Open-source Scholarship

"To the extent that scholarship is the creation and curation of human knowledge, scholarship is an open-source endeavor. The end product -- human knowledge -- is not a fixed product, it is distributed, has diverse manifestations, and belongs to no individual or entity. Some scholarship involves the creation of new theories, systems, or tools. Some involves the repurposing of existing theories, systems, or tools for another domain. Some scholarship involves synthesis. Some involves critique. It always involves accessing the work of others in order to (re)build something that will enter public discourse (in other words, “publish”). And no matter how isolated the work, no matter how selfish the motivations, no matter how ignored the results, ultimately scholarship belongs to the human community. Scholarship is, by its nature, open source...."