A Vision for the A Vision for the Biodiversity Commons Biodiversity Commons

May, 2004

IUCN

Tom Moritz

IUCNIUCN Mission

To influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to

conserve the integrity of nature and ensure that any use of natural

resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

Strategic decisions about data, information, knowledge

and technologymust be conscious, explicit and

mission-consistentmission-consistent

What is a “Commons” ???

• A limited and conditional zone of fair use (defined legally, financially, culturally and technically)

• Permits sustainable use of a resource without jeopardizing original ownership rights

• Protects against unauthorized commercial use (is compatible with market mechanisms )• Respects organizational/individual “moral rights”

(i.e. rights of authors)

“Philosophical” Context?

“The field of knowledge is the common property of all mankind “

Thomas Jefferson 1807

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 19.Everyone has the right to freedom of

opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

(emphasis added)

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

RIO DECLARATION ON ENVIRONMENT

AND DEVELOPMENT (1992)

Principle 10 Environmental issues are best handled with participation

of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided

  

 

Convention on Biological Diversity: Article 17

Exchange of Information

1. The Contracting Parties shall facilitate the exchange of information, from all publicly available sources, relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking into account the special needs of developing countries.

2. Such exchange of information shall include exchange of results of technical, scientific and socio-economic research, as well as information on training and surveying programmes, specialized knowledge, indigenous and traditional knowledge as such and in combination with the technologies referred to in Article 16, paragraph 1. It shall also, where feasible, include repatriation of information.

 

http://www.biodiv.org/convention/articles.asp?lg=0&a=cbd-17

“The substantive findings of science are a product of social collaboration and are assigned to the community. They constitute a common heritage in which the equity of the individual producer is severely limited…”

“The scientist’s claim to “his” intellectual “property” is limited to that of recognition and esteem which, if the institution functions with a modicum of efficiency, is roughly commensurate with the significance of the increments brought to the common fund of knowledge.”

Robert K. Merton, “A Note on Science and Democarcy,” Journal of Law and Political Sociology 1 (1942): 121.

The Ethos of Science

Science Library in China August, 1986

The Library Tradition

• For hundreds of years, libraries have been the “protected areas” of the knowledge commons

• The “public library” is a commons or a zone of “fair use” that makes knowledge freely and equitably available to all

IUCNIUCN Mission

To influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to

conserve the integrity of nature and ensure that any use of natural

resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

Some possible definitions…Some possible definitions…

• “Data”: Observations, descriptions or measurements recorded and reported in some standard way…

• “Information”: Reasoned associations of data

• “Experience”: Personal or collective recollection and interpretation of events

• “Expertise”: Individual or collective knowledge that is considered reliable by virtue of accomplishment

• “Knowledge”: Rational assumptions derived from information and experience, presumed to be “true”and “reliable”

The Conservation Domain

Colin Bibby, 2002

The Knowledge Cycle in the International Conservation

Community

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0674006771/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-4859238-9642354#reader-link

“The data or samples are collected and collected and analyzed independentlyanalyzed independently, and the resulting data sets from such studies generally are heterogeneous and unstandardizedheterogeneous and unstandardized, with few of the individual data holdings deposited in public data repositories or openly shared...

“The data exist in various twilight states of exist in various twilight states of accessibilityaccessibility…

“The data are thus disaggregated components data are thus disaggregated components of an incipient network that is only as of an incipient network that is only as effective as the individual transactions that effective as the individual transactions that put it togetherput it together

The Role of Scientific and Technical Data and Information in the Public Domain: Proceedings of a Symposium. Julie M. Esanu and Paul F. Uhlir, Eds. Steering Committee on the Role of Scientific and Technical Data and Information in the Public Domain Office of International Scientific and Technical Information Programs Board on International Scientific Organizations Policy and Global Affairs Division, National Research Council of the National Academies, p. 8

Conservation data, information, experience and knowledge

is widely dispersed but vaguely synthesized and weakly integrated

Specimen collections preserved & living (museums, herbaria, botanical gardens, zoos, aquaria and culture collections)

Derivatives and “virtual” specimens and samples

Collateral collections (nests, etc)

Genetic sequence data Scientific publications &

“gray literature” Images of all types /

scales (satellite, photo-trap, electro-micrographs)

Observational data of all types

Time-based media (film, video, recorded sounds)

Bibliographic indices (e.g. Zoological Record 1864-present) & Authority Files

Maps (analog or digital) Environmental Data Archives and

manuscripts (field and lab notes)

Expertise: the experience-based knowledge of individuals or cultures

View from the north of the Ngoc Linh Mountain Range in Vietnam's Central Highlands. This image was created by draping a LandSat scene (1998) over a three-dimensional model.

