iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Madison @michaelmadison.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Heard. See @patentscholar.bsky.social 's "Classic Patent Scholarship" project, writtendescription.blogspot.com/p/classic-sc..., which builds on my "Lost Classics of Intellectual Property Law," available on SSRN. Newton, Hooke, OTSOG, and all that.

writtendescription.blogspot.com

Classic Patent Scholarship

Lisa Larrimore Ouellette's Patent & IP Blog, Reviewing Recent Scholarship on Patent Law, IP Theory, and Innovation

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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 · 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

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 · 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 · 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 · 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 · 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

There is much, much more to come in this series ... you're right, and stay tuned.

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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

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. & 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

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 · 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 · 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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