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Michael Madison

@michaelmadison.bsky.social
1.1K followers 185 following 90 posts

Knowledge Commons researcher. Future Law advocate. Football supporter. Silicon Valley ex-pat. "Everything In Between" on Substack. Next up: "Your Leadership Podcast." Lost on Jeopardy!. Looking around corners. By day, I'm a law professor.

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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
New in knowledge commons research: "Is Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Governable? Towards Machine Sovereignty and Human Symbiosis" from Botao "Amber" Hu, Helena Rong, and Janna Tay. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Is Decentralized Artificial Intelligence Governable? Towards Machine Sovereignty and Human Symbiosis
<div> The rise of decentralized artificial intelligence (DeAI) represents a transformative shift in AI development, leveraging blockchain and distributed ledge
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Me, new on Substack: "Disappointed: What do we talk about when we talk about the challenges facing higher education." I use the recent Penn panel on the future of American universities as a jumping off point. More to come. profmadison.substack.com/p/disappointed
profmadison.substack.com
Disappointed
What do we talk about when we talk about the challenges facing higher education
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Today in knowledge commons research: "Unpacking Open Source Bio," a collection of mini-case studies of knowledge commons from the inimitable @jcontreras.bsky.social. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Unpacking Open Source Bio
For at least a quarter of a century, life science researchers around the world have undertaken initiatives loosely based on principles, goals, and institutional
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Social media day, round 2: On Substack, I have another in my weekly series of essays about the future of universities. "A Pixar Interlude: What planet is higher education reform ... on?" profmadison.substack.com/p/a-pixar-in...
profmadison.substack.com
A Pixar Interlude
What planet is higher education reform ... on?
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
It's social media day. The newest episode of "Your Leadership Podcast" with me and Kathy Edersheim is available at open.spotify.com/episode/1huU...
open.spotify.com
Does leadership begin with voice?
Your Leadership Podcast · Episode
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
"Things" and their attributes are the MacGuffins of property law. I'll post links to the occasional new paper. Today's excellent entry: "Personal Property Servitudes Revisited" by Daniel Klerman and Stefan Bechtold. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
While I'm at it: I'm co-hosting a new podcast, called "Your Leadership Podcast." Tasty conversational morsels delivered once every two weeks. Find it here: open.spotify.com/show/633QIpk...
open.spotify.com
Your Leadership Podcast
Podcast · Michael Madison and Kathy Edersheim · “Your Leadership Podcast” is about you and your leadership journey. Co-hosts Kathy Edersheim and Mike Madison take a conversational approach, making lea...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Catching up on my Substack essays on the future of higher education, here's the most recent: "Choosing to Choose: How a university decides." profmadison.substack.com/p/choosing-t...
profmadison.substack.com
Choosing to Choose
How a university decides
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
New in knowledge commons scholarship: "Access to Justice as Access to Data" by Tanina Rostain @georgetownlaw.bsky.social scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol119/...
scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu
Access to Justice as Access to Data
This Keynote Address, delivered in celebration of the launch of SCALES, discusses the importance of making local and state court data available for research on the functioning of the American civil ju...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Also new in knowledge commons scholarship: Christopher Mirasola, "Common Heritage as Public Trust: A Property Law Approach to Managing Resources Beyond National Jurisdiction" in the Southern California Law Review. southerncalifornialawreview.com/2024/10/31/c...
southerncalifornialawreview.com
Common Heritage as Public Trust: A Property Law Approach to Managing Resources Beyond National Jurisdiction – Southern California Law Review
The search for rare minerals is taking us well beyond the bounds of national jurisdiction, and international law is struggling to keep up. In the 1970s states agreed that the deep seabed beyond nation...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
New in knowledge commons scholarship: Margaret (Maggie) Chon, "Relational Innovation and the Public Benefits of Copying," in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. btlj.org/wp-content/u...
btlj.org
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
A neat new knowledge commons project: @institutionaldatainitiative.org
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 25/12/2024
The gift of Pittsburgh. I am passing it along. www.pittsburghmagazine.com/pittsburgh-i...
pittsburghmagazine.com
Pittsburgh Has Big Ideas. One Professor Is Documenting Them.
University of Pittsburgh law professor and author Mike Madison has chronicled Pittsburgh icons as part of his Intellectual Property Hall of Fame.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
My Substack series on the future of universities continues, with some preliminary attention to how we might get from where we are now to wherever we might want to be, at "Out of the Silos: On universities and institutional change." Find the whole thing at profmadison.substack.com/p/out-of-the...
profmadison.substack.com
Out of the Silos
On universities and institutional change
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Fungi! What knowledge commons can teach. "The Failure of Commons? The Obscure Beijing Mushrooms & the Mycelial Networks of Transformation in Everyday Life" by Gladys Pak Lei Chong. journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/po...