Courtesy AMNH Center for Biodiversity and Conservation

Rheinardia ocellata, the Crested Argus. Photographed at night by an automatic camera-trap in the Ngoc Linh foothills (Quang Nam Province).

Courtesy AMNH Center for Biodiversity and Conservation

http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/cbcnews/archive/sprng_sum01/song.html

http://birds.cornell.edu/publications/birdscope/Summer2002/ivory_bill_absent.html

Source: Voss & Emmons, AMNH Bull. No. 230, 1996

(by permission: T. Erwin)

Recent site map from Peru

depicting elements of “collecting effort”

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wildideas/kids/job_ryder.html

For Whom???

• Educators / Interpreters • Environmentalists /

Conservationists • International

Organizations• Governmental

Administrators / Legislators

• Landowners (Ecosystem)• Commercial Interests • Journalists • Indigenous Peoples

• Students• Scientific Researchers

Local Communities (Occupants)

• Naturalists / Recreationists• NGO’s • Policy Makers • Subsistence Consumers /

Sustainable Users • Protected Areas Managers

and Staff (on site)

WORLD-WIDE…

Web Training Session in a Russian Zapovednik

Finland

“Structure of the World Wide Web in Finland. Circles denote sites and lines denote connecting links.” Courtesy of Bernardo Hubernman (HP Labs, Palo Alto)

from B. Huberman The Laws of the Web, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2001

DIGITAL DIVIDE +

Digital Divide?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg

A graphic depiction of the digital divide

GDP

$0.00$5,000.00

$10,000.00$15,000.00$20,000.00$25,000.00$30,000.00$35,000.00$40,000.00

Luxe

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garia

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nmar

Bur

kina

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o

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oros

GDP

0100000020000003000000400000050000006000000700000080000009000000

10000000Ja

pan

Pol

and

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lippi

nes

Kaz

akhs

ta

Mau

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s

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occo

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egal

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nda

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Tun

isia

Nor

ther

n

Ban

glad

es

Hosts

Internet Hosts

Communication

0

50

100

150

200

250

Mexico

BelizeGuatemala

El Salvador

Honduras

Nicaragua

Costa Rica

Panama

Rat

e pe

r 1,

000

peop

le

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

$ D

olla

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Main telephone linesCellular phonesPersonal computersInternet usersPer capita GDP

Source: Human Development Index. UNDP. 1998.

Information Gradient

Pakistan:In the past 50 years…

32 universities and more than 100 colleges, training institutes and other specialized institutions of higher education have been founded

[Syed Haider Abbas Zaidi, “Higher Education Pakistan” http://www2.unesco.org/wef/f_conf/000000e2.htm

]

University of Peshawar Library

Founded in 1951

Librarian Mr. Riaz Ahmad

Total Volumes 150,000

Urdu  

English  

Other languages  

Microfilms 39

Periodicals 200

Audio-Visual section

 

Manuscripts 800

Other facilities  

Address:1 Administration Block University of Peshawar, Peshawar-25120, Pakistan

Tel: (+92-91)921-6483

Fax: (+92-91)921-4670

Telex:  

From: “xxxxxx” <xxxxxx@hotmail.com> To: library@amnh.org Subject: RESEARCH PAPERS REQUIRED Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 09:54:37 +0500

Dear sir,I am a student of   MSC. Veterinary Parasitology ... I need your help because of that these research papers are not available & I could not purchase these research papers which are mentioned in below list with related to some research topics which are below as      

(1) Epidemiological evaluation of cattle lice/buffalo lice(or) Epidemiological studies\surey cattle lice \ buffalo lice .      (2) Prevalence of cattle lice on calves (or) Prevalence of sucking & chewing lice on cattle     (3) incidence (or) Prevalence of sucking & chewing lice on cattleI will be thankfull to your  if  you will send to

me these  research papers on my postal address (or)  because of that I can not purchase them.    (4) Taxonomical study of different species of cattle lice. Please send to me these research papers as early as possible .

