Research:Establishing a Critical Digital Commons Research Network
This project funded initial activities involved in the establishment of a “Critical Digital Commons Research Network” in 2025. These activities will bring together researchers who have examined the digital commons and its connections through infrastructural, political-economic, policy, and other critical approaches. This network’s purpose is to examine the role, importance, and impact of various aspects of the digital commons, particularly Wikimedia projects, and to foster relationships and mentorship among researchers in this area.
This group focused on three major projects in its establishment 1) the creation of a framework and resource list for educating new researchers (both graduate students and also for researchers wishing to approach the commons) that helps to guide them to understand the complexity of spaces like Wikipedia. 2) the creation of a mentorship program to bring new scholars into the network, to work with the established senior scholars. 3) the creation and attendance of a symposium for discussing current research and new research trajectories on an annual basis. This symposium will bring together critical infrastructural, political economic, and policy-oriented researchers focused on Wikimedia and other commons-based knowledge systems.
This project will provide a space for the social scientific and humanities oriented research community to gather, communicate, and collaborate. The output of the project will mainly be the establishment and establishment of a community list, shared resources, and an annual symposium.
Methods
[edit]We will be circulating a sign-up on relevant research community listservs, as well as actively recruiting at in-person events, as well as using a snowball recruitment by network members. We will then gather additional information from the members to establish a more robust directory. Working with an open-access academic journal, we will elicit submissions for a collection on the overall focused topic.
Timeline
[edit]- October 2025 - Launch directory / sign up and attend AoIR 2025 to discuss in person
- November 2025 - Built website, continue directory, distribute CFP for journal issue
- December 2025 - Collected journal issue proposals
- January 2025 - Send invitations for approved proposals (April full submission), begin to flesh out directory information
- February 2025 - Continue directory construction, establishing research overview
- March 2025 - Continue directory construction and research overview
Policy, Ethics and Human Subjects Research
[edit]No research here will interfere with Wikipedians' work, as this is an establishment of a research network. Additionally, this network will help establish lines of communication regarding ethical approaches to researching Wikipedia.
Results
[edit]- October 2025
- Successfully launched basic website and distributed sign-up document. Started listserv. One member attended AoIR, presented about CCRN and Commons Research, and held two "birds of a feather" meetups to attract members.
- Collected 111 signups online for CCRN info and mailing list.
- Established mailing list on riseup.net
- November 2025 - Continued to build out website, continued to build directory, distributed CFP for journal issue
- December 2025 - Collected journal issue proposals
- January 2025 - Sent invitations for approved proposals (April full submission), began to flesh out directory information
- February 2025 - Continued directory construction, established research overview
- Zotero list published, members can gain full access - [1]
- March 2025 - Finalizing directory construction and research overview
- Directory information is ready, making sure that we have a good solution for security for members
Logistics prevented multiple members from attending AoIR 2025 in Brazil, as well as running a dedicated pre-conference, due to timing of the proposal. However, Fenwick McKelvey of Concordia had a pre-conference with similar themes, allowing Zachary McDowell to present rationale and research around CCRN to begin discussions.
While we have collected all the information for the directory and have it in CSV format, at conclusion of the grant we have not yet published it as we want to ensure security for members on a public website. We are investigating this and will publish directory and preliminary research overviews within the next month or two.