journals.library.brocku.ca
The Failure of Commons? The Obscure Beijing Mushrooms & the Mycelial Networks of Transformation in Everyday Life | interconnections: journal of posthumanism
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Knowledge commons today: "Governing Digital Public Infrastructure as a Commons," from Renata Avila, Ramya Chandrasekhar, Melanie Dulong de Rosnay, and Andrew Rens. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Governing Digital Public Infrastructure as a Commons
Building upon the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration commitment to improving access to digital services through digital public infrastructure (DPI), this policy
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Every Monday, there is something new at "Everything in Between." I continue with my series about the future of universities. "The Field of the University: On flowers and friction." profmadison.substack.com/p/the-field-...
profmadison.substack.com
The Field of the University
On flowers and friction
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Knowledge commons, casual carpooling edition. Reyko Huang, "The order of anarchy: How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory ..." The same arg about community self-governance and carpools appears in Benkler, "Sharing Nicely," from 2004. aeon.co/essays/what-...
aeon.co
What San Francisco carpooling tells us about anarchism | Aeon Essays
How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory and the work of the late, great James C Scott
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
The knowledge commons hits keep coming. "The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice," by Simon Parkin www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Fo...
simonandschuster.com
The Forbidden Garden
From the award-winning author of The Island of Extraordinary Captives, the riveting, untold true story of the botanists at the world’s first seed b...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Knowledge commons in history. Shane Bobrycki, "The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages" press.princeton.edu/books/ebook/...
press.princeton.edu
The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages
The importance of collective behavior in early medieval Europe
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
This week's Substack entry at "Everything in Between": "The Tragedy of Prestige: Is there a comedy in the university?," in which I carry on my series about the past, present, and future of "the university." profmadison.substack.com/p/the-traged...
profmadison.substack.com
The Tragedy of Prestige
Is there a comedy in the university?
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Today in knowledge commons governance research.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Knowledge commons, today: "Proprietary Data, Open Data, Data Commons: Who Owns the Data? How to Best Reconcile Conflicting Interests in Exploiting the Value of Data and Protecting Against its Risks" papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Proprietary Data, Open Data, Data Commons: Who Owns the Data?How to Best Reconcile Conflicting Interests in Exploiting the Value of Data and Protecting Against its Risks
The European data strategy aims to make the EU a leader in a data-driven world. To this aim, the EU is creating a single market for data where 1) data can flow
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SXI...
youtube.com
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Today at "Everything in Between" on Substack: "Can You Get Anything You Want? At the university restaurant" It's a metaphor, continuing my exploring the future of higher education. profmadison.substack.com/p/can-you-ge...
profmadison.substack.com
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Today's knowledge commons update.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
I will miss @rorysmith.bsky.social giving me a hard time in his NYTimes On Soccer newsletter but look forward to renewing our one-sided correspondence as he steps into his new role at @theathletic.bsky.social.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
This week at "Everything in Between" on Substack: "Universities Were New, Once: Could they be new again?" profmadison.substack.com/p/universiti...
profmadison.substack.com
Universities Were New, Once
Could they be new again?
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Welcome, new followers. I am mostly "knowledge commons all the time," but once a week I'll bring over a short piece from my Substack, which is about institutions and governance broadly. Today: "What We Talk About When We Talk About Universities" profmadison.substack.com/p/what-we-ta...
profmadison.substack.com
What We Talk About
When We Talk About Universities
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
Commons and knowledge commons alert: The deadline for the Call for Contributions for IASC 2025 (theme: "Regenerating the Commons") has been extended to *November 15.* Read all about it at 2025.iasc-commons.org/call-for-con...
2025.iasc-commons.org
Call for Contributions - IASC 2025 - XX Biennial Conference
We invite you to submit your contribution abstract using the form below. Your contribution can be a paper presentation, a commons practitioner presentation, or a poster. We strongly encourage everyone...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
At my Substack - "Everything in Between" - I've been building a case that US law schools are in far deeper trouble than most legal professionals (lawyers, judges, academics) realize. Curiously, perhaps, that makes me an optimist. The last installment is here: profmadison.substack.com/p/everything...
profmadison.substack.com
Everything Will Be All Right
In the end.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 29/10/2024
Knowledge commons, music copyright edition: "The Case for Common Property in Musical Objects," by Lauren Wilson, a recent U of Michigan Law grad with a Ph.D in music theory. Published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law (JET). www.vanderbilt.edu/jetlaw/2024/...
vanderbilt.edu
The Case for Common Property in Musical Objects
Lauren Wilson | 26 Vand. J. Ent. &amp; Tech. L. 413 (2024) Copyright law’s current framework for analyzing the similarity between musical works has invited a host of copyright infringement lawsuits th...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 15/10/2024
One of my favorite topics: "what is a 'thing'?" appeared the other day in a statutory damages case from the Fifth Circuit. UMG Recordings v. Grande Communication Networks identifies the hole in the middle of the copyright donut: what is a copyright "work"? cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/u...