Postal address :Dr . xxxxxx House#xx,Street#xx Email address: xxxxx@ hotmail.com

RESEARCH PAPERS REQUIRED

1: Colwell DD, Clymer B, Booker CW, Guichon PT, Jim GK, Schunicht OC, Wildman BK. Prevalence of sucking and chewing lice on cattle entering feedlots in southern Alberta.Can Vet J. 2001 Apr;42(4):281-

2: Chalmers K, Charleston WA. “Cattle lice in New Zealand: observations on the prevalence, distribution and seasonal patterns of infestation.” N Z Vet J. 1980 Oct;28(10):198-200.

3: Chalmers K, Charleston WA.”Cattle lice in New Zealand: observations on the prevalence, distribution and seasonal patterns of infestation”. N Z Vet J. 1980 Oct;28(10):198-200.

[SNIP]

College of African Wildlife ManagementP.O. Box 3031

MoshiTanzania

Fax 255 55 51113Tel 0811 520360

http://www.mweka-wildlife.ac.tz/

.

COLLEGE OF AFRICAN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, MWEKA

The Ecology of the Conservation Commons?

August 30, 2002 BiodiversityBiodiversityCommonsCommons // WSSD

Market

Law

Norms

Architecture (Technology)

Data Information Knowledge

“Modalities of Constraint” on Open Access to Data, Information, Knowledge

Adapted from: Lessig, L. Code and other laws of cyberspace. NY, Basic Books, 1999.

OECD Follow Up Group on Issues of Access to Publicly Funded Research Data. Promoting Access to Public Research Data for Scientific,Economic, and Social Development: Final Report March 2003

Financial Constraints on Biodiversity Information

http://www.arl.org/newsltr/218/costimpact.html

http://www.arl.org/newsltr/218/costimpact.html

Year Number of Titles Average Price Percentage Increase Index

1984 94 78.35 — 100.0

1985 94 90.75 15.8 115.8

1986 94 102.83 13.3 131.2

1987 94 112.91 9.8 144.1

1988 94 127.33 12.8 162.5

1989 94 142.14 11.6 181.4

1990 94 153.78 8.2 196.3

1991 94 172.56 12.2 220.2

1992 94 197.89 14.7 252.6

1993 94 219.58 11.0 280.3

1994 94 243.38 10.8 310.6

1995 94 266.72 9.6 340.4

1996 94 299.84 12.4 382.7

1997 94 338.31 12.8 431.8

1998 94 385.40 13.9 491.9

1999 94 433.79 12.6 553.7

2000 94 470.43 8.4 600.4

2001 94 510.53 8.5 651.6

2002 94 543.96 6.5 694.3

U.S. Periodical Prices—2002

TABLE VII: Zoology(1 title dropped; 1 title added)

(52% of the titles increased in price)

http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Products_and_Publications/Periodicals/American_Libraries/Selected_articles/7zoology.htm

Julian Birkinshaw and Tony Sheehan, “Managing the Knowledge Life Cycle,” MIT Sloan Management Review, 44 (2) Fall, 2002: 77.

???

Is conservation knowledge a “commodity” ???

Legal Constraints on

Biodiversity Information

Dr. Donat Agosti, SSC Social Insects Specialist Group Figure 1. Access to ant systematics information. Each icon represents one

of the 424 new ant species described in the year 2003. The species are alphabetically listed (data from http://atbi.biosci.ohio-state.edu:210/hymen

optera/manage_lit.new_taxa_by_year?tnuid=152&the_year=2003 or http//:antbase.org)

Zoo Record Citations by Publisher Type(1978-2002)

Association

58%

University

6%

Commercial

17%

Other

0%

NH

Institutions/Non-prof it

9%Government

10%

Association

University

Commercial

Government

NH Institutions/Non-prof it

Other

Analysis by BIOSIS and AMNH (currently unpublished)

Ownership of publications?

Solutions?

Provision of free, universal access to conservation knowledge, information and data is a practical imperative for the international conservation community – this goal should be accomplished:

by promotion of the Public Domain and

by development of a sustainable Biodiversity Knowledge Commons

adapting emergent legal and technical mechanisms to provide a free, secure and persistent environment for

access to and use of conservation knowledge, information and data.

November 11, 2002 BiodiversityBiodiversityCommons /Commons / World Heritage

A definition of the “Public Domain”

“The public domain is a range of uses of information that any person is privileged to make absent individualized facts that make a particular use by a particular person unprivileged.”

Yochai Benkler, “Free as the air to common use: First Amendment constraints on enclosure of the Pulic Domain,” NYU Law Review Vol. 74 (May, 1999):362.

A sketch of the public domain and adjacent terrain…

What is a “Commons” ???

