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A Knowledge Producer's View on the Knowledge Commons

Mathilde Noual

TL;DR

This paper reframes the tragedy of the commons for the knowledge realm by focusing on attentional constraints rather than material scarcity. It introduces the Mutual Mutable Medium (MMM), a technical framework that decomposes knowledge into atomic pieces with typed relations, local territories, and an organic distribution model to support the knowledge commons. It argues that with MMM, many classic information problems—overload, redundancy, gatekeeping—can be mitigated through attention-aware design, aggregation, and implantation, rather than requiring a new morality. The work also proposes concrete governance primitives—locality, seasonality, enclosure, and continual improvement—to manage the knowledge commons and enhance equitable, efficient knowledge production and consumption.

Abstract

Hardin introduced the notorious concept of "tragedy of the commons". Worrying about the consequences of human overpopulation on the planet, he discussed "hard problems": problems with no technical solutions, that can only be addressed by way of an evolving morality. Hardin's tragedy of the commons predicts that the hard problem of human population growth directly implies a hard problem of overuse or pollution of the commons. This paper focuses on the knowledge commons. A technical proposal is presented, based on a JSON schema for structuring pieces of knowledge. This is used to show that even if the knowledge commons satisfies the necessary conditions of the tragedy of the commons, the ensuing problems are not necessarily hard. Some can be made trivial by relying on traditional principles implemented in a technical framework.

A Knowledge Producer's View on the Knowledge Commons

TL;DR

This paper reframes the tragedy of the commons for the knowledge realm by focusing on attentional constraints rather than material scarcity. It introduces the Mutual Mutable Medium (MMM), a technical framework that decomposes knowledge into atomic pieces with typed relations, local territories, and an organic distribution model to support the knowledge commons. It argues that with MMM, many classic information problems—overload, redundancy, gatekeeping—can be mitigated through attention-aware design, aggregation, and implantation, rather than requiring a new morality. The work also proposes concrete governance primitives—locality, seasonality, enclosure, and continual improvement—to manage the knowledge commons and enhance equitable, efficient knowledge production and consumption.

Abstract

Hardin introduced the notorious concept of "tragedy of the commons". Worrying about the consequences of human overpopulation on the planet, he discussed "hard problems": problems with no technical solutions, that can only be addressed by way of an evolving morality. Hardin's tragedy of the commons predicts that the hard problem of human population growth directly implies a hard problem of overuse or pollution of the commons. This paper focuses on the knowledge commons. A technical proposal is presented, based on a JSON schema for structuring pieces of knowledge. This is used to show that even if the knowledge commons satisfies the necessary conditions of the tragedy of the commons, the ensuing problems are not necessarily hard. Some can be made trivial by relying on traditional principles implemented in a technical framework.
Paper Structure (23 sections, 2 figures)

This paper contains 23 sections, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Tragedy or not?
  2. The Technical MMM Proposal
  3. Pieces of Knowledge
  4. A Common Documentation Format
  5. Local Epistemic Territories
  6. Organic Distribution
  7. Sharing and Publishing
  8. Epistemic Relations, Aggregation and Glue
  9. Redundancy Management
  10. Wayfarer Exploration
  11. Implantation and Visibility
  12. Epistemic Topography and Shortsightedness
  13. Non-findability and Gatekeeping
  14. Biased Common Grounds
  15. Continual Improvement
  16. ...and 8 more sections

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: The MMM format defines different types of pieces of knowledge. Some are represented in the figure above as nodes of a graph, others as edges connecting two nodes. Any piece of knowledge documented in MMM format must be assigned a type. In this figure, yellow rectangle nodes represent pieces of knowledge of type " narrative" which is the default type. Orange rectangles and blue ovals respectively represent pieces of knowledge of type " question" and " existence". Yellow arrows represent pieces of knowledge of type " answers". etc. The visual choices made in this figure are arbitrary. MMM formatted information doesn't even need to be graphically represented MMMJSON. MMM edge types (e.g. equates, differsFrom, instantiates, details, nuances, questions), not all of which are illustrated above, have loose semantics which can be specified using an edge label -- e.g. the epistemic relation conveyed by the details edge is specified by the label "definition".
  • Figure 2: The MMM is a collection of overlapping local epistemic territories.