cdn.arstechnica.net
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
Knowledge commons again: "Anchoring Digital Sovereignty" forthcoming from @vivekdotca.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Anchoring Digital Sovereignty
For a quarter-century, a consensus has prevailed that territorial sovereignty applies online as it does offline. Since practically all the Internet’s infrastruc
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
Last knowledge commons piece for today: "Combating Misinformation Runs Deeper Than Swatting Away ‘Fake News’" from Jennifer Allen and David Rand. Systems thinking. www.scientificamerican.com/article/combating-misinformation-runs-deeper-than-swatting-away-fake-news/
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
A special issue of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ) on case studies of knowledge commons in life sciences. (A nit: It claims that conducting Ostromian comparative case studies of innovation commons is a "novel." No, it's not.) btlj.org/2024/05/volu...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
Knowledge commons in bioscience: "The Myth of DNA Trade Secrecy" by Jake Sherkow in the UC Law Journal. repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 01/10/2024
It's a knowledge commons day. Try this piece, not framed as knowledge commons but all about shared knowledge in social contexts: "Free Speech on the Internet: The Crises of Epistemic Authority" by Brian Leiter. www.amacad.org/publication/...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 27/09/2024
Paging the spirit of Ronald Coase. "18-year-old files lawsuit over ownership of Shohei Ohtani’s historic 50-50 ball, seeks to prevent auction" www.cnn.com/2024/09/27/s...
cnn.com
18-year-old files lawsuit over ownership of Shohei Ohtani’s historic 50-50 ball, seeks to prevent auction | CNN
An 18-year-old has filed a lawsuit over the ownership of the ball Shohei Ohtani made baseball history with when he became the inaugural member of the 50-50 club.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 26/09/2024
Knowledge commons meets material commons. "A Moment in Time, Preserved in Polyester" and an extraordinary collection of vintage soccer (football) jerseys. Article by the inimitable Rory Smith. www.nytimes.com/2024/09/23/s...
nytimes.com
A Moment in Time, Preserved in Polyester
Vintage soccer jerseys have become a streetwear staple, and a target of major investors. Their real appeal lies in the memories they conjure.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
Knowledge commons case studies are coming fast and furious. Take a look at "Genomic Data Sharing and Intellectual Property" from Jorge Contreras (Utah Law), at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com
Genomic Data Sharing and Intellectual Property
This chapter discusses the principal forms of intellectual property protection that impact genomic data and databases, as well as their implications for precisi
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 24/09/2024
Knowledge commons research on the march again. Check out this aromatic case study: "Open Source Perfume," from @levendowski.bsky.social scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2581/
scholarship.law.georgetown.edu
"Open Source Perfume" by Amanda Levendowski
ABRIDGED ABSTRACT: Perfume is a powerful art and technology, but its secrets are closely held by a privileged few - by some counts, there are more astronauts than there are perfumers. As critics have ...
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 06/09/2024
Another work that promises the rewards of thinking deeply about knowledge commons governance: "Mooring the Global Archive: A Japanese Ship and its Migrant Histories" (Cambridge UP, 2023) by Martin Dusinberre. www.cambridge.org/core/books/m...
cambridge.org
Mooring the Global Archive
Cambridge Core - East Asian History - Mooring the Global Archive
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 05/09/2024
Writing about knowledge commons governance means, among other things, that I come across many more examples than I could ever write up as case studies. I'll share them here. Today's example: "Libraries of Matter," from Virginia Postrel. worksinprogress.co/issue/librar...
worksinprogress.co
Libraries of matter - Works in Progress
Libraries contain books, yes. But they also contain latex rubber, carbon fiber fabrics, and graphene aerogel. And in some materials libraries you can cut, cast, drill, sand, scrape, and sculpt too.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 17/08/2024
"Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more": I'm starting a Substack next week, which I've titled "Everything In Between." profmadison.substack.com. It's free. The theme: institutions and governance. I'm closing down the blog that I started 20 (!) years ago, known as "Madisonian."
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 10/08/2024
Emma Hayes, the Triple Espresso, and the USWNT take gold! Alyssa Naeher joins Tim Howard as #SecretaryofDefense. What a game, what a tournament, and what an end to the #SummerofSoccer. ⚽️🥇
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Reposted by Michael Madison
Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 21/07/2024
James C Scott, has died. One of the most interesting of thinkers. Defied disciplinary categories. Gave many on the left pause in their reflexive statism. Original, readable, someone who changed how I think about things.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 27/06/2024
If you see this post a Doc
Image of Doc Brown from Back to the Future
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 01/05/2024
Thoughtful and provocative, but the first sentence of this essay - "It has been thirty years since the technology revolution began in Silicon Valley." - misses the opportunity to put comparative law, $$, and demographics into longer, fuller perspective. A brief 🧵.
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Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 19/04/2024
"The Wall Street lawyer who quit to make Lego art: ‘It is a job, not a hobby’" www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
The Wall Street lawyer who quit to make Lego art: ‘It is a job, not a hobby’
Nathan Sawaya’s sculptures have been in galleries around the world – and a Lady Gaga video. He talks about art critics, auditioning to be a ‘master model builder’ and why he has no Lego at home
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