• A commons is a limited and conditional zone of fair use (defined both legally and technically)

• A commons permits sustainable use of a resource without jeopardizing original ownership rights

• Supports control of patrimonial / property rights required by owners as required by owners (for example: indigenous peoples, national governments); protects against unauthorized commercial use

• BUT also does permit authorized commercial uses (i.e. is compatible with market mechanisms )

• protects organizational/individual “moral rights” (i.e. rights of authors)

Digital Commons?

Digital resources as “public goods” are:

• non-rivalrous (near-zero cost for additional increments of use)

• non-excludable (i.e.of potentially universal benefit)

• universally accessible (potentially)

(But economic inequities and newly emergent legal/technical barriers may deny these benefits)

Reichman, Jerome H. and Paul F. Uhlir, Promoting Public Good Uses of Scientific Data: A Contractually Reconstructed Commons for Science and Innovation.

http://www.law.duke.edu/pd/papers/ReichmanandUhlir.pdf

THE ROLE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DATA AND INFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN PROCEEDINGS OF A SYMPOSIUM Julie M. Esanu and Paul F. Uhlir, Editors Steering Committee on the Role of Scientific and Technical Data and Information in the Public Domain Office of International Scientific and Technical Information Programs Board on International Scientific Organizations Policy and Global Affairs Division, National Research Council of the National Academies, p. 5

The CommonsThe Public Domain

Recent Progress

Biodiversity Informatics Infrastructure:Biodiversity Informatics Infrastructure:

An Information Commons for the Biodiversity CommunityAn Information Commons for the Biodiversity CommunityGladys A. Cotter and Barbara T. Bauldock

U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Geological Survey

300 National Center 300 National Center

Reston, VA 20192 Reston, VA 20192

USA USA

gladys_cotter@usgs.gov barbara_bauldock@usgs.gov

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of efforts to create an informatics infrastructure for the

biodiversity community. A vast amount of biodiversity information exists, but no comprehensive

infrastructure is in place to provide easy assess and effective use of this information. The

advent of modern information technologies provides a foundation for a remedy. Biodiversity

informatics infrastructures are being called for at national, regional, and global levels, and plans

are in place to coordinate these efforts to ensure interoperability. The paper reviews some essential

requirements and some challenges related to building this infrastructure.

Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Very

Large Databases, Cairo, Egypt, Sept. 10-14, 2000

Biodiversity Conservation Information System

• BirdLife International• Botanic Gardens

Conservation International

• Conservation International

• International Species Information System

• IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management

• IUCN Environmental Law Programme

• IUCN Species Survival Commission

• IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas

• The Nature Conservancy

• TRAFFIC International

• Wetlands International

• World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Members

BCIS Information

Overview

BCIS CenterMembersMembers

D-Lib MagazineJune 2002

Volume 8 Number 6ISSN 1082-9873

Building the Biodiversity Commons

 

(This Opinion piece presents the opinions of the author. It does not necessarily reflect the views of D-Lib Magazine, its publisher, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, or its sponsor.)

Provision of free, universal access to biodiversity information is a practical imperative for the international conservation community — this goal should be accomplished by promotion of the Public Domain and by development of a sustainable Biodiversity Information Commons adapting emergent legal and technical mechanisms to provide a free, secure and persistent environment for access to and use of biodiversity information and data.

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june02/moritz/06moritz.html

Thomas Moritz American Museum of Natural Historytmoritz@amnh.org

“Common Knowledge”

Creating the Biodiversity Knowledge CommonsBusiness plan and implementation strategy

A proposal developed with contributions fromAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryBiodiversity Conservation Information SystemBirdLife InternationalConservation InternationalGlobal Biodiversity Information FacilityInter American Biodiversity Information NetworkIUCN Environmental Law CommissionIUCN Species Survival CommissionIUCN The World Conservation UnionIUCN World Commission on Protected AreasNatureServeNorth American Biodiversity Information NetworkRio TintoSociety for Conservation BiologyThe Nature ConservancyTRAFFIC InternationalUNEP- World Conservation Monitoring CentreWildlife Conservation Society

Current Contributors to the CommonsCommons Design

American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)

Biodiversity Conservation Information System (BCIS)

BirdLife International (BI)Conservation International (CI)Global Biodiversity Information

Facility (GBIF)Inter-American Biodiversity

Information Network (IABIN)IUCN Environmental Law

Commission (ELC)IUCN Species Survival

Commission (SSC)IUCN Information Management

Group IMG)

IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)

NatureServeNorth American Biodiversity

Information Network (NABIN)

