Data Commons

Helpful resource from Mozilla Foundation on design considerations for a data commons; good questions to ask ourselves when getting into the details on how the FDN will actually be organized / run.

1. Clearly-Defined Boundaries
   Individuals who have rights to appropriate resources must be clearly defined, as must the boundaries of the resource itself.

2. Appropriate Rules
   Rules are appropriately related to local conditions (including both regarding the appropriation of common resources — restricting time, place, technology, quantity, etc.; and rules related to provision of resources — requiring labor, materials, money, etc.)

3. Rule-making processes
   Collective-choice arrangements allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process. In short: those who are affected by decisions and rules that govern the resource or the community itself should have a way of influencing those decisions.

4. Monitoring
   Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of, or accountable to, the appropriators. This means that compliance with the rules established is monitored and that users of the commons have an active role in monitoring compliance. With regard to data commons, this includes monitoring of data production processes — ongoing validation of data integrity, verification of data quality, — as well as monitoring data access and use.

5. Sanctions
   There is a scale of graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules. This principle refers to the set of accountability measures that should be in place to guarantee rules are enforced. However, the focus on graduated sanctions implies that not every violation of a rule is treated the same and, for instance, intent and harm are taken into account when applying sanctions.

6. Conflict resolution mechanisms
   Appropriators and their officials have rapid access to low-cost local arenas to resolve conflicts among appropriators or between appropriators and officials.

7. Right to self-governance
   The rights of a community to devise and govern its own institutions is recognized by external authorities. In the context of data commons, this principle encourages us to understand how far the decisions we make about the collection and use of data are in line with, for instance, data protection regulations.

8. Nestedness/Interoperability
   Appropriation, provision, monitoring, enforcement, conflict resolution, and governance activities are organized in multiple layers of nested enterprises.