The term "knowledge commons" refers to information, data, and content that is collectively owned and managed by a community of users,[1] particularly over the Internet.
[7][8] According to research by Charlotte Hess and Elinor Ostrom,[3] the conceptual background of the knowledge commons encompasses two intellectual histories: first, a European tradition of battling the enclosure of the "intangible commons of the mind",[9] threatened by expanding intellectual property rights and privatization of knowledge.
[10] Second, a tradition rooted in the United States, which sees the knowledge commons as a shared space allowing for free speech and democratic practices,[11] and which is in the tradition of the town commons movement and commons-based production of scholarly work, open science, open libraries, and collective action.
[14] He argues that "knowledge as a shared resource" requires that both information must become accessible and potential recipients must become able and willing to internalize it as 'knowledge'.
"Therefore, knowledge cannot become a shared resource without a complex set of institutions and practices that give the opportunity to potential recipients to gain the necessary abilities and willingness".