Rio TintoSociety for Conservation BiologyThe Nature Conservancy (TNC)TRAFFIC InternationalUNEP- World Conservation

Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

The Biodiversity Commons:

Digital Futures / IUCNWorld Summit on Sustainable Development

Johannesburg , South Africa

data information knowledgedata information knowledge

PublisherPublisherManuscript

An Open Access Model

Result:

$$$Author pays small amount of money

or an institution pays on author’s behalf

From BioMed Central

Free Access on the Web

Species Information Service

Ecosystems, Protected Areas and PeopleEcosystems, Protected Areas and People

(EPP)(EPP)

& &

The Protected Areas Learning NetworkThe Protected Areas Learning Network

(PALNet)(PALNet)

url: http://www.parksnet.org

World Database on Protected Areas 2003

The WDPA Consortium

The American Museum of Natural History has published 240,000+ pages of scientific literature.

We expect this entire corpus of literature to be digitized and available by mid-2004.

You're probably familiar with the phrase, "All rights reserved," and the little (c) that goes along with it. Creative Commons wants to help copyright holders send a different message: "Some rights reserved."

For example, if you don't mind people copying and distributing your online image so long as they give you credit, we'll have a license that helps you say so. If you want people to copy your band's MP3 but don't want them to profit off it without your permission, use one of our licenses to express that preference. Our licensing tools will even help you mix and match such preferences from a menu of options:Attribution. Permit others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and derivative works based upon it only if they give you credit. Noncommercial. Permit others to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and derivative works based upon it only for noncommercial purposes. No Derivative Works. Permit others to copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work, not derivative works based upon it. Copyleft. Permit others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

Creative commons: Licensing Options

http://www.creativecommons.org/

Technology / Architecture:Synthesis? Integration? Interoperability?

“Synthesis”? / “Integration”?

““Synthesis”Synthesis” :

The analytical, logical effort to compile complete, integral information sets by well-defined, rigorous inference.

““Integration”Integration” :

The design and implementation of technology for the digital capture, and coherent linking of data, information and/or knowledge

“a full spectrum of views on interoperability…”

• the use of common tools and interfaces that provide a superficial uniformity for navigation and access but rely almost entirely on human intelligence to provide any coherence of content

• primarily syntactic interoperability (the interchange of metadata and the use of digital object transmission protocols and formats based on this metadata rather than simply common navigation, query, and viewing interfaces) as a means of providing limited coherence of content, supplemented by human interpretation.

• deep semantic interoperability

Interoperability, Scaling, and the Digital Libraries Research Agenda: A Report on the May 18-19, 1995IITA Digital Libraries Workshop August 22, 1995 Clifford Lynch ( clifford.lynch@ucop.edu)Hector Garcia-Molina ( hector@db.stanford.edu

Toward a possible “ontology” of conservation information?

“Ontology”? :

“A formal explicit specification of a shared conceptualization”

(T.A. Gruber. A translation approach to portable ontologies, Knowledge 7.)

“Darwin Core” – Access Points

1. ScientificName2. Kingdom3. Phylum4. Class5. Order6. Family7. Genus8. Species9. Subspecies10. InstitutionCode11. CollectionCode12. CatalogNumber

13. Collector14. Year15. Month16. Day17. Country18. State/Province19. County20. Locality21. Longitude22. Latitude23. BoundingBox24. Julian Day

Dave Vieglais Species Analyst 4/20/2000

http://habanero.nhm.ukans.edu/presentations/Gainesville_May2000_files/v3_document.htm

Name

Person

Date

Place

Address

DiGIR and the Darwin Core

Knowledge Flows:“Leaking”? or “Conscious Sharing”?

• Subcontracting• Joint ventures• Cross licensing• Portfolio Sharing• Collaborative Research Grants• Universities (as vectors)

• PUBLIC DOMAINPUBLIC DOMAIN / / COMMONSCOMMONS• OPEN SOURCEOPEN SOURCE

SO, What is to be done?Conservation organizations are asked:

to subscribe to Global Commons Principles.Specifically:

– To commit to individual / organizational knowledge assets (analog and digital) to free, secure and persistently available use for non-commercial (research, education, applied conservation ) uses (provided guarantees of organizational and individual “moral rights”).

– To make implementation of the Commons an organizational priority and commit significant institutional resources to Commons development.

– To display the Commons logo as a part of organizational displays (digital or analog).

biodiversitycommons

biocommons

"...organic processes have an historical contingency that prevents universal

explanation."

Richard Lewontin in The Triple Helix