300452 Open Knowledge Production (MA: Politische Soziologie) (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

Every day, digital common goods are produced on the internet that are free to use, forming a blueprint of the open society. Examples are open source software, knowledge on Wikipedia, open source journalism and news, open source hardware, and also open science. By taking a closer look at the producers of the digital commons, it quickly becomes apparent that they share some characteristics: First, they form a loosely coupled network of individuals dispersed over different physical locations. Second, the providers contribute to the commons voluntarily. Third, they make heavy use of digital media. Fourth, the network is coordinated by a reputation system, and fifth, the contributors share a strong ideology about the digital commons and why it has to be open.
The aim of the seminar is to investigate and compare different cases of production of digital commons. In doing so, the seminar will be organized into two sections. The first part is literature-based and introduces different cases of the digital commons together with a particular perspective under which the phenomenon can be studied. In the second part, we will focus on particular examples and use the perspectives learned in the first part for own empirical observations. As a result of the seminar, short profiles will be created for each empirical case that allow a systematic comparison of the production of the digital commons.