finally, the combination of both types of Commons results in the creation of innovation. With Code and Knowledge, the open source community has been able to successfully move Linux and other open source operating systems into the enterprise server marketplace successfully. So much so, there are now product strategies in IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and other large enterprise it companies focused on the triad of the Commons.