Invest in Open Infrastructure’s Lauren Collister, in a January post based on an interview with Knowledge Commons’ Kathleen Fitzpatrick:
The core of that difference is that Knowledge Commons is committed to remaining free and open, to never selling user data, to never pursuing for-profit operation. But sustainability requires support from the community it serves. "We are committed to remaining not-for-profit," Fitzpatrick says. "But in order to do that, we really, really need help." That help comes from the community of institutions and individuals who invest in the Commons and participate in governance to chart the future of their shared endeavor. "As an institution joins the network, they get a seat at the table," Fitzpatrick emphasizes. "Their ability to help shape the future of the platform is its sustainability model, its governance model. That is how we transform from a platform that’s free to use right now into a genuine commons."
This chicken-and-egg problem, and the “vendor mode” thinking that Fitzpatrick details as a barrier in getting library buy-in, is a huge challenge—even among seemingly sympathetic librarians. It’s a dead horse beating, but I remain convinced that a mission-aligned funding exchange centered on nonprofit scholarly pub infrastructure is desperately needed. Invest in Open Infrastructure?