Open culture and innovation: integrating knowledge across boundaries

What does open source mean for culture? For knowledge? As cultural production has come to be characterized by contribution as well as consumption and as alternative modes of intellectual property transfer challenge the ‘dominant paradigm’ that knowledge and information should be protected and monetized, the logic of ‘open sourcing’ has extended into many cultural spheres. This article positions ‘openness’ as a value that intermediates between re-usable software code, institutional transparency, and expanded opportunities for participation in knowledge production cultures. By observing and analyzing the expansion of ‘openness’ from computer software to electronics hardware, we can develop a framework that identifies the tensions between socio-cultural visions of knowledge commons and the realities of governing those commons. This research focuses in particular on the knowledge related to electronics hardware and other material objects governed by open hardware licenses. The insights in this article are valuable for anyone studying open source and peer production processes and the knowledge claims surrounding them.