Code and the Commons

Abstract

"I want to take an idea from the north, and an idea from the south, and see how well they might hang together. An idea from the north from here, at Fordham and an idea from the south all they way down at NYU and ask, can we make them converge?

"The internet is a commons: the space that anyone can enter, and take what she finds without the permission of a librarian, or a promise to pay. The net is built on a commons the code of the world wide web, html, is a computer language that lays itself open for anyone to see to see, and to steal, and to use as one wants. If you like a web page, then all major browsers permit you to reveal its source, download it, and change it as you wish. It is out there for the taking; and what you take leaves as much for me as